Preschool Social Communication Therapy

updated 1/2023 I love working with preschool children on their social communication. Here are some approaches and activities I have used over the years. If you are looking for a rationale for working on social skills in the preschool classroom, School Readiness: more than Academics.

Tap into the preschool classroom curriculum

Does the child’s preschool or 4K program teach social communication as part of their curriculum? The general education or special education curriculum (if the child is in a self-contained classroom) should be the first line of defense for teaching social skills to young children through classroom rules and approaches. There are several good pre-k curriculums for teaching social skills. The wonderful early childhood teacher that I have worked with over the years (shout out to Jean Jacobson) uses the Centers on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, (CSEFEL) https://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/which offers free social stories and visuals for early learners. If your student is in a classroom-based program, check with the classroom teacher about their social skills curriculum so you can support or reinforce the social communication that is being taught in the classroom.

Reciprocity: the foundations of social communication

An important building block of social communication is reciprocal communication. Communication is a two-way, reciprocal process. We communicate with others to make our thoughts and needs known and others communicate back to use to acknowledge and/or respond to what we have said to them. This is an essential premise that we must teach children by building awareness of the need to respond verbally (and not just give a motor response). An IEP goal for this skill might read:

“Jamie will provide a verbal response to questions or comments from peers in 2/3 observed situations.”

Classroom-based Learning

Children with social communication delays can benefit from receiving their services during classroom play times to reinforce their social language goals and to take advantage of incidental learning opportunities. Prior to reinforcing skills in the classroom, I like to hold a small group where I teach and practice the basic skills of reciprocal communication. I use the teaching story (see above link) and then have peers practice saying something to a peer and then the other peer says something back. It can be as simple as “I like your shirt” and “thank you.”

Introduce a coveted object to share

After a lesson on sharing or turn-taking with students, introduce a highly desirable or coveted toy or item into the classroom or group setting but ONLY PROVIDE ONE! This is a wonderful opportunity for children to practice turn-taking and for the SLP to support the lessons of turn-taking and sharing! The iPad with a fun app or game to works well for this task!

Barrier Games

Simple barrier games are great ways to get students to focus on listening to each other!

Barrier games are traditionally used to work on auditory processing, following directions or vocabulary activities. However, I also use them to teach how important it is to actively listen to peers when they talk, a foundation of social communication!

I hope you discovered some ideas to use with your preschool students to work on vital social communication skills! Do you have students with selective mutism? Check out this blog post on school accommodations.