Exciting new development: summer school for teenagers with social communication difficuties

We are delighted to announce that we will be running some intensive group sessions for young people with social communication difficulties at our lovely, peaceful clinic at Bartonfields.  We we also have evening classes available from september.

As teenagers move into their secondary school and young adult years, they experience increasingly complex social situations and academic curricula that require more nuanced social understanding, fine-tuned critical thinking, a higher level of executive functioning, etc. 

We use the work of Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of Social Thinking, to provide valuable teaching tips and delve into the scope and sequence of using Social Thinking’s products with students ages 11-22 to improve self-regulation and social competencies.  The materials are helpful for students with social learning challenges (ranging from ASD levels 1 and 2, Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD, etc.) or students who are un-diagnosed yet struggle with the rapidly increasing demands of social interpretation and related social skills. Some of the materials that will be using include Socially Curious and Curiously Social, Social Fortune or Social Fate, and Social Thinking and Me, and more. 

Monday 7th to Friday 11th August 2017 
Ages 11-14 9.15 am-12.15 pm 
Ages 15-22  1.15- 4.15 pm

Cost: £350 per young person. Limited spaces available. To book https://v1.bookwhen.com/smalltalk

  

Impaired Perspective Taking: as seen on Born Naughty? Channel 4 28th May 2015

If you saw Thomas on Channel 's Born Naughty on Thursday, you will have seen that he has impaired perspective taking, he cannot put himself in others' shoes (Theory of Mind). I tried the first session of Social Thinking on him where I lay on the floor of the classroom while still talking. This usually promotes gasps, stares and makes the average 10 year old feel very uncomfortable ......and think I'm slightly weird. I then get up and we discuss my behaviour and their reaction. Thomas, however, didn't notice I had laid on the floor and when I got up and asked what he thought of my behaviour he said 'Nothing', I asked if he thought it was odd, he replied, 'No!' Normally, we go onto discuss expected vs unexpected behaviour and how these make people feel. It's a great way of introducing children with social communication difficulties to the idea that there is a point to conforming to expected behaviour.

The best person to tell you more about this is Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of Social Thinking:

 https://www.socialthinking.com/images/stories/ST%20SCP%20%20Ver%20%206.12.pdf

Small Talk Speech & Language Therapy use Social Thinking as part of their daily work

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

Children who take your hand and pull you

Last month we talked about children with social interaction difficulties who can be described as having their own agenda. The next group of children are those Hanen describe as 'requesters' We have several children who are at this stage on our caseload.

Toni is a 3-year-old child at the Requester stage, He communicates mainly by pulling or leading others to request things he wants. When he wants to watch the TV, he takes his mum's hand and pulls her towards the TV, when he wants a biscuit he leads his Dad to the kitchen cupboard where the biscuit tin is kept. His attention span is very short and it is difficult to get him to co-operate for very long even on favourite activities. He makes high pitched noises and has some limited 'jargon' but says no words.

Louisa is 2 and a half and loves to watch cartoons, She can echo some of the common repeated phrases but has no functional expressive language. She is a happy child and entertains herself until it's time for her to end an activity or go somewhere as she doesn't understand why she should finish or where she's going. She is responding well to a 'now and next' board and photos/visuals to help her understand.Attention span is improving. She is requesting tickles, food and games. Her nursery uses makaton and she is beginning to pick up signs to use for her requests e.g. biscuit. drink, sweet.

It can be very difficult to work with a child at this level due to their attention span but it is actually a very positive stage because the child at a Requester stage is beginning to realise that they can influence their environment and especially you! By leading you or taking your hand they can get things they want or enjoy. This is extremely significant in the development of communication.

At this stage we encourage games such as Peek-a-boo, round and round the garden, ring a ring a roses etc so they can take an active part in getting you to keep playing. If we pause they can look, move or even jiggle to get you to keep going. Later  we will aim for them to verbalise. We can also use wind up toys, ready-steady-go games or 'row row the boat'.

Children at this level may:

• interact briefly
• use sounds to focus or calm themselves
• echo words or phrases

These are all things we can build upon. Activities can be made to be really fun!

If you have a child at this stage, it's very worthwhile seeing a speech and language therapist to help you.

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk