SOCIAL/PRAGMATIC LANGUAGE GROUPS

If you feel your child has difficulty with any of the below skills, call us to learn about how we can help:

INITIATING WITH PEERS

Standing on the periphery or abruptly joining in to a group (e.g., watching kids play on the playground or standing off to the side at a party/knocking a peer’s tower down/getting too close).

EXHIBITING FLEXIBILITY

It is difficult to form positive relationships when a child/young adult has trouble seeing another’s point of view in order to listen to their ideas and be cooperative (e.g., coming to a “standstill” on a play date, having difficulty in group/team work). Flexibility at home can also be hard for kids and young adults. Adjusting to and following someone else’s plan can be difficult, especially when kids have ideas as to how things are“supposed” to be (e.g., he/she was supposed to go to their friend’s house for a play date but their friend got sick and cancelled, the family was supposed to go for ice cream but the line was too long at the ice cream store and you couldn’t wait). In these moments, kids can either shut down or have a hard time appropriately regulating their emotions.

READING AND REACTING TO VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL CUES

A great deal of information is given when we look at a person’s face/body language (non-verbal cues) and listen to their words (verbal cues). We have to use this information to figure out if we should continue doing what we’re doing or notice that a person does not like something that we are doing or saying. If someone is sending the message they do not like something we're doing-what can we do next to repair the situation?

COPING SKILLS

Big reactions to seemingly small problems (e.g., losing a game, not getting your way). Developing coping skills is necessary in keeping those around us feeling good and helps to navigate socially.

PLAY SKILLS

Coming up with ideas, using language to direct play (e.g., narrating characters, letting a friend know you’d like to play something else, letting a friend know that you do not like their idea in a friendly way), expanding play schemas, joining in to an existing group, initiating a play plan with a peer/peer group, flexibility (e.g., when a friend doesn’t agree on your idea), and the ability to stay with the friend’s while playing all have deep impacts on a child’s social, emotional, and language development.

CONVERSATION SKILLS

Initiating a conversation, staying on topic, being reciprocal, balancing the conversation (e.g., not taking over the conversation or being too quiet) and controlling volume (e.g, too soft or too loud), flexible topic choice (e.g., talking about more than just your topic(s) of interest).

Pragmatic language sessions offered individually when an appropriate peer group is not available or the prerequisite skills to enter a group need strengthening.

Sessions begin at age 3 and are offered for individuals through young adulthood.

Feeding therapy group sessions are offered on a weekly basis. Each session will be 1 hour and will supplement individual therapy sessions with the focus on generalizing skills learned in individual sessions as well as addressing the social aspects of mealtime.

Social/Pragmatic Language and Feeding Groups: Services