Can We Talk?: Building Social Communication Skills Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. [email protected] ...

Can We Talk?: Building Social Communication Skills

Lydia H. Soifer, [email protected] www.soifercenter.com

SPED*NET WiltonNorwalk SPED PartnersNorwalk Public Schools

February 28, 2013

(c)2013 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

mailto:[email protected]


http://www.soifercenter.com/

Can we talk?!


Slide 2February 2013

Successful Communicators Determine…

• Conversational partner’s needs• Demands of the situation• Appropriate language rules & social mores • Emotional issues in the situation• Degree & duration of attention needed



Essentials for Communicative Competence

• Good language skills

• Good social cognition

• Good executive functions



Language and Cognition


Memory

Executive Functions

Experience

Attention

Information Processing

Affect

COGNITION

LANGUAGE

Form

UseContent


Language Content, Form, Use

• Language Content –SOMETHING to say

• Language Use – a REASON to say it

• Language Form – the MEANS to say it



Language Use - Pragmatics

• Use of language in social contexts– Social – cultural experiences that shape

current relationships– Contexts – anything that gives meaning to

what is said and done

• Communicative functions or intentions• Presupposition• Discourse



Framework of Social Communicative Competence

• Social Communicative Competence• Social Communicative Behaviors• Higher Order Executive Functions

Language Social Cognition



Social Communication Deficits: Language Domain

• Weak vocabulary knowledge and use• Word retrieval difficulties• Comprehension difficulties• Poor comprehension and construction of

complex sentences• Lack of recognition or weak knowledge of

grammatical forms



Social Communication Deficits: Cognitive Linguistic Domain

• Social judgment• Affective awareness• Perceptual problems• Memory deficits• Attentional issues• Rate & efficiency of information processing• Ability to integrate and synthesize• World knowledge and its organization• Organizational abilities



Components of Social Communication

• Verbal aspects

• Paralinguistic aspects

• Nonverbal aspects



Components of Social Communication: Verbal Aspects

• Topic control rules• Turn taking rules• Lexical Selections rules• Stylistic variations



Components of Social Communication:Paralinguistic Aspects

• Intelligibility• Vocal intensity• Vocal quality• Prosody• Fluency



Components of Social Communication:Nonverbal Aspects

• Physical proximity• Physical contacts• Body posture• Foot/leg and arm/hand

movements• Gestures• Facial expression and eye gaze



Social Communication: Behavioral Dimensions

• Hostile/coercive• Prosocial/engaged• Assertive• Passive/disengaged• Adult seeking• Irrelevant



So many skills, so little time…

• A sample of specific conversational behaviors– Entering an interaction– Responding to questions– Asking questions– Developing appropriate topics– Providing acknowledgment– Complimenting conversational partners– Resolving conflicts– Negotiating– Compromising



So, can we talk about what to do already!?!

• Start with assessment• First, pick a skill or two

– Treatment varies by need– One size does not fit all

• Continuum of intervention contexts– Teacher mediated interventions– Peer mediated interventions– Clinician mediated interventions

• Formats for intervention– Instruction and Modeling – Behavioral rehearsal and Feedback



Happiness is having a friend…



Can We Talk?: Building Social Communication Skills

Lydia H. Soifer, [email protected] www.soifercenter.com

SPED*NET WiltonNorwalk SPED PartnersNorwalk Public Schools

February 28, 2013

(c) 2013 The Soifer Center and Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.



http://www.soifercenter.com/

Can We Talk?: Building Social Communication Skills Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D. [email protected] ...

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