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Improve Social Skills for Teenagers

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Social Skills Worksheets

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Editing Verbal Narratives

This resource works on the ability to make good choices when telling a story: what information is needed, what information is irrelevant to the story, and what information might my listener find interesting.

Improve Social Skills for Teenagers Worksheet by Speech Language Pathologist Lisa Flowers

Social Skills: Editing Verbal Narratives

So many of my students on the autism spectrum have trouble editing themselves when they're telling me about a vacation they went on or their favorite video game, as examples - often providing too many details because they're not keeping their listener in mind.

I have found that these printable worksheets work directly and effectively on this issue. Students are provided with a written example of a verbal narrative, and must delete details in order to best serve a given listener and context. We then discuss all the choices made, such as how one portion could be interesting to a listener and therefore kept in while another portion is redundant or too detailed and should be omitted. Also included is a reproducible form with a blank narrative portion.

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Time Sensitivity

Time Sensitivity

In the "Communication Skills: Time Sensitivity" activity, students engage in a dynamic exercise where they explore the importance of being mindful of a listener's time constraints. Through rolling dice to determine content and context, students estimate and practice conveying their assigned information within an appropriate time frame, fostering awareness of listener needs (listener presupposition) and enhancing their ability to tailor their communication effectively. For a comprehensive approach, we suggest combining this activity with "Kinesics and Conversation Skills" and "Editing Verbal Narratives", as all three focus on adapting content to suit the needs of communicative partners.

Improve Social Skills for Teenagers Worksheets

Editing Verbal Narratives Worksheets

This social skills activity is specifically suited for high school students with autism who have a tendency to provide excessive information. By participating in this activity, students will learn to consider their audience when selecting the information to include in their narratives, thereby improving their social skills and ability to effectively communicate with others.

How to Teach Empathy in the Classroom in PDF

Entering Conversations

This resource provides a clear and concise outline of the key steps involved in joining a conversation that is already underway. It covers important topics such as body positioning, appropriate verbal strategies, and the assessment of whether the new participant will be accepted. Ideal for high school students with autism as they work to improve their social skills.

Perspective Taking Worksheets in PDF: Polite Wording

Polite Wording

With the help of this social skills worksheet, high school students with autism will learn how to consider others' emotions by adding "softening" words and phrases to their opinion statements and requests.

Perspective Taking High School Worksheet

Tact

Through this social skills worksheet, high school students with autism will engage in discussions about various tactless statements and learn to recognize the elements of offense, boasting, over-generalization, and bias.

Autism Communication Strategies Activities and Worksheets in PDF

Speaking to Different Communicative Partners

For high school students with autism, learning about "theory of mind" involves comprehending others' viewpoints and the capability to imagine themselves in someone else's situation. The next step is to develop the ability to adapt their own behavior accordingly.

Perspective Taking Activities for Autism in PDF

Perspective Taking

These social skills worksheets ask high school students with autism to pay attention to social exchanges and contemplate the emotional impact of those interactions on the individuals involved.

How to Teach Empathy in the Classroom in PDF

Developing Empathy

This comprehensive social skills exercise for high school students with autism involves in-depth discussions, hands-on activities, homework assignments, and therapeutic notes, all with the goal of enhancing the students' ability to consider others' emotions.

Writing a Letter of Complaint Exercise in PDF

Writing a Complaint Letter

Another popular choice! This writing assignment and social skills activity helps high school students with autism improve their ability to consider their audience when selecting content and language.

Conversation Turn Taking Activities

Elaboration in Conversation

This conversation skills handout evaluates various responses to the same question based on their level of detail, helping high school students with autism understand how to maintain a conversation.

Kinesics - Interest vs. Disinterest

Kinesics - Interest vs. Disinterest

This exercise is an excellent tool for instructing high school students with autism on kinesics (the proficiency in interpreting nonverbal social signals) and how to apply that skill in conversations.

The Communication Skills Questionnaire in PDF

Communication Skills Questionnaire

With the help of this questionnaire, high school students with autism can determine which social skills they would like to improve in the areas of conversation, practical skills, nonverbal communication, dating, and conflict resolution.

Social Skills Activities - Set The Scene

Set The Scene

This user-friendly worksheet offers speech language pathologists and educators an effective method for teaching autistic students how to include relevant information when beginning a basic conversational story.

Being a Good Conversationalist

Being a Good Conversationalist

This teaching resource instructs autistic students on the essential elements required to be a participative and interesting conversational partner. It comes with comprehensive therapeutic notes.

Choosing Conversation Topics

Choosing Conversation Topics

Many students with autism struggle with selecting appropriate topics for conversation. This teaching resource offers a simple and straightforward process to assist them in making good choices.

Interviewing Others

Interviewing Others

The traits that make for a successful interviewer are also important for effective conversation. This teaching tool provides students with ample practice in conducting interviews.

Post-Conversation Questionnaire

Post-Conversation Questionnaire

This easy-to-use questionnaire helps students with autism improve their skills in taking the perspective of others as well as their ability to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings.

Social Skills worksheet tone of voice by lisa flowers

Tone of Voice

Being able to correctly understand others' emotions from their tone of voice is a critical ability for fostering positive social interactions.

Interpreting Non-Verbal Communication Homework

Interpreting Non-Verbal Communication Homework

Generalizing the skills learned during lessons is crucial. This assignment provides students with additional practice in interpreting nonverbal cues.

Impressions from Appearances

Impressions from Appearances

This activity provides a powerful demonstration to students on how physical appearance creates an impression and how those impressions can frequently be inaccurate.

Attaining Targeted Impressions

Attaining Targeted Impressions

Encourages students to consider the type of impression they want to make on various individuals in different situations, and how they can achieve their desired impression.

Impressions and Altruism

Impressions and Altruism

This activity for teachers aims not only to help students understand how to make the desired impression in social interactions, but also the importance of taking into account the feelings of others.

Understanding Others Reference Sheet

Understanding Others Reference Sheet

This resource has proven to be extremely beneficial for teachers when guiding students in perspective taking exercises. It is useful in a variety of scenarios where students are asked to consider different perspectives.

Greetings Worksheet

Greetings Worksheet

This activity is a useful tool for teaching greeting skills to autism students in middle and high school. It provides a simple and straightforward approach for speech language therapists and other educators to help students learn this important social skill.

Getting Someone's Attention

Getting Someone's Attention

This resource is useful in teaching students how to effectively get someone else's attention in a social interaction, including all the necessary steps involved in this sometimes challenging task.

Restaurant Etiquette

Restaurant Etiquette

This handout provides guidance on perspective taking skills and covers the appropriate etiquette for dining out, making it a useful resource for teaching social skills to autism students in middle school and high school.

Answering Job Interview Questions

Answering Job Interview Questions

This comprehensive resource is designed for older teenagers preparing to enter the job market. It provides ample guidance and opportunities to practice answering the four most frequently asked interview questions.

Passive Aggression

Passive Aggression

For teachers teaching perspective taking to autism students in middle school and high school, this resource provides guidance on recognizing and managing passive aggression, helping students navigate interactions with those who may not have their best interests in mind.

Passive Aggression

Social Skills Activities Packet

A comprehensive set of 28 social skills activities and worksheets, including instruction on conversation skills, perspective taking, empathy building, non-verbal communication, and listener/reader assumptions, designed specifically for middle and high school students with autism.

Social Skills for Teens Helpful Links

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Packet

A collection of 28 social skills worksheets and activities that cover conversation skills, kinesics, perspective taking, development of empathy, and real-world communication.

$19

Get 52 Lessons & Activities

Tact

A collection of 52 language and communication worksheets and activities that cover a plethora of reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and social communication skills.

$29

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