Are you looking to maintain social communication skills this summer? Social communication skills include interpreting how others are thinking in addition to what they are saying. Children need to be encouraged to look at facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice in order to read how a person is feeling and thinking. This skill can be practiced using common apps. Creating projects with visual scenes can be both fun and easy. There are many apps on the market that are user friendly that your child can use while letting his/her imagination go wild. At the same time he/she will be practicing social language skills.
Although there are many apps that maybe used, my recommendations include Comic Life and Pic Collage. Comic Life provides an opportunity for the child to make his/her very own comics using speech and thought bubbles with his/her own photos. This allows for practicing perspective taking as he/she think about what others are thinking and assign words and thoughts to the bubbles. The flexibility is great. Don’t forget family and neighborhood animals when adding photos to the app. Most young children just love adding speech and thought bubbles to their favorite creatures.
Pic Collage provides pictures together with collages. It helps children not only to remember their friends but also their friends likes, attributes, family members, and more. Have your child create a visual scene of their favorite summer activity with family and friends. This app also allows you to search the web for images or use your own photos. For children who have a difficult time knowing what to say when they first see a friend they can rely on the collage for conversation starters.
Share your favorite apps with me! I would love to hear from you…
How many times have you heard yourself or another person say, “I’m ready for summer?” Let the truth be told, my students are ready! Many students have shared their family plans for vacation and they are extremely excited. Whatever your plans are for the summer sometime should be spent on reading, writing and math. In order to prepare for summer, now is a good time to think about a routine that will allow you to incorporate academics in a positive way.
The relationship that you have with yourself is the foundation for the relationships that you have with others. Our relationship with ourselves develops within the context of the family and communities in which we grow up. When our environment and the adults in them treat us positively and with respect, we feel good and relate well to ourselves. The reverse is also true. When the adults and the environment in which we grow up devalue and treat us negatively, we develop a negative and challenging relationship with ourselves. Eventually our relationship with others will reflect how we view ourselves. So, to create and maintain kind friendships, we have to first understand the relationship we have with ourselves. Most people have an inner dialogue with themselves. This inner self-talk can be positive or negative depending on the messages that we are accustomed to hearing and have internalized about ourselves. If you are kind to yourself you will surround yourself with people who treat you kindly. Who are your friends and do they treat you well? If so, great! If not, think about how you feel about yourself and positive changes that you can make.