Conversational skills (ABA)

[WarmAndFuzzy]

For ABA'ers out there - has anyone got any exercises they use to teach conversational skills. My DS2 (6) could do with a bit of help with that and when we were doing some ABA the stuff we did was very helpful.

What we did do was -

The robot game (one person pretends to be a robot and the other tells them exactly what to do to get to a toy).

The one where one person makes a statement eg. "I like sunshine", and the other has to make a related statement like "I don't, I like rain"

And a couple of others which I can't remember off-hand but will post when I find the notes.

Hmm, I don't really do formal ABA any more but I do lots of asking DS to explain to me HOW to do something, especially if he wants it. So if he wants a drink I say yes, I'll do it, what do I do first etc.

I also cringe and put my hands over my ears when he shouts to show I am not/will not engage with that level of noise.

I do lots of things where I talk to dd about things ds is interested in, to help him 'tune in' to other people too.

Thanks Star, I'll def use the first and third for DS2! He tends to be a bit more on the quiet side though, I'd love him to speak up a bit, but his older brother can sometimes be a bit loud so might use the hands over the ears thing with him

For general encouragement of conversation we spent all our time commenting on things and modelling it that way. Kept questions to a minimum but just chatted all day long about whatever we were doing. It was very successful - a bit too much sometimes as ds now thinks it's a badge of honour to be a 'chatterbox'

Lots of the statement expansion stuff you mention too.

For specific teaching to expand language and communication skills we also did a 'barrier' game where the tutor and ds had a board between them like a screen. Tutors and ds each had a simple line-drawing picture of a scene eg bedroom with toy box. The tutor would then say "draw a cross on the bed"; then "draw a tick on the toy box", and so on up to 10 different things. The tutor would do it on her drawing and ds would do it on his. When finsihed they'd compare pictures, and the challenge was that the pictures would be the same at the end (ie the crosses/ticks would be in the right place). Then swap and ds would give the instructions. Each 'right' tick would earn a token, and 10 tokens would get a reward.

Good for receptive and expressive skills, as well as listening and concentration.

Also games like Guess Who or Who Am I are great for developing descriptive skills as well as turn-taking, waiting, and reciprocity. Also theory of mind too, as it helps demonstrate that the other person is seeing something different from you.

Watching a film and talking about it - even if it might seem a bit antisocial to talk through a film! Books too of course.

HTH