Welcome to our social communication and interaction resources part of our speech and language therapy website. We have a range of strategy sheets, websites and videos to recommend to you. If your child has social communication or interaction difficulties or autism, these are the resources for you – pick and choose those that sound most suitable for your child. If you need support, please phone the advice line to ask for guidance from a therapist about which strategies to focus on first.
Top tips for developing social interaction webinar!
- Watch a free 12 minute webinar (click on the image below)
- Learn about JOIN! (join,observe, imitate, naturally model language)
- For parent/carers, setting staff and health professionals
- Aimed at supportive children who are autistic or who have social interaction & communication differences
Please note captions are available by clicking on "cc"
JOIN POSTCARD: click here
Social interaction
Social communication
For children and young people who are using phrases or sentences to communicate
- Understanding and answering questions advice sheet
- Encouraging spontaneous commenting advice sheet
- Supporting conversation skills advice sheet
- Supporting advanced conversations skills advice sheet
Play
- Supporting exploratory play and teaching functional play advice sheet
- Developing pretend play skills advice sheet
Accessing Learning and Coping with Change
- Visual support advice sheet
- Objects of reference advice sheet
- Adding structure advice sheet
- Emotional regulation advice sheet
Online resources available to support with social communication
- Hanen have lots of videos and talks all about supporting communication and interaction on YouTube:
- Hanen advice sheets on a range of topics to support your child’s interaction, play, communication and more
- Comic Strips Conversations to use with older children and young people to support social interaction, friendships and perspective taking with a helpful explanation sheet on this website.
Online resources about autism
- www.autism.org.uk - National Autistic Society
- www.scerts.com – a research-based educational approach and multidisciplinary framework that directly addresses the core challenges faced by children and persons with ASD and related disabilities, and their families.
- The Ambitious about Autism toolkit is a downloadable booklet we recommend looking at if you think your child has autism, if they have recently been diagnosed, if you want to find out more about Education, Health and Care Plans or if you want to find out more about what Autism is.
