Conversation Skills

Hello, how are you? Conversation skills are essential to employment, higher education and friendship. They can however be tricky to teach. There are several resources below that should be helpful in getting a few ideas on different approaches to teaching conversation skills.

How to write and implement social scripts / Ganz, Jennifer B.

Call Number: 371.94 Ganz
ISBN: 9781416401537 (softcover : alk. paper)
Pub. Info: Austin, Tex. : PRO-ED, c2006.
Notes: "...contains research-based social-script strategies for addressing social, communication, and behavioral skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Specifically, we provide a description of and research support for each strategy, an explanation of how to implement each strategy, and examples of how the strategies may be implemented across individuals of varying ages and abilities. The strategies covered in this manual include visually represented scripts, stories, and rules. Each is a strategy that requires only basic training to implement correctly, little money and materials, and little time to implement. We believe such strategies are among those most likely to be used by practitioners and those that will most likely be implemented correctly. Additionally, the strategies presented in this booklet are all visually based. That is, each provides the individual with ASD with a picture or written words to clarify instruction. Such visual prompts may be more effective and less invasive than verbal cues. For example, a visual script that a student with ASD can refer to when unsure of an appropriate social greeting serves as a self-prompt, rather than on delivered by a teacher or parent. Such self-provided prompts may be less socially stigmatizing than verbal reminders given by adults or companions when in the presence of peers."--PRO-ED website.
An Asperger dictionary of everyday expressions / Stuart-Hamilton, Ian.

616.8588 Stuart
ISBN: 1843105187 (pbk.)

Saying one thing, meaning another : activities for clarifying ambiguous language Spector, Cecile Cyrul.

Call Number: 401.4 Specto
ISBN: 1888222107
Pub. Info: Eau Claire, WI : Thinking Publications, c1997.
Conversation skills on the job and in the community : a curriculum for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities / Banks, Marilyn
Call Number: 401.93 Banks
ISBN: 9781578615452
Pub. Info: Verona, Wis. : IEP Resources, c2005.
Notes: Computer disk contains printable PDF copy of the complete book. Covers basic communication skills and helps young people achieve successful job experiences and fulfilling, independent lives. Has over 50 self-managed lessons. Self-paced, takes 12 weeks of bi-weekly, 10 minute training sessions.
Comic strip conversations : illustrated interactions that teach conversation skills to students with autism and related disorders / Gray, Carol.
Call Number: 371.94 Gray
Pub. Info: Arlington, Tx. : Future Horizons, c1994.

Notes: The author combines stick figure drawings with conversation symbols to illustrate what people say and think during conversations. Showing what people are thinking reinforces that others have independent thoughts, a concept spectrum children don't intuitively understand. Children can also recognize that, although people say one thing, they may think something quite different, another foreign concept to concrete-thinking children.

Comic strip conversations : colorful, illustrated interactions with students with autism and related disorders Gray, Carol.

Call Number: 371.94 Gray
Pub. Info: Arlington, TX : Future Horizons, 1994, c1993.

Notes: "Jenison Public Schools, Jenison, Michigan"--Cover.
"... combines stick-figures with "conversation symbols" to illustrate what people say and think during conversations. Showing what people are thinking reinforces that others have independent thoughts - a concept spectrum children don't intuitively understand. Children can also recognize that, although people say one thing, they may think something quite different - another concept foreign to "concrete-thinking" children. Children can draw their own "comic strips" to show what they are thinking and feeling about events or people. Different colors can represent different states of mind. These deceptively simple comic strips can reveal as well as convey quite a lot of substantive information. The author delves into topics such as: What is a Comic Strip Conversation? ; The Comic Strip Symbols Dictionary ; Drawing “small talk" ; Drawing about a given situation ; Drawing about an upcoming situation ; Feelings and COLOR."