“My Favorite Things” – Using Likes as a Social Therapy Tool in Elementary School Kids

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.”

Everybody loves their favorite things. What’s more, they love talking about them, and sharing them with others.

So why not use this to your advantage when working with a child?

One of the biggest indicators of social skills in a child is the ability to hold a small conversation with a conversation partner.

Then you have a small conversation, you can count the number of back and forth turns between two people.In Floortime for little ones, these are called “communication circles.”

One back and forth turn is a communication circle.

But how do you get elementary school children to have “conversations” with their peers? How do you get them to start talking with someone? And how do you get them to keep the talk going?

Teach them to talk about what they like! Here’s how –

1. Ask the child a question about their favorite ______

You can write questions about favorites on small cards. Examples are “favorite color” or “favorite animal” or “favorite dessert."

Usually on a child's turn on a board game, he can pick a card at random, and answer the question. For example, he will answer, “What is your favorite color?”

If the child cannot pick a favorite, then you can give choices. “Do you like blue, or do you like green?”

If you’re looking for readymade choice cards, you can consider buying games that have thm.

You can even target language by having children answer these sorts of questions with a complete sentence. “I really like….” or “My favorite _____ is…”

2. Ask the child to answer “why”

Being able to elaborate on a statement, and give reasons, is a key skill that keeps conversations going. You can start training this with a simple “why” question. Bonus – you will be working on language skills with that why question.

You can prompt a child with “Because…” or by giving choices. “Do you like blue because it’s the color of the sky? Or because it’s the color of water?”

And of course, you can fade the cues with time.

3. Have the child ask the question to someone else

Once they answer, train a child to ask others questions in conversation. Have them ask you, or someone else in the group, the favorite question.

For example, “What is your favorite color, Sarah?”

4. Have the child ask why.

Have them then ask a follow-up question. Model if they need help.

For example, “Why do you like purple, Sarah?”

When the other child answers – be sure to watch the first child’s reaction. Are their eyes on the person who is speaking? Is their body turned into the group? Cue as needed, to teach the child how to be an active listener.

5. Ask the first child to acknowledge the response.

Last but not least, have the child comment on the other answer.

You can model different answers like “Me too!” Or “That’s cool.” Or “Neat!” Or “I guess that makes sense.”

Teaching follow-up answers is important, so conversations don’t fall flat. You can also explain to the child that this shows that they were interested in what the other child had to say.

For example - “That was a follow-up answer. It’s a “social cue” that shows you are listening.”

You can even have children elaborate more, by making a connection. For example, “My sister likes pink too.” Model first, and watch kids pick it up with time.

6. Repeat!

Explain to children that a conversation is just these interaction over and over again. The more this happens, the more a child will make friends – in the playground, in the classroom, and closer to home.

This activity takes a little bit of time. And it’s pretty talking intensive. But the benefits for a child’s awareness of others, and their confidence with developing friendships, makes the time worth it.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.