Skills to Target:

• Topic Maintenance
• Announcing Topic Shifts
• Not talking too much (ask the other person questions)
• Responding to others with relevant information
• Not asking personal questions
• Keeping secrets and respecting someone’s privacy
• Including enough information for the listener to know what you’re talking about
• Using clear speech with complete sentences

Format for Sessions:

1. Choose one topic per session (or one topic for several sessions)
2. Read a story about the topic or give a scenario where the skill was not used correctly and have the students identify what went wrong
3. Explain the skill to the children and write out rules for the situation or scenario
4. Have one or two students come up to the front to demonstrate the skill in a staged scenario that you control and plan out
5. Ask the students questions about the rules of this topic
6. Have students pair off and practice the skill while you watch and provide feedback
7. Come back together and ask questions again to ensure comprehension
8. Assign each student to write in a journal about one time that they used the skill (either correctly or incorrectly) and review at the beginning of your next session
9. Check to see if the students retained the info during the next session.  If not, repeat these steps