Sensational Social Skills: Listen to Others

Listening to others is a critical social skill that allows people to engage in a meaningful way. We know that listening is more than hearing. Listening involves being able to filter out competing auditory information. It requires focus and the ability to process language (both verbal and nonverbal) and connect it to what we already know. 

This week's Sensational Social Skill will feature strategies to help students learn to listen to others using the Pillars of Performance (PoP) framework. PoP is a framework we use to help students acquire and apply social skills. These pillars include: PRACTICE, PRIME, PROMPT & PRAISE.  We have created a series of PoP cards to directly teach critical social skills.  

First, introduce the concept of listening to others with a social narrative like the one below:

Social Narrative:  Listening to others is a super skill for many reasons.  You can get important information from the other person.  Listening to another person will help you build a positive relationship. When you listen you have the information to make better choices in what you do and say. Sometimes it is hard to listen. Here are some tricks to help you be a better listener:

Click the image below for a free handout of the Listen to Others PoP card.  Print, cut out and laminate the card to use as a visual support when teaching this skill.

Let’s PRACTICE!

Practice makes perfect. In order to master any skill your student will need to deliberatly practice the skill. This makes it much easier to apply the skill in the moment when it is needed the most. Try some of these practice activities to strengthen skills. Repeat, repeat, then repeat.

1. Listen Position- Teach students to respond to the key word “listen” by turning their body towards  you and facing you.  Make it a game by calling out this prompt word at random times across the day and reinforcing the students who respond with the “listen position”. Some students may experience difficulty shifting their attention and will need additional prompting to gain their focus (say their name, tap arm). Keep in mind that their inattention is not purposful so be patient.  Understand that your student may not be able to give you direct eye contact due to sensory overload (common for students with autism). Instead, focus on whole body listening by teaching students to direct their body and face toward the person who is speaking. The best “listen postion” may look different for some students. Check out his article on “Whole Body Listening” from Social Thinking. 

2. Breathe and Focus - Help  students practice deep breathing to calm and clear the mind. Calming the mind can help to quiet the mental chatter allowing the students to focus on hearing and absorbing what the speaker is saying.  Practice deep breathing regularly so that it becomes an easy strategy to use in the moment. Click below for information on breathing to relax.

3. Look and Listen for Important Details - Teach students to listen with their ears and eyes for important details.  To practice, have students read a story with pictures, watch a film clip or particpate in role playing. Provide a visual to help them recall the who, what, where, when, how and why of the story, situation or conversation. Help students process clues from nonverbal information such as the setting, body language, facial expressions and tone of voice.

4. Connect & Clarify- Teach students to connect what they hear to what they already know.  Teach them to ask clarifying and thoughtful questions or make related comments that help them engage with the speaker.  Provide visual support tools to practice this skill in structured practice activities.

Time to PRIME!

Use the priming bullets on the Listen to Others card to review the strategies you have practiced. If these strategies are fresh in the mind of your student, the student is more likely to apply the strategies. Make a point of reviewing these strategies prior to situations where the student may struggle with active listening. Provide graphic organizers to help focus listening.  Finally, have the student engage in the calming strategy for a minute or more to improve focus.  These are all strategies that have been practiced so the student should be very familiar with how to implement them. The priming session should be a positive pep talk to review these strategies and instill confidence in your student.  If the student does not like to talk about it, simply give them the card as a visual reminder. By priming the student, you are setting them up for success.

PROMPT

Even with a priming session, the student may become distracted and unable to listen. As the adult, consider what you can do in the moment to help:

·         gain student attention (say name, tap arm or desk in a respectful, non-punitive way)

·         reduce the complexity of your language, state what to do

·         allow additional time (up to 30 seconds) for student to process before re-prompting

·         refer to visual supports (PoP card, graphic organizer, other related supports)

·         remove competing auditory input (consider noise, music or other nearby conversations)

·         provide a fidget or alternative seating to support regulation

·         prompt or model the use of a calming strategy (if the student is showing signs of frustration or dysregulation)

Use the Listen to Others card as an in-the-moment visual prompt to focus on listening.

Give PRAISE!

Our final pillar is the most important. We know that in order to increase any skill we need to actively reinforce the skill.  Any time you notice that the student is listening to others, give them praise.  If you don’t want to distract others you can give praise nonverbally with a thumbs-up, a sticker or a written note. Remember that it is much easier to notice disruptive behavior, so you will need to make a conscious effort to catch and reinforce the expected behavior.

That’s it! Those are the 4 pillars to teach your student how to be an active listener. Each pillar is important in supporting the application and generalization of this critical skill. Taking the time to implement all 4 pillars will result in the outcome you want. It may take some time so be patient and have fun with it. Teaching the skill with a positive attitude will help the student develop a positive association with the strategies. Developing your student’s confidence and ownership of the goal will help your student succeed. 

Regulation Rendezvous: Resources for Using Mindfulness Strategies to Reduce Stress in Children

Children of all ages can benefit from mindfulness practices. Mindfulness means paying full attention to something. It means slowing down to really notice what you're doing. When you're mindful, you're taking your time. You're focusing in a relaxed, easy way. Today's Regulation Rendezvous will feature mindfulness strategies for children. 

You need to practice mindfulness to get good at it. Training the mind takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get. If you practice mindfulness exercises, being mindful can come naturally when you need it in your everyday life. This can help when you're stressed, when you have to do something difficult, or when you have to focus your attention. When you practice mindfulness, you're training your attention. Research shows that practicing mindfulness can improve attention for just about everybody!

Explore the resources below with your child to see if you can find mindfulness strategies that fit their relaxation style.

Apps

Apps are a great way to access mindfulness activities because for many teens and adults smart devices are always accessible so they can take their mindfulness activities with them. Click the images below to learn more about some of our favorite apps. 

·   

iBreathe- Relax and Breathe 

Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame

Stop, Breathe, and Think Kids

For more minfulness app ideas for kids check out these great lists:

Understood.org: 8 Mindfulness Apps for Kids

Childhood 101: Mindfulness for Kids: 9 Apps To Help Them Be Calm, Focused and Relaxed

Online Resources

Recently one of our ALIST (Autism and Low-Incidence Support Team) Intervention Specialists, Jennifer Schmidt from Beavercreek High School wrote and article for AAPC Publishing offering ideas for helping children with autism cope during the coronavirus pandemic. It is an excellent article and it can be found here:

How To Help My Autistic Child Cope With Quarantine

Research Articles

If you would like more informatiom about the science behind mindfulness we have shared some great articles below:

• KidsHealth (2017). Mindfulness. https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/mindfulness.html

For additional ideas on mindfulness and self-care visit our previous post:

Regulation Rendezvous: Self-Care During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Regulation Rendezvous: Resources for Using Mindfulness Strategies toReduce Teen and Adult Stress

Regulation Rendezvous: Sensory Activities at Home

Addressing an individual’s sensory needs is an important factor in helping them stay motivated and focused. These needs should be met not only while the child is at school but at home too. Today's Regulation Rendezvous highlights Sensory Activities that can be done at home. These are great ideas to reference during summer or during times of remote learning. 

Information from our tactile (touch), vestibular (movement), and proprioceptive (heavy work/deep pressure) sensory systems provides our body with the information it needs to create skilled motor output. Skilled motor output is needed for many academic tasks such as writing or completing fine motor activities as well as daily living activities such as getting dressed, completing chores, or eating a meal. Before completing a requested task, the individual may benefit from increased sensory input. If they have additional goals (gross motor (PT), fine motor (OT), etc.), feel free to reach out to your child’s related service providers for specific activities to incorporate.

Calming Activities
When looking for calming activities, keep in mind that deep pressure tactile input is calming, linear movement encourages a calm alertness, and heavy work activates joints and contracts muscles.  Some calming activity ideas include: 

• Push your child on a 2-point suspension swing (like on a playset)    
• Walk outside to collect items of nature        
• Pull your child in a wagon
• Weighted backpack walk
• Sidewalk chalk designs
• Yoga routine  
• Cutting different types of materials (paper, cardstock, material, etc)        
• Take items to different rooms in the house using a rolling suitcase
• Find small items in Play-Doh 
• Draw letters or numbers in palm of hand     
• Pillow squishes: child lays on floor while adult presses pillow on chest or back
• Shredding or Hole Punching Paper
• Stocking shelves with canned goods  
• Dots and Squeezies
• Cleaning tables/counters, dusting, or polishing

Kirsten Johnson
Greene INC

• Simple exercise routine (push-ups, sit-ups, etc)

Allysson Rudnicki
Tipp High School, Tipp City

• Play in sandbox          

Washington Primary, Piqua

• Rocking in a rocking chair     

Emily Ottmar
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

• Riding stationary bike, tricycle, or bicycle with training wheels

Bobbi Jo Chapman
Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

• Find small items in a bin of uncooked beans

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

• Help with laundry

Kirsten Johnson
Greene INC

Alerting Activities
When looking for alerting activities, keep in mind that light touch or tickling is alerting tactile input. Also, rotational and rapid acceleration/deceleration movement heightens overall excitability.  Some alerting activity ideas include:

• Animal Crawls
• Hopscotch path          
• Jumping rope
• Riding bicycle without training wheels         
• Rhythmic bouncing/dribbling
• Slide and Climb on a playset
• Obstacle course
• Jumping on a trampoline
• Push around the house on a wheeled desk chair      
• Make slime or homemade play-dough
• Build a fort with tables, cushions and blankets
• Sit-n-Spin        
• Prepare snack
• Playing in shaving cream
• Fingerpainting (or foot painting!)

Katie Philpot
Rosa Parks Early Learning Center, Dayton

• Build towers with Legos

• Scooterboards/Skateboards    

For an easy reference resource to share with parents, click the images below for our handouts for Indoor and Outdoor Sensory Activities at Home. 

Sensational Social Skills: Respond to Others

Let’s face it; no one likes to be ignored. When someone ignores us, we may think they are rude or angry. This can have a negative impact on relationships. There are many reasons a student may ignore others. Understanding the reasons and teaching students how to respond in expected ways will help them develop positive relationships and feel successful. Today's Sensational Social Skills will provide strategies for teaching students to Respond to Others. 

To teach your student how to respond to others in an expected way, we implement the Pillars of Performance (PoP) framework below.  PoP is a framework we use to help students acquire and apply social skills. These pillars include: PRACTICE, PRIME, PROMPT & PRAISE.  

First, introduce the concept of responding to others with a social narrative like the one below:

Social Narrative:  Responding to others is important. When you ignore people, they may think you didn’t hear them or you didn’t understand. They may worry that you are mad or that you just don’t care. If a person tosses you a ball, you catch it and throw it back. Think of responding as a game of catch. You don’t have to say much. Just acknowledge the person in a thoughtful way. When you respond to others in a pleasant way, you will build positive relationships that will keep you feeling happy.

Click the image below for a free handout of the Respond to Others PoP card.  Print, cut out and laminate the card to use as a visual support when teaching this skill.

Let’s PRACTICE!

Practice makes perfect. In order to master any skill you need to deliberatly practice the skill. This makes it much easier to apply the skill in the moment when you need it the most. Try some of these practice activities to strengthen skills. Repeat, repeat, then repeat.

1. Catch it and toss it back- When you greet students in the morning, get their attention and toss them a ball. Make it super easy to catch or pretend with an “invisible” ball. Encourage them to catch the ball and return the ball back to you with a greeting. You can also do this activity when asking students questions. The goal of this activity is to teach students to reciprocate. When asking questons, be sure to allow plenty of time for the student to process the question and formulate a response (up to 30 seconds).  If your student does not have the language to answer questions, provide multiple choice with text or pictures.  Here is an example of students answering questions using picture supports. 

2. Scripting- If your student struggles to respond due to limited language skills or social anxiety, use the scripting strategy to teach scripts they can use for specific situations. Create scripts to meet specific communication needs. Practice these scripts before expecting them to be used in natural social interactions. Teach your student general response strategies using the SPLAT handout. Create a visual tool with these letters so you can remind your student to apply specific scripts in the moment. Click the images below to access these handouts.

3. Catch it and keep it- If your student does not want to interact for some reason, teach them a polite way to disengage. When practicing scripts, practice both verbal and nonverbal communication. The student can use a script, write a note or use gestures to respond. Consider why the student does not want to engage. Are they overwhelmed, unsure or upset? Help them feel calm. Provide them with communication supports. Some students don’t know how to deal with conflict and may withdraw. Click the image below for some tips to responding to conflict in a nice way.

4. Use a Calming Strategy- Help the student identify a quick in-the-moment calming strategy. Practice this regularly so it can be used when the student feels overwhelmed or too upset to respond.  Deep breathing is a great strategy that can be done on the spot. Click below for some tips on breathing to relax. 

Time to PRIME!

 

 

Use the priming bullets on the Respond to Others card to review the strategies you have practiced. If these strategies are fresh in the mind of your student, the student is more likely to apply the strategies. Make a point of reviewing these strategies prior to situations where you find your student withdrawing and ignoring others.  Provide scripts to help your student with specific response language. If your student prefers to write their response, provide notepaper or a dry erase board. Review the SPLAT strategies. Next, have the student engage in the calming strategy for a minute or more.  These are all strategies that have been practiced so the student should be very familiar with how to implement them. The priming session should be a positive pep talk to review these strategies and instill confidence in your student.  If the student does not like to talk about it, simply give them the card or scripts as a visual reminder. By priming the student, you are setting them up for success.

PROMPT

Even with a priming session, the student may struggle to respond in the moment.  Remember to allow plenty of time for your student to initiate a respond before you begin prompting. You can point to the respond image on the card or the appropriate script. If you or the student has a visual SPLAT reminder, you can point to the specific letter to prompt the needed strategy. If the student is becoming frustrated or overwhelmed, prompt or model the use of the calming strategy.

Give PRAISE!

Our final pillar is the most important. We know that in order to increase any skill we need to actively reinforce the skill.  Any time you catch the student responding in an expected way, give praise. If your student does not like verbal attention in front of peers, you can devise a subtle way to reinforce such as giving thumbs up, a sticker or a written note. 

 

That’s it! Those are the 4 pillars to teach your students to respond to others. Each pillar is important in supporting the application and generalization of these critical skills. Taking the time to implement all 4 pillars will result in the outcome you want. It may take some time, so be patient and have fun with it. Teaching the skill with a positive attitude will help the student develop a positive association with the strategies. Developing your student’s confidence and ownership of the goal will help your student succeed.