Tackling Social Skills in Teletherapy
Teletherapy social skills activities for kids and teens! Social skills can be a daunting skill to target via distance learning. There are many aspects of pragmatic language that we work on in speech therapy, and some can be difficult to assess and teach – even in person! Below are my favorite websites, apps, and activities that can be used digitally through teletherapy. Download a helpful list with the suggested websites and apps!
SOCIAL SKILLS WEBSITES
SOCIALTHINKING.COM
The Social Thinking website has lots of good information, including free webinars and research articles, in addition to their programs for purchase.
CAROLGRAYSOCIALSTORIES.COM
Carol Gray is known for developing the evidence-based practice of social stories. Her website is a useful tool to understand what social stories are for, as well as how to create and use them.
This is a great PDF to assess if you are writing and using correct social stories with your students: What Social Stories Are Not PDF
JILLKUZMA.WORDPRESS.COM
This is a great blog and website for a wide range of therapy ideas and free downloads for social and emotional skills. Find things easily with the types of social skills being broken up into different sections.
EVERYDAYSPEECH.COM
Everyday Speech is a membership site for social skills materials. It includes social skills videos, worksheets, and apps created by an SLP. You are able to preview the libraries of content before purchasing a membership.
PINTEREST BOARDS
PINTEREST.COM/ALLISONFORS/SPEECH-THERAPY-VIDEOS
PINTEREST.COM/ALLISONFORS/BLANK-COMICS-FOR-SPEECH-THERAPY
I have Pinterest boards dedicated to short videos and blank comics that I pull up in sessions. Use these videos and blank comics as an engaging way to target many important skills, including inferences, predicting, emotions, cause/effect, and more! This is a great no prep, no print activity as long as you have an internet connection.
SOCIAL SKILLS APPS
SOCIAL STORY CREATOR AND LIBRARY
Ages 4+
$9.99
This app contains 20+ social stories. You can create your own, share, receive, or print stories as well. You have the option to purchase social stories individually.
Ages 4+
$24.99
A great app for conversation skills: turn taking, initiating conversation, and staying on topic. Use in one-on-one sessions or in group therapy. There are 160 conversations to choose from and the student can either initiate or respond to conversations.
Ages 12+
$29.99
This is an app geared towards teens! It has eight themes: school, relationships, sports, entertainment, bullying, sarcasm, clothes, and summer. The app focuses on introducing, asking questions, making observations, changing subjects, and recognizing sarcasm. You can record and save conversations.
Ages 4+
Free
Choose from six locations: hairdresser, mall, doctor’s office, playground, grocery store, and restaurant. Each includes a set of 12 photographs with a child modeling the expected and appropriate behaviors for each setting.
Ages 4+
$24.99
Create visual schedules with this app! Make schedule, task, waiting, feeling, or coping boards. The app comes preloaded with 180 visuals with prerecorded audio. Upload your own pictures or videos and print!
Ages 4+
$19.99
There are 3 apps for different levels. The main focuses are: listening skills, body language, and expressions. The app uses real videos, pictures, and voices for a variety of social situations.
EMOTIONS: FLASHCARDS TO LEARN TO RECOGNIZE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS
Ages 4+
$1.99
This app has over 500 real emotions photos grouped by babies, kids, and adults. A great variety of feelings are included to work on expressively and receptively. A great feature is everything in the app is customizable. You can hide certain emotions or add your own photos and voice recordings.
I created a free download with all the above websites and apps. Use as a reference or to send home to families!
FREE SOCIAL LANGUAGE RESOURCE LIST
SOCIAL SKILLS DIGITAL ACTIVITIES
Free Conversation Prompts – 20 conversation prompts or ice breakers to use with your students! Target pragmatic language, articulation, fluency, answering questions, sentence formulation, and more.
ELEMENTARY-AGED:
Conversation Prompts – 100 conversation prompts or ice breakers to use with your students! Target pragmatic language, articulation, fluency, answering questions, sentence formulation, and more.
Emotions – Identify and express emotions in various expressive and receptive activities for speech therapy!
Behaviors Management Boom Cards – Use the scenes and questions to identify and discuss appropriate and inappropriate behaviors for social skills.
School Themed Social Skills Boom Cards – These interactive activities will give your students control of the situations and questions presented. There are 72 social situations included.
MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL-AGED:
Conversation Prompts – 100 conversation prompts or ice breakers to use with your students! Target pragmatic language, articulation, fluency, answering questions, sentence formulation, and more.
Teen Community Themed Social Skills Boom Cards – Use this thorough product designed to work on a variety of social skills within the community. There are 80 social situations included, plus options to include custom-made ones depending on your student’s needs.
I hope you found some useful resources for targeting social skills in teletherapy!
