Talking About Conversations – social skills

Description

Every day, children and young people are required to handle a wide range of challenging social situations. Successful management of these is dependent on the child’s social skills and interpersonal problem-solving capacity, as well as the responses of others and the particular social context.

Talking About Conversations is a resource designed for children aged 7 years+, depicting a range of social and educational scenarios that children in this age group may encounter.

The pack is full of activities designed to develop social skills, situational understanding and verbal reasoning focus, ultimately supporting the child’s conversational skills.

For more information see below.

Ref: TA5-2 Download Sample

Share this product

Talking About is a series that focuses on developing situational understanding and verbal reasoning skills in children. Each pack focuses on a specific aspect of the child’s life and how these skills may be put into practice (in this case, conversations). The idea originated from Educational Psychologist Marion Nash and has been developed by Helen Rippon, SLT.

Talking about Conversations is a pack designed to develop social skills, verbal reasoning skills, situational understanding and inference skills, ultimately developing young people’s conversational skills.

It contains 14 charming ‘scenarios’ illustrations by Helen Rippon, which aim to break conversation down into different segments, such as taking turns and staying on topic. Each of these pictures is accompanied by four associated images, depicting a variety of strategies, some of which are appropriate and some are not. This will allow for a lively discussion about the best course of action, making this ideal for group work. Suggestions for role-play are also included. Ultimately, the group will learn the strategies required to be a good conversational partner. The 14 scenarios include:

  • How to start a conversation
  • Joining a conversation
  • Turn-taking in conversation
  • Keeping a conversation going
  • Ending a conversation
  • When a friend is upset
  • Making eye contact
  • Complimenting a friend
  • Criticising a friend

This pack is supported by relevant and recent research such as that by McFall in 1982 and Spence in 1995, who identified a range of verbal and non-verbal responses that influence the perception and response of other people during social interactions. Spence (2003)* states that: ‘it is important that individuals are able to adjust the quantity and quality of non-verbal responses such as eye contact, facial expression, posture… according to the demands of different social situations’. It is these skills that this pack aims to teach.

The materials are designed for group work. However, they can be adapted for use in a one-on-one setting and they are suitable for pupils who have pragmatic difficulties, high-functioning autism (HFA), Asperger’s syndrome (AS) and other social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Format: PDF file, 82 pages including colour illustrations and black and white alternatives.

Age: KS2 and above

Snippets: Upgrade your account to send specially selected extracts of this resource, via our website, to parents and carers for homework exercises. The snippets for this resource include colour illustrations and the following activities:

  • Starting a conversation. Jake is in the playground when he sees a new girl who joined his class this week. He’d really like to go over and talk to her but he’s shy as he hasn’t talked to her before. What should Jake do to start a conversation with the girl?
  • Turn-taking in a conversation. Liam is in the playground with his friends. He’s really interested in dinosaurs and loves talking about them, but he can’t get a chance to say anything as his friends are talking so much!  What should Liam do to encourage turn-taking in the conversation among his group of friends?
  • Interrupting a conversation. Luke is with a group of his friends as they wait across the road for a bus. One of his friends has a new game console and everyone is talking about how to play the game on display. Luke suddenly notices that the bus is arriving at the bus stop but no one else seems to notice! Which of the options included in the activity would be the best solution for Luke?

*Spence, S.H.(2003) Social Skills Training with Children and Young People: Theory, Evidence and Practice. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, vol.8, issue 2, pages 84–96.

Additional information

Development Age

7 to 11 years, 11 to 16 years

There are no reviews yet.

Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.