Selena: Hi, welcome to "Ask the Expert", I am Selena Layden,the Assistant Director at VCU ACE and today I have with me Staci Carr, who is our Technical Assistance Coordinator. Today we are going to be talking about Social Communication Instruction.

Staci can you tell us what we mean by social communication instruction?

Staci: Absolutely, so when we talk about social communication instruction we talk about the nuances of the social acts that help with communication. When we communicate we actually, unless we are monologuing, it is with someone else and that's a very social behavior. And so we talk about things like conversation back and forth, emotions, non-verbal behavior, all those things that make a conversation successful.

Selena: So why is it important for us to consider social communication instruction in the classroom?

Staci: Absolutely, when we talk about social communication in the classroom we think about all those opportunities that kids have to work together, to communicate, to learn how to be in the same space and get along, and those skills very early on build upon each other so that by the time you are in middle school and high school you are learning some more advanced social skills and those really show up in communication. So when we think about when kids graduate from high school and they go on to employment or to post-secondary education, some of the things that make it a successful opportunity for them are those communication skills and the ability to understand the differences between talking to an employee versus an employer or a parent versus a peer and just really being able to negotiate those things.

Selena: So, if I were a teacher and I wanted to start incorporating social communication instruction in my classroom what are some tips that you can give me. 

Staci: The first thing to do is observe, so really looking at where there is those deficits, is it with initiating conversation, is it with turn taking, is it maybe a student is monologuing and not knowing how to communicate with other
people. Maybe it is a nonverbal thing so understanding some of the emotion behind some of the body language or maybe it's things like modulating voice so whether it is speaking to loudly or to softly or maybe they are rude to adults so you want to address that too.  So the first thing is to observe, the second thing I would consider is looking at what the expectations are for the situation. So in a classroom there are expectations on how you interact with an adult, there's expectations on how you interact with the principle, and then with your peers and really setting those expectations out and making sure that they are clear ahead of time so that the student knows what the boundaries are. The other thing that you want to consider are visual supports. So kids really, if social communication is difficult, visual supports really lend themselves to understanding some those nuances of communication whether it is the rules of interacting with other people -- so you stand a couple feet away, you don't lean into people, you take turns, you don't change the topic without some sort of savey about it, you don't go on and on about a certain topic, you read other people's body language. The other thing is practice, I can't say it enough, that the more you practice the better you get at anything. And so the same goes with communication and social skills. One of the best strategies is teaching in the moment, in school throughout school there are millions of opportunities to look at what social communication opportunities there are from the time the student walks into the classroom, navigating their day, leaving school, some after school activities, community based instruction, there is tons of opportunities, so practicing all the time. And then reinforcing, so if you see that is something going on very well reinforce that, kids will understand that this is what the expectations are, this is what I am doing and I am doing it well and will continue to do that. 

Selena: That makes a lot of sense. Staci, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. For more information about this or other topics please visit our website at www.vcuautismcenter.org.