Caught or Taught: The Development of Social Communication in - - PDF document

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Caught or Taught: The Development of Social Communication in Preschoolers

Ho Mui Fong Learning Support Educator NTUC First Campus Amanda Loke Senior Speech Therapist KKH

13th September 2019

Learning Objectives

At the end of the session, you will be able to: 1. Describe what social communication is and identify key milestones from birth to 5 years 2. Take your turn in conversations with children and keep it going by using 4 ‘I’s 3. Develop children’s theory of mind by using books and tuning-in language

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What is Social Communication?

 Communication: Sending and receiving messages  Social communication: Language that is used to interact with others in a variety of social situations. It involves the use of –

• Nonverbal behaviours (e.g. eye gaze, facial expressions, gestures)
• Language (to be able to understand and talk to others)
• Social interaction (to know what to say or how to behave with others)
• Social cognition (to understand the thoughts of others)

What is Social Communication?

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Birth to 12 Months

• Prefers looking at people and listening to human

voices

• Reacts to different tones of voice (e.g. angry,

friendly)

• Smiles back at caregiver
• Participates in vocal turn-taking with caregiver
• Vocalises to get attention
• Points to share an experience (joint attention)
• Uses

gestures to make requests and direct attention

• Plays simple interactive games, such as peek-a-

boo

12 to 18 Months

• Brings objects to show caregivers
• Requests by pointing and vocalising
• Gains attention vocally
• Says “bye” and other routine words
• Protests by shaking head or saying

“no”

• Uses gestures with verbal language to

communicate

• Responds to the speech of others with

eye contact

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18 to 24 Months

• Uses

single and short phrases to command, indicate possession, express problems, and gain attention

• Uses pronouns: I, me, you, my, and mine
• Participates

in verbal turn-taking with limited number of turns

• Interrupts at appropriate times

2 to 3 Years

• Engages in short dialogues
• Verbally introduces and changes topic
• Expresses emotion
• Clarifies and asks for clarification

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3 to 4 Years

• Engages in longer dialogues
• Displays improving conversational skills:
• Anticipates next turn in conversation
• Ends conversation appropriately
• Uses fillers – such as yeah and okay – to acknowledge a

partner’s message

• Makes conversational repairs when not understood and

corrects others

• Appropriately role-plays
• Begins code-switching and uses simpler language

when talking to very young children

• Starts telling simple stories – will describe a few

events

4 to 5 Years

• Uses

twice as many effective utterances as 3-year-olds to discuss emotions

• Tells stories with unfocused chains –

stories have sequence of events, but no central character or theme

• Develops

basic understanding

• f

Theory of Mind (ToM)

• ToM: The ability to attribute mental states –

beliefs, intents, desires, pretending – to

• neself and others and to understand that
• thers have beliefs, desires, and intentions

that are different from one's own.

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The 4 ‘I’s…

• Include child’s interests, ideas and words
• Interpret child’s message
• Introduce new ideas
• Insist on a change of topic (if child is fixated on a particular

topic)

…help you to take your turn!

What are you drawing? Someone swimming. But do you know that fishing is the biggest participant sport in the world? Fishing! I thought football would be more popular. Football is a sport that is most watched in the world.

Include child’s interests, ideas and words

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John took the toy away from you and you could not play with it. That’s making you cry and you feel sad now. The toy no more! [cries]

Interpret child’s message

Are you going to read ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ today? No, I’m going to read ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ today.

Introduce new ideas

Are you going to read ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ tomorrow? Maybe… but you know what? I like the food that the caterpillar eats. What’s your favourite food?

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The capital city of Indonesia is Jakarta, the capital of Japan is Tokyo, the capital

• f China is Beijing…

Jamie, we’re going to talk about one more capital city. Then we’re going to talk to our friends about where we have travelled to for holidays.

Insist on a change of topic

Develop ToM by…

• Using books to talk about characters’ thoughts and

feelings

• Using tuning-in language to highlight what the

child/others may be wanting, thinking and feeling

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Using books…

• Talk

about the characters’ thoughts and feelings (e.g. Little Red Riding Hood thinks that the wolf is her grandmother. She felt scared when she found out her grandmother was actually a wolf!)

• Predict

what the characters will do next together (e.g. I think Little Red Riding Hood will run away. What do you think the wolf will do?)

• Connect to child’s own experiences (e.g. You

felt scared too when the neighbour’s dog chased you!)

Using tuning-in language…

• Imagine what the child is wanting, thinking or

feeling and say something about it (e.g. You want to go to the playground instead of staying at learning corner. You think that playing

• utdoor is more fun. You feel disappointed that

you can’t go outdoor now.)

• Explain others’ wants, thoughts and feelings

and why they do what they do (e.g. Teacher is happy because all the children are following the class rules today.)

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Development Support & Learning Support Programme for K1 & K2 Children

An early detection and intervention programme using an integrated community-based approach. A programme that builds capability and capacity within the early childhood landscape to support children with mild developmental needs.

Development Support & Learning Support Programme for K1 & K2 Children

Screening of children Provision of Intervention support Collaborative consultation with Teachers

Provide a snapshot of the child’s profile Collaborative problem-solving to support the needs of the child Increase positive learning experiences and participation in class