What Makes a Great Conversationalist?

People who have excellent conversational skills know how to “work a room”. They know which people to approach or groups to enter and how to start a conversation or join one that is already in progress. They know how to listen attentively with appropriate body language and eye contact and make supportive comments and ask follow-up questions. They know how and when to segue the conversation to sharing information about themselves.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Conversation Skills?

The best treatment for conversational skills takes place in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and then explicitly taught the rules for conversation; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What makes a Balanced Conversation?

People who have excellent conversational skills know how to balance talking with listening. They remember things about their family members and friends, so they can initiate conversations to show interest in them. They know how to give supportive comments and ask follow-up questions. They also know how to make remarks to smoothly transition conversations to talking about themselves. Excellent conversationalists strive for a balance between talking and listening.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Conducting a Balanced Conversation?

The best treatment for conversational skills takes place in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and then explicitly taught the rules for the conversational balance; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

How can you Bully-Proof People?

Students must learn to differentiate harmful bullying from harmless teasing. When they are being bullied, they must learn to walk away or respond with strong assertive comments. If the bullying continues, they must find a safe haven and seek advice.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Bully Prevention?

One of the best means of diminishing bullying is to give all students assertive “bystander” skills. Bullies are performing for an audience, so “bystanders” must learn to become “upstanders” and invite victims into their groups, report bullying to authorities or simply walk away. The best place to practice bully proofing and prevention is in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and explicitly taught the rules for dealing with bullying and supporting their peers; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What is Involved in Making Deep Inferences?

Making deep inferences requires getting inside other people’s minds and their hearts. People must understand what other people are thinking in order to plan the next step or make the next move during any type of social interaction. They must also understand what other people are feeling in order to offer empathy. These skills are critical to social interaction and reading comprehension.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Inference-Making?

Inference-making can be addressed in individual language therapy sessions or social thinking groups. Some students need one-one therapy to learn to read facial expressions and body language in order to make astute inferences. This individual treatment may be especially critical when students are struggling to comprehend their textbooks and novels. To transition this inference-making skill to social situations, students are eventually enrolled in Social Thinking Groups.

At Therapies for Success, students receive a combination of individual intervention and group social thinking. Through lessons, stories and social interaction, they are explicitly taught to read minds and feel for others; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What’s Involved in Making and Keeping Friends?

People who have a broad circle of friends know how to pick them. They look for people who show an interest in them and treat them with kindness and respect. They offer their friends that same level of support. Then they nurture their friendships with quality time and reciprocal conversations with a balance of talking and listening.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Making and Keeping Friends?

The best treatment for nurturing friendships takes place in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and explicitly taught the rules for picking and nurturing friends; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What are Great Problem-Solving Skills?

Excellent problem-solving skills start with categorizing our problems. Some problems are big and likely require professional advice or troubleshooting with a family member or friend. Most medium problems are manageable; they just require the ability to take the perspectives of others and predict outcomes. And some problems are so minor that they can be overlooked without hurting anyone or causing hard feelings.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Solving Problems?

The best treatment for solving problems takes place in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and explicitly taught the rules for problem solving; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What is Involved in Taking Perspectives?

In order to take the perspective of others, students must put themselves in another person’s shoes. They must imagine what the other person is thinking and feeling. Then they can respond in a way that is considerate of the other person while meeting their own needs as well.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Perspective Taking?

The best treatment for perspective taking occurs in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and abilities and then explicitly taught to take other people’s perspectives; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What is Asperger Syndrome?

Asperger Syndrome is a disorder on the autism spectrum that is characterized by significant social interaction difficulties related to problems with perspective taking—seeing other people’s points of view. This frequently causes difficulty with providing empathy and solving problems. These individuals also have a tendency to use restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Asperger Syndrome?

Our speech language pathologists are specialists in intervention for Asperger Syndrome. Treatment must start with a thorough evaluation to identify the root causes of the Asperger Syndrome and coordinate a treatment team to address them. Then a treatment plan will be developed to target the unexpected behaviors (the ones that are interfering most with communication) and then, as soon as possible, strive to develop the communication skills needed for satisfying social interaction and optimal academic achievement.

What Behaviors are Expected during Social Interaction?

People are expected to keep their bodies in the group. That means facing their shoulders toward the group; they are encouraged to shift their weight slightly, but they must keep an appropriate distance from their conversational partners without getting too close or too distant or turning their bodies the wrong way.

People are also expected to keep their eyes in the group. They must make light eye contact with their conversational partners without staring or letting their eyes wander.

Another critical skill that people expect during conversation is that participants keep their brains in the group; they must stay focused on the group’s conversation, making supportive comments and asking follow-up questions. When it is appropriate to transition to other topics, they must learn to do so smoothly and naturally.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Doing the Expected?

The best treatment for using expected behaviors takes place in Social Thinking Groups. At Therapies for Success, students are grouped by ages and ability levels and explicitly taught to use the expected behaviors; then they practice with their speech-language pathologist coach by their sides.

What is the Importance of Narrative Discourse?

We tell our personal stories through narratives. We must keep our stories concise and interesting to keep our listeners focused. We must also give adequate information to help our listeners understand. If our narratives are too long or they lack critical information, people don’t know what we’re talking about, and then people don’t listen to us and/or eventually tune us out.

What is the Optimal Treatment for Narrative Discourse?

Our speech-language pathologists are specialists in narrative discourse. During individual language therapy sessions, they provide the support to help students tell their stories; they help their students create graphic organizations to plan and rehearse their stories. Eventually the graphics organizers are replaced by mind maps. And oftentimes, students are encouraged to tell their personal stories to one another during Therapies for Success social thinking groups.