Social
Skills
Ages: 3-12 Years old
Disorder is characterized by difficulties
With adapting communication skills to different social contexts, such as greetings and initiating conversation. Children with social communication disorder have trouble using language to interact with other people.
They understand language and can use some words in some contexts, but they have trouble communicating in social situations and sometimes they have problem in using their words functionally.
Social communication refers to the emergence of verbal and nonverbal skills, social interaction, and social cognition.
It is often viewed as a form of communication that is ‘unwritten’ and that people seem to ‘just know.’ Communication in this area includes interaction with peers, family members, providers, and educators. Social communication behaviors include understanding and using appropriate facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.
During a social communication evaluation:
This type of evaluation will often be done in conjunction with an assessment of expressive and receptive language skills. A speech-language pathologist may assess:
- Initiation of communication and turn-taking
- Eye contact
- Willingness to maintain conversation
- Ability to manipulate conversational topics
- Comprehension of nonverbal and verbal cues in various situations
- Ability to verbally and nonverbally communicate including speech, signs, gestures, pictures, written words
