Tonight we had a great class given by A+ Solution’s Speech Pathologist, Odette Hankins: Socially Speaking: The Link Between Language and Social Skills
Odette started out her class with the following quote:
“Play is the work of children. It’s very serious stuff”
Bob Keeshan, a.k.a. Captain Kangaroo
1927-2004
Odette listed Social Skills that our children need to learn so that they can interact successfully with others:
*Greetings *Informing *Topic Initiation
*Promising *Requesting *Commenting
*Demanding *Rephrasing *Topic Maintenance
*Proxemics *Eye Contact *Body Language
*Empathy *Emotions *Perspective Taking
*Turn Taking *Listening *Politeness Markers
We also reviewed categories of play:
Physical Play
Expressive Play
Manipulative Play
Symbolic Play
Dramatic Play
Familiarization Play
Games
Surrogate Play
Odette discussed how play helps children develop physically, emotionally, cognitively, socially and morally.
One attendee shared what she says to her children before they play game:
“It doesn’t matter whether we win or lose, just that we have fun and we follow the rules.”
Odette had each of us pick a partner and we had to have a 2 minute conversation without using a word that has an “r” in it. (My partner, Heather, could not even tell me her name.) Odette told us that this is what it is like communicate when you have a language disorder, when you can’t express your needs, feelings or wants.
Odette stressed that everyone should read to their children starting even when they are newborns.
My favorite quote:
“What makes us human? Our ability to communicate with each other.”
Do you have any questions for Odette?
You can get in touch here:
Odette Hankins, M. S., CCC-SLP
Coordinator of Speech-Language Pathology Services
A+ Solutions
216-896-0111
odette.hankins@thinkaplus.org