Social Communication Deficits
Symptoms:
- Difficulties with basic social exchanges including greetings; choice of appropriate content; use and understanding of figurative language; use and understanding of humor; topic initiation, maintenance, shifting, and termination; and/or, conversational turn-taking.
- Difficulty with interpretation and use of nonverbal communication strategies such as facial expressions, body language, and gestures.
- Diagnosis of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder; a medical history of traumatic brain injury, right-hemisphere damage, or stroke; or, a history of learning disabilities.
Treatment:
Intervention techniques are as vast as the deficits that define social communication disorders. A developmental treatment approach based on Stanley Greenspan’s DIR Floortime model is used where appropriate. With young children, the play environment is engineered to elicit target language forms such as requests, comments, and social interaction. Turn-taking skills and strategies for easing transitions between activities are also incorporated. Older children may receive explicit instruction on how to initiate and terminate conversations, maintain a topic, appropriately shift topics, interpret nonverbal communication, and understand the thoughts and perspectives of others. Effects of audience, place, and time on conversational content and style may also be explored. Flexibility of language is targeted via learning idioms, figurative language, peer-group slang, humor, sarcasm, and the prosodic features (i.e., stress, rhythm, volume) required to both understand and lend meaning to spoken words. These objectives are taught through a variety of methods including social stories, games, visual supports, books, and role-play activities.
Intervention techniques are as vast as the deficits that define social communication disorders. A developmental treatment approach based on Stanley Greenspan’s DIR Floortime model is used where appropriate. With young children, the play environment is engineered to elicit target language forms such as requests, comments, and social interaction. Turn-taking skills and strategies for easing transitions between activities are also incorporated. Older children may receive explicit instruction on how to initiate and terminate conversations, maintain a topic, appropriately shift topics, interpret nonverbal communication, and understand the thoughts and perspectives of others. Effects of audience, place, and time on conversational content and style may also be explored. Flexibility of language is targeted via learning idioms, figurative language, peer-group slang, humor, sarcasm, and the prosodic features (i.e., stress, rhythm, volume) required to both understand and lend meaning to spoken words. These objectives are taught through a variety of methods including social stories, games, visual supports, books, and role-play activities.