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role heres one extended I made earlier

Heres one I made earlier...


Alison Roberts is a speech and language therapist at Ruskin Mill Further Education College in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire.

Alison Roberts with yet more low-cost, flexible therapy suggestions suitable for a variety of client groups.

News and weather round-up


MATERIALS Cassette or CD player 2 recordings of the news and weather, one from some time ago (preferably a month or more back) and one very recent one. Its best to use news that is not too upsetting or disturbing.

This is a useful memory exercise as well as a helpful way of demonstrating how topical events can enrich conversation. It is not an easy task; most people listen to the weather forecast and promptly forget most of what was said. As far as the news is concerned they are more successful, but not brilliant. (Try testing it on yourself be honest, it wasnt easy was it?) This exercise really needs forward planning as you should have some old news to practise with at first.
IN PRACTICE (1) Play the old news first. Ask for a volunteer to repeat the main headline. Now ask other group members for any further points they remember. Play the news back again and see how much was remembered. Now try the weather forecast. See if anyone can remember the forecast for the local area, then see if the weather for other areas can be recalled. Repeat the whole exercise using a recent broadcast. The trick is, of course, careful and active listening. IN PRACTICE (II) Make the point that knowing what is in the news will be a valuable asset for making contributions in conversations, especially if your client has the problem of not being able to think of what to say. Have a short discussion about the main - or most interesting - points of the news, and see if anyone has any opinions they would be willing to share.

Newspaper headlines
MATERIALS Newspapers (Tabloids seem to be best at producing both intentional and unintentional puns. Local papers are also good sources).

This activity will further the clients work on ambiguity, and should be a source of humour.
IN PRACTICE Present the puns on the list one at a time, and work out together which is the ambiguous word in each headline. Now go through the papers and see if anyone can find any new puns. Examples: Miners Refuse to Work After Death Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors Panda Mating Fails; Vet Takes Over Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim Shot off Womans Leg Helps Golfer to Victory Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Axe Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant Stolen Painting Found by Tree Two Sisters Reunited After Fifteen Years in Checkout Counter Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge Man Struck by Lightening Faces Battery Charge Kids Make Nutritious Snacks Sex Education Delayed, Teachers Request Training Include Your Children When Baking Cookies Head Seeks Arms These are notices rather than headlines but just as ambiguous! Cats Eyes Removed Baby Changing Rooms Eye Drops Off Shelf

Soapbox
MATERIALS Video or DVD recordings of radio or TV soaps, such as The Archers, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Neighbours. Use whichever programme is deemed to be cool. Find a longish piece of conversation in which 2 or 3 people are talking pleasantly and evenly not arguing. Equipment to play back recordings. Paper and pens Stopwatch

This is a listening, remembering, understanding and analysing activity which can be applied to conversational technique, especially length of turn/contribution. Because it uses popular TV programmes, there is usually no trouble motivating clients to do this work. Many clients on the autism spectrum find they can learn useful tips about chatting to people from TV conversations, because they can observe in a detached way. It works well for a group of 4-5 teenagers.
IN PRACTICE (I) Introduce the recording carefully, setting the conversation in its context. Ask one client to time the conversational turns and another to write this data down. Listen to or watch the piece, jotting down the turn timings. You will probably find, as we did, that most conversational turns last for about 4-6 seconds. This can be quite a revelation for the conversational ramblers! If you feel it to be appropriate for your group you could then time the length of the real conversational turns in your session. IN PRACTICE (II) You can use this method for other aspects of conversation such as eye contact, facial expression, or topic choice. You may be able to find pieces of the programme that illustrate friendship skills like compromising on what to do, letting the friend go first, telling the truth, or offering a compliment. Be careful only to analyse for one skill at a time.

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Summer 2007

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