Week 5 Social Skills Playhouse; Linguistic Management

This week's lesson focuses on linguistic, or conversation, management.  For those of you on our parent mailing list, you recently received a series of resources to assist with generalization of this week's conversation management skills. 

For homework this week, we recommend learning and using Michelle Garcia Winner's vocabulary found in the Conversation Rules word document during family meals, in the car and when you witness your child using "the carpool lane" (shares the conversation with others) or "interruption junction" (interrupts during inappropriate times) to shape their linguistic skills.

Declarative vs Imperative Communication is excellent for parents to use as a resource to develop in depth conversations with their children and work on generalizing these skills during parent-child dialogue.

Upcoming Social Skills Playhouse Events....

On Thursday, October 13th we are running a SibShop at Graveview Baptist Church, JOY Ministry in Tomball from 6:30-8pm.  This event run by Celeste Osborne M.A., SibShop trained facilitator, is a wonderful opportunity for the siblings of SSP students to get together, share, and learn from each other. The cost is $15.00 and can be paid this Thursday to Celeste.  

Also,  on Saturday, October 15th SSP will be hosting a private workshop at the Games Workshop located at 22503 State Highway 249, Houston, TX 77070  for student's age 7+ years. You can learn more about Games Workshop at http://www.games-workshop.com/.  We are hoping that this outing is the first of many SSP is able to host throughout the year.  For these outings we will find a fun and safe place for students to expand their social horizons for a nominal or free cost.

October 22nd SSP, in conjunction with Trails Less Traveled, is offering, “Equines Assisting in Social Skills”  There are 2 time slots (9:00-10:30am and 10:45am-12:15pm) with each group being limited to 10 children/families.  Cost for this voluntary program is $45 per child/family. Payment can be made online at  http://www.trails-less-traveled.com/ under resources or mail check to: 15 Ranch Creek Way Magnolia TX  77354.  For more information please contact Janet Nicholas @ 713-882-4268 or janet@janetnicholas.com

Week 4 Social Skills Playhouse; Observation Skills

This week we are focusing on teaching and understanding how to accurately read non-verbal communication and monitor what our body language communicates to others. Over developed or under developed social radar can either lead to social anxiety or people missing subtle social cues, particularly in regards to micro facial expressions. This latter group is often the target of bullying because they are unable to get their proverbial "foot out of their mouths" and will often "dig their holes deeper".

HOMEWORK:

We recommend having student's watch their favorite Disney drama or cartoon, without the audio, and analyze the non verbals of a particular character and attempt to predict and or create practical hypothesis about their intentions. Using a mirror with younger children to have them practice emotions and family charades are also encouraged.