Sensational Social Skills: The Foundation for Building Reciprocal Communication

Building the foundation for reciprocal communication is important at all levels of communication.


Are you working with a nonverbal student who is just beginning to develop basic skills such as maintaining attention to an activity, parallel play, and joint attention with a partner?

Are you working with a verbal student who struggles with conversational skills and body language?

No matter the level you always need to look at the foundation. Today's Sensational Social Skills will examine each part of this essential foundation and provide a variety of examples from our regional classrooms!

The Foundation

In the book, Social Engagement & the Steps to Being Social, (Taylor & Laurel 2016) the importance of creating a foundation on which to build all reciprocal communication and social engagement is illustrated. It is important to monitor and support the foundation when working on developing communication and social skills. We organized the foundational supports into 3 categories:

• Regulation- If your student is dysregulated, they may not be available for engaging at any level. Monitor your student’s regulation by considering the following:

• Environmental Distractions (reduce visual and auditory distractions)

• Space (reduce the space by creating visual and physical boundaries)

Rylie Jarrett
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

• Organization (organize the space and develop a predictable routine for interaction)

Rachel Hatton
Normandy Elementary, Centerville

• Biological (your student may be thirsty, hungry, tired, hot, or cold)

• Sensory Input (incorporate movement or deep pressure/heavy work)

Heidi Horner
Miami County ESC

Heidi Horner
Miami County ESC

• Emotional State (find out what your student is upset about to validate and provide encouragement)

Wh-Question Flipbook

• Touch (avoid unexpected touch or too much hand-over-hand prompting)

• Slow it down (just sit quietly and wait allowing pauses in the activity)

• Motivation- It is hard to gain joint attention when the student has no interest in the activity. Try to develop shared pleasure in the activity:

• If your student is verbal. Ask questions or just listen to find out their interests. Incorporate these interests into the activity.

• Build interest by incorporating humor and playful fun into your activity.

• If your student is nonverbal, discover what they like by presenting a variety of activities. Follow their lead. Model the activity with animated gestures and sounds/words. Imitate their actions or sounds.

Paula Taulbee
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

• Building anticipation can peak interest. Consider games that build anticipation such as these:

Beth Young
Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

• Do an interests inventory or send home a parent questionnaire to identify student interests. Click the image below to get a free reinforcement checklist to send home to parents:

• Develop a plan to reinforce reciprocal interaction.

• Self-Management- Even when they are regulated and motivated, your students may struggle to be purposeful in their actions. A study by Kogel, Park, & Kogel (2014) found that self-management supports and interventions were effective in increasing reciprocal social conversation for students on the autism spectrum. Self-management supports and interventions may include:

• Predictable routines with clear expectations

• Repeated practice in a fun structured setting with transfer to other settings

• Priming

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

• Peer Mentor Modeling

Mandy Violet
Brantwood Elementary, Mad River

Casey Morter
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

• Visual Cues for verbal language and nonverbal expectations

• Sentence Strips to cue scripts 

• Picture prompts 

Amy D'Amico
MCESC, Learning Center- North

• Schedules/Checklists 

Kristina Neuhart
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

• Cognitive Behavioral Intervention to develop self-awareness/advocacy and awareness of others. Visit our Sensational Social Skills Blog for ideas. Click the images below to find our Respond to Others post with corresponding handouts!

Remember: When working on building reciprocal communication skills at any level, always check the foundation and modify your support and the demands as needed for the student to succeed. Check out these examples of students engaged in reciprocal communication. They are regulated and sharing pleasure in a joint activity with an adult or peer.

Miranda Riggs
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

Erika Lauterbach
Dixie Elementary, New Lebanon

Greenville Middle School

Heidi Horner
Miami County ESC

A-LIST Spotlight: Laurie Maravetz, Intervention Specialist at Hayward Middle School in Springfield

October's A-LIST Spotlight shines bright on veteran Intervention Specialist, Laurie Maravetz at Hayward Middle School in Springfield City Schools. 

Multisensory Learning Materials

Laurie's years of expertise are evident in her ability to adapt her curriculum to meet her students needs and make learning interactive and fun! 

Independent Work Tasks

Laurie also does a fabulous job creating interactive independent tasks that are functional for her middle school students and prepare them for the real world. 

Visual Schedules

Another way Laurie builds independence is through using visual schedules to help students navigate the day and know what activities to expect. 

Behavior

Individualization of behavior supports can be challenging but Laurie is up to the challenge! She is creative and resourceful when looking for ways to motivate her students and communicate expectations. 

Organization

Having so many individualized, interactive materials means there is a lot of STUFF to manage! Laurie has some creative organizational supports to keep everything accessible and clutter at a minimum. 

Welcome to our A-LIST, Laurie! Your fellow teachers are so lucky to have you as a resource in our region! 

Regulation Rendezvous: Even More Classroom Calming Sensory Spaces

Schools are sensory-rich environments and dealing with the myriad of sensory information within the school setting can be very challenging for a student with autism. When a student with autism experiences sensory overload, they may get overwhelmed resulting in behaviors or meltdowns. One strategy to avoid or help a student recover from a meltdown includes the use of a calming sensory space. Today's Regulation Rendezvous will provide suggestions for the appropriate use of a calming sensory space in the classroom.

• A calming sensory space should be a specific location within the classroom where the student feels safe, comfortable, and typically has minimal alerting sensory input such as decreased lighting and noise.

Heather Clark
Saville Elementary, Mad River

Jessica Wright
Smith Elementary, Oakwood

Rylie Jarrett
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

YPH Classroom
East Elementary, Eaton

Ashlee Nicols
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

Maggie Brackman
Northwood Elementary, Northmont

Betsy Seger
Miami East Junior High, Miami East

Jolynne Rodgers
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

Lauren Dickey
Indian Riffle Elementary, Kettering

• It may contain items to facilitate self-calming such as a beanbag chair or a weighted blanket.

Rebecka Stricker
Springcreek Primary, Piqua

Rylie Jarrett
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

• The location of a calming sensory space can be within a designated area of the classroom or in an enclosed area with less sensory stimuli. 

YPH Classroom
East Elementary, Eaton

Debi Gnau
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

Deanna Hicks
East Elementary, Eaton

Megan Logano
Clark County ESC

Lauren Dickey
Indian Riffle Elementary, Kettering

Rhonda Brunk
Trotwood ELC, Trotwood

• The use of a calming sensory space can be recommended by a staff member or initiated by the student.

Haley Urschel
Perrin Woods Elementary, Springfield

• Going to a calming sensory space should be viewed in a positive way and not associated with punishment or “time out”.

Rebekah Foust
Mad River ECEC, Mad River

• A calming sensory space is a place where a student can plan or review daily events, assist in managing stressors from the environment, or regain control if a meltdown has occurred. Visual supports can be helpful.

Granville Bastin
Preble County ESC

YPH Classroom
East Elementary, Eaton

For more examples of Calming Sensory Spaces don't miss our previous posts:

Classroom Calming Sensory Space

Calming Corner

More Calming Sensory Spaces