Perspective taking Older Students: beyond thoughts and feelings?

Perspective taking with older students:   beyond thoughts and feelings

As SLPs and therapists, we often define perspective taking as the ability to identify the thoughts and feelings of another person. A common perspective taking IEP goal is improving the ability to provide a plausible thought or feeling of another person in a social scenario. Perspective taking is a complex and nuanced process that involves so much more!  When we teach novel concepts or new vocabulary, we can start by having our students think about what it’s not!    

The opposite of perspective taking:

So, what is the opposite of perspective-taking? 

The opposite of considering the view or perspective of another person is:

• black and white or narrow thinking,
• digging our heels in,
• my way or the highway,
• our way is the only way, and
• everyone thinks and feels like we do.

When we open ourselves up to understanding more than just our own perspectives, we separate ourselves from a situation and see things like a helicopter pilot might see from above, getting a meta view of the situation.

Why teach perspective taking?

We teach perspective taking because it makes our students more effective social communicators and more empathetic friends.  There are other reasons related to social-emotional skills that perspective taking is a vital skill!

• perspective taking is an important part of problem-solving.  When we view a problem from multiple perspectives, we are more likely to solve the problem and be satisfied with our decision.
• the turning points of conflicts are often when one person acknowledges the view and emotion felt by the other person.
• people often listen more deeply once others show an understanding of their feelings and point of view.

So, you have a student or client that has met their IEP goals of identifying one or more plausible thoughts or feelings given a social scenario.  Time to check that skill as attained?  Maybe. 

Or, it might also be time to dig deeper with other perspective taking goals and activities.

There are many other factors and influencers of perspectives!

One way to teach students about other considerations for perspective taking is through use of an icebreaker image. Things that we see and hear are placed near the tip of the iceberg or above the surface. Things that can’t be consistently seen or heard are placed below the surface of the iceberg.

Start teaching perspective taking with concrete skills

It makes sense to me to start teaching the skill of perspective taking with activities and skills that can be seen and heard:

• Recognize that people have different thoughts and feelings. How can we make use of the clues we get: words, facial expressions, body language and tone of voice.
• Recognize the meaning of their actions in the given scenario, (there is often a reason behind someone’s actions that we cannot immediately see).

In my prior blog post on perspective taking, I provide ideas and activities for teaching these more concrete skills.

Move on to other influencers of perspective taking

Then, move on to helping students understand the other influencers, including:

• A person’s immediate concerns.  When someone is hungry, tired, ill or feels unsafe, they may not be able to effectively engage in a task because they have other, more immediate needs.  If we recognize their immediate concerns, we can make accurate appraisals of their feelings and viewpoints. What does the person want or need, first and foremost?
• Prior knowledge and Experiences:  Does the person have any experience in the situation they are in?  If a student asks a friend on a ski trip and the friend declines, the students may take it personally or feel that it means they aren’t really “friends.”  However, perhaps the reason for declining the invitation is that the friend has no ski experience and doesn’t want to break a leg!
• Beliefs:  Religious and cultural beliefs can impact how one views and reacts to situations.  Religions and cultures often have their own set of rules to follow that affects how people who follow the religion act in and view situations.

Students have many clues to sift through when trying to understand the thoughts, feelings and intentions of other people. That is where using a graphic organizer is helpful to help students cover all the clues! Check out the one below that I feature in my BOOM cards on perspective-taking for older students.

Helpful links:

Looking for IEP goals related to perspective-taking? Click on the link and scroll down to the IEP bank.

Free perspective taking iceberg below! Thanks for stopping by!

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