Adolescent Social Group

There are lots of subjects under the umbrella of speech therapy that I never knew about when I decided to become an SLP - swallowing? AAC? pragmatics? But oddly enough, these topics have come to be some of my favorites! Today I want to address that last one: pragmatic language, i.e. social skills.

On my last day at the clinic, I was saying goodbye to one of my favorite patients (I know I'm probably not supposed to say that, shhh) and his mother asked me for recommendations to work on pragmatics at home - he is a teenager with autism, and struggles with social language. He has come SO far in the last 2 years, but still has difficulties with skills like understanding emotion, tone of voice, solving social problems, and carrying a conversation. His mom was toying with the idea of starting a teen social group outside the clinic, and we talked about creating a group on meetup.com - but then she said "I don't know what else to do besides board games and that kind of thing." Well, I am choc full of ideas so here we go! Just a note: this group structure would also apply to adults who need to practice social skills or general verbal communication - it may easily be adapted to stroke or traumatic brain injury populations.

Materials

Let's start with more formal materials. Linguisystems is a big therapy materials company with lots of great products - you can peruse some of these on their site under "social skills", but I will just take a minute to highlight one of my favorite (and parent-friendly) books: Spotlight on Social Skills. It is actually a 6-book series, each on a different topic and containing worksheets and activities for that topic (Conversations, Getting Along, Emotions, Interpersonal Negotiation, Social Inferences, Nonverbal Language). Depending on your needs you can buy the books individually, and use them as a lesson plan guide for your own social groups. 

https://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10514

Less formal materials I like to use include Table Topics cards, which are a collection of questions and conversation starters and come in a variety of topics/ages. There are tons of categories from silly to serious, but I like the basic sets: Original (for adults), Teen, and Kids to Go. They are a great way to practice conversation skills (asking questions, commenting, continuing the topic), nonverbal language (facing your listener, using eye contact), tone of voice (excited vs serious), and problem solving (expressing opinions appropriately, disagreeing). As a side note, they are also perfect for adult patients with Parkinson's who need to practice using an appropriate voice volume in conversation, or an aphasic patient who need to practice communicating. Not to mention just for fun around the dinner table!

http://www.tabletopics.com/

**Update: Yes, there is an app for that! I recently found the app "What If?" (FREE) which functions the same as Table Topics cards, with interesting all-ages conversation starters - in the super-convenient packaging of an iPad.

Group Structure

Now that we have a few materials to get us going, let's talk about the structure of a social group. Ideally, the group would consist of 2-5 people, some with pragmatics skills difficulties and some with socially typical "helpers" to act as models and facilitate the group. It's best to match by age, and sometimes by gender depending on the preferences of those involved. I like to start with age-appropriate greetings ("hey", "what's up") and then a "get to know you" conversation at the beginning of every session - this is where the Table Topics cards come in handy. Everyone can alternate turns asking a question and answering, but ideally this is not too formal - the idea is to keep it natural, and not alternating too rigidly lends opportunities to work on interrupting and waiting skills! The helpers should react naturally and use age-appropriate language e.g. "Hang on man, I'm not done." These conversations should not feel like a classroom. 

The next portion of the group, however, is a more formal lesson on specific skills or situations - for these I recommend parents follow a specific program e.g. the Linguisystems books above. Or, they could occur from a situation that has come up and involve a group brainstorming session; if an argument occurred during the conversational portion, use a whiteboard to list "ok" and "not-ok" things to say when expressing yourself, or make a bubble diagram of other ways the situation could be handled.

If there is still time, I like to end my groups with another less-structured activity - yes, this is where the board games come in! Or at home you can encourage a game of basketball, building something together, or another activity of interest to the group. Some weeks could even be "field trip" outings to a local restaurant, pool hall, or movie theater (followed by discussion of the game, food or film). These activities lend lots of opportunities to use pragmatic language in a natural setting, which is the key to a successful social group.

If you are looking for even MORE inspirational topics, check out Jill Kuzma's blog which is all about social skills - it is very parent-friendly and has tons of info: http://jillkuzma.wordpress.com/welcome-to-jills-social-thinking-blog/ 

And keep checking back here - my next blog will feature iPad apps for pragmatics skills!

First Post

"You should put all of this stuff on facebook."

Innocent words, but I think they may have created a monster. This is what one of my favorite parents at the clinic told me after one of our sessions last week, while I was rattling off a list of iPad apps she should check out for her son. It hit me then: I really do have so much information that I am eager to share, but can never possibly tell every single one of my patients. I went home and created a new facebook page (Louise Chamberlin SLP - look me up!) and attempted to sort out how to possibly include all of those apps I was talking about with her into a facebook "note", before quickly realizing it would become a giant jumble of lost information. And then, my blog was born.

I already am thinking of things that I would like to post on here constantly - I have a pile of sticky notes from the last week with notes scribbled on them like "red flags!" and "social stories"... so where to begin? In the spirit of that "special mom" (you know who you are!), I'm going to start with the apps I was excited to tell her about. The rest will come in due time.

These apps are aimed at the preschool-to-young-elementary set, but are so captivating that I even spent a bit longer than I probably should have playing with them by myself!

1) My PlayHome - Full $3.99, Lite FREE
This app is like a virtual dollhouse, with multiple rooms and characters to play with (the Lite version comes with 2 rooms, the kitchen and living room). You can move the family members around the room and use different objects in the room to interact with them - for instance, hold a cupcake to the boy's mouth and a bite will be missing; or put the dad on the couch and watch him bounce! I love the detailed animations and functions of items in the room, which makes this app great for receptive/expressive language skills. Some ideas:
Open the oven. Touch the popscicle. (Following directions)
Put the baby in front of the table. Put Mom beside the TV. (Spatial concepts)
Put all of the fruit on the table. Show me all of the furniture. (Categories)
Make the room dark. Close both of the curtains. (Linguistic concepts)
Does the vase go in the fish tank? Is the TV on? (Y/N questions)
Where is the girl? What do you do with that washing machine? (WH questions)
What is Dad doing? He is drinking the soda. (Syntax)


2) Toddler's Seek and Find HD - FREE
Here is an interesting factoid: originally I downloaded Seek and Find (non-HD) which included the morning scene for free but required an in-app purchase for the afternoon and evening scenes. Then I tried the HD to see if there is a difference (there isn't from what I can tell, on my iPad 2) and found that all of the scenes are free in this version! So be sure to get the HD to maximize the fun :)

For the app itself: It is another fun language app that includes lots of interactive items and characters. When you touch the pictures they react, sometimes in funny and unpredictable ways which is such a delight!
When did the exercising man go to the park? In the afternoon. When do you go to sleep? Is it daytime? (Time concepts)
Why is the lady mad? Because the bird pooped on her head. Why is the man mad? Because the people upstairs are too loud. (Reasoning and cause-effect)
Who is skateboarding? Where is the alligator? What is the man holding? (WH questions)
Show me all of the people playing sports. Let's find all of the animals. (Categories)
Make the helicopter fly faster. Which is going fastest, the helicopter or the airplane? (Comparatives)
They are riding the bus. The bear is playing the trumpet. He is walking across the street. (Syntax)


I could do this all day... oh wait, I do. But I love this stuff, and I LOVE the amazing apps you can get for free.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave any comments and requests for future posts below - see you again soon!