Neurodivergent Teens and Young Adults: 5 Engaging Linguistic Exercises
In today's world, effective communication skills are essential for everyone, especially children. Here's a collection of activities and exercises that can help children, particularly those with unique learning needs, improve their communication skills.
Teaching diverse learners about budgeting and "smart shopping" can be beneficial (Pierce). This not only aids in financial literacy but also encourages receptive language, as children learn to follow specific directions and answer targeted questions during shopping trips.
Improving receptive communication skills can be achieved through various activities. For instance, reading books with a child helps improve receptive language by asking the child to find and point to pictures, restating important parts of the story, and asking questions to support comprehension. Playing games like "I Spy" or "Simon Says" is also a great way to build receptive language, as it requires following simple directions.
Going grocery shopping can be an effective exercise as well. By creating a shopping list and allowing the child to go shopping, children can practice receptive language by understanding and following instructions.
Improving expressive communication skills is equally important. Activities like reading, pretend play, and cooking together can be beneficial. Cooking together, in particular, is a great communication exercise that targets expressive language as it involves sequenced steps and encourages children to logically put together what they want to say.
The "You Don't Say" activity can help a child recognise nonverbal communication skills from others. The Mirrors Activity can improve emotional awareness, the understanding of body language cues, and eye contact.
Encouraging a child to memorize a new word from the dictionary each day and writing sentences using the word can be beneficial for vocabulary development. Downloading word games on a child's phone, like Wordscapes, Words with Friends, can also help improve spelling and unique vocabulary use.
For children who find phone calls challenging, using a phone call template can help build confidence when making phone calls. Exchanging emails can help a child become a stronger writer and communicator via email, as it is a common method of communication in many workplaces and schools.
The Conversation Skills Course by Real-Life Conversation Skills Academy may be helpful for improving communication skills. Research shows that communication skills training can increase self-efficacy of healthcare professionals (Nørgaard et al.).
It's worth noting that the organization that published the 11 exercises and tips for promoting communication skills for children with specific learning needs is not explicitly named in the provided search results. However, one relevant mention is the use of exercises from the teaching material "time4you," which supports communication, empathy, and group behavior in children, linked to the LI Hamburg (State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development Hamburg).
Lastly, it's important to highlight the impact of effective communication skills on a child's quality of life. Effective communication skills result in higher self-efficacy and reduce the impact of loneliness, depression, and other problems.
In conclusion, there are numerous activities and exercises that can help children improve their communication skills. By incorporating these activities into daily life, we can help our children grow into confident communicators.
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