Social communication success depends on a child’s ability to use language appropriately in social situations to interact with others, think about others’ behaviors/thoughts, match language/behavior to the situation, and process language. Students with social communication challenges may have difficulty:
· Maintaining eye-contact and joint attention
· Monitoring personal space
· Changing language to match their communication partner or situation
· Telling and understanding stories
· Blurting/maintaining the topic of conversation
· Cooperating with peers
· Participating in and following classroom routines
· Regulating their emotions or managing their reactions to problems and feelings of disappointment/frustration
· Engaging in conversation
· Understanding and using appropriate verbal and nonverbal cues
· Understanding and using humor or figurative language
· Using language to infer, reason, or discuss abstract concepts
· Making and maintaining friendships
Children who have social communication challenges can have a distinct diagnosis of Social Communication Disorder or their challenges may co-occur with other neurodevelopmental or learning difficulties. However, not all clients who participate in social communication groups have a diagnosis. Some co-occurring diagnosis include:
· Expressive/Receptive Language Disorders
· Learning Disorders
· Non-verbal Learning Disorder
· Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
· Executive Dysfunction
· Sensory Processing Disorder
· Autism Spectrum Disorder (Level 1 & 2)
· High Functioning Autism
· Traumatic Brain Injury
· Social Anxiety
ACCESS TO BETTER COMMUNICATION is proud to serve a variety of populations from age 4 through 18 within our SOCIAL COMPASS groups where we strive to help our students build a strong foundation through use of social cognitive vocabulary and concepts. For our early social learners, this means we work to develop increased engagement, joint attention/intention, body regulation, turn-taking, and listening skills. For our older social learners, this means we work to understand thoughts/feelings of others, become social observers, interpret others’ behavior, and regulate emotions. These are all foundational skills important to help our students connect to others, communicate in meaningful ways, and navigate an often-unpredictable social world.
Our SOCIAL COMPASS groups are held weekly and facilitated by experienced and trained speech-language pathologists. Each group typically has 4-6 students within a group to maximize child participation in discussion of topics, opportunities for social coaching, and peer interaction. If you have questions or feel your child would benefit from our SOCIAL COMPASS groups, please give us a call at (225) 930-0208 or contact us via email at info@abclousiana.com .
- Kelli Renfro, M.S. CCC-SLP
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