Many students with autism and other social-communication deficits struggle with knowing when it is socially appropriate to say what they think and when it is better to only think those thoughts. For today's Around Town Round Up our wonderful SLP, Carol Dittoe, will focus on strategies for teaching the skill of Speech Bubbles and Thought Bubbles.
We know the importance of presenting concepts and
expectations to our students in a visual way.
Consider creating a speech bubble and a thought bubble that can be
presented as a visual tool. Laminate the
tool and make it big enough to allow you or your students to write on it.
Speech bubble
This image allows you to illustrate the
importance of initiating important communication functions such as greeting, requesting,
asking questions or giving feedback. The
speech bubble can remind students to “use words” to communicate rather than
communicating with unexpected behaviors or expecting others to be mind readers.
Thought bubble
The use of this visual is a great way to
illustrate the concept of “thought”.
Some of our students may assume that every thought should be said out
loud. Teaching the concept of “keep it
in your thought bubble” allows a student to have thoughts that they can keep to
themselves or save for later when talking is expected. Teaching “keep it in
your thought bubble” is a positive way to cue a student to “stop talking”. If you have a student who often interrupts
during instruction, you can prompt them to write it in a thought bubble and
assure them that they can share this thought later.
Here is an activity to try:
- Laminate a stack of index cards with speech bubbles and thought bubbles.
- Write words (draw simple pictures for non-readers) in the bubbles.
- Quickly present the cards to the students and ask them to say all the words in the speech bubbles out loud, but keep the words in the thought bubbles in their mind. This is a fun way to practice switching between speaking thoughts and keeping thoughts “in the bubble”.
- Students can practice this activity on their own by working in pairs.
Other Activity ideas:
We have seen some other great examples of ways to practice this skill including the use of Speech Bubble/Thought Bubble dry erase boards, post-it notes, and even headbands for role playing!
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| Athenia Eversole Versailles Elementary, Versailles |
Cartooning:
Speech bubbles and thought bubbles can be used together
in a cartoon format to illustrate social situations and show the perspective of
others. For example, a student who does not see the perspective of another
person may say comments that are true, but not realize they are being hurtful. A cartoon with speech bubbles and thought
bubbles allows you to illustrate what others may think and feel in response to
unexpected words or behaviors. Sometimes
our students become upset when they misunderstand the intentions of others in a
social situation. Showing the thoughts of others may help a student better
understand the intentions of others.
While all of these thoughts and intentions can be explained verbally, we
know that visual information is processed much more effectively than auditory
information. When processing social situations, verbal dialogue alone can often
overwhelm your student. Visual
strategies, such as cartooning can help illustrate difficult to grasp concepts
about the social situation in a more effective and less stressful manner.
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