Tuesday Tidbit: Keep the Conversation Going!
Authored by Elise Weinstein, M.S., CCC-SLP, Speech Therapist at The Village Therapy Place
After spending a good amount of quality time with the kids over the holidays, you may have some questions and concerns regarding your child’s ability to chat with others appropriately.
Does your child have difficulty responding during conversations?
Does he tend to respond with something unrelated?
Here’s something you can do to help: teach him phrases he can use to respond.
Some children may hear what you say and have no idea what to say in response. Other children may be involved in their own thoughts and not care to continue the conversation. Whatever the cause, you can remedy the problem by explicitly teaching your child learned phrases to say in response.
Teach your child three easy ways to respond: make a comment, ask a follow up question, or share a similar experience.
1) Make a Comment
One way to respond to a friend is by commenting on what your friend said. Teach your child some simple, generic comments that can be used in response to what someone else shares like “that’s cool!”, “so interesting!”, and “that’s neat.”
2) Ask a Question
Another way to respond during conversation is by asking a follow-up question. Teach your child to ask for more information with simple questions like “what did you do there?”, “why do you (topic)?”, and “can you tell me more about it?”
3) Share a Similar Experience
A final technique is to respond by sharing something similar about yourself. Your child can use phrases like “I also…”, “one time, I…”, and “that reminds me of the time I…” to connect what he heard with something related to his life. This technique allows your child to talk about something interesting to him, while still keeping it socially relevant.
A few words of advice:
1) Practice! Practice! Practice! It may take time for your child to truly learn to use these techniques naturally, but he will only get there with practice.
2) Success breeds success. Point out when your child successfully uses one of these strategies, and hopefully that will give him encouragement to try again.
What comments do you find yourself saying to keep a conversation going? Share your thoughts below!
About Us:
We, at The Village Therapy Place, located in Bergen County- in Wyckoff, NJ, aim to provide integrative, neurodevelopmental, individualized, pediatric therapy in a warm, fun, and collaborative environment.
We offer pediatric services that include physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, and DIR Floortime.
At The Village Therapy Place, we utilize current and evidence-based treatment techniques to help treat your child during his PT, OT, speech therapy, feeding therapy and DIR Floortime session. These include sensory integration, reflex integration, therapeutic listening, Kinesiotape, craniosacral therapy, NDT, BrainGym, feeding therapy, PROMPT, to name a few.
Our expert pediatric therapists offer a variety of treatment options, including 30/45/60 minute sessions, group classes and virtual therapy to best suit a child’s needs.
The pediatric physical therapists, occupational therapists & speech therapists at The Village Therapy Place are in constant contact with a child's caregivers to facilitate lasting change.
Call us today at (201) 201-8220 or email us at office@thevillagetherapyplace.com to speak with a pediatric expert who truly cares!