Cartoon Strip Social Interactions

Children with autism, or children with other social deficits due intellectual or physical challenges face difficulty with acquisition, performance and fluency in social skills. Worksheets and cartoon strips about social interactions support all levels of challenge. Introduced as Cartoon Strip Conversations by Carol Gray, creator of Social Stories, cartoon strips are an effective way to support the instruction of appropriate interactions to children with language and social deficits, especially children with autism spectrum disorders. For children who have difficulty with Acquisition, The cartoon strip offers very explicit, visual, step by step information on how to interact. For a child with difficulty with Performance, writing the interaction phrases in the bubbles creates a practice that will enhance performance. Finally, for children who have not attained Fluency, the Cartoon strip will give them opportunities to build fluency and mentor children who are still acquiring the skills. In each case, cartoon strips provide opportunities to acquire and practice social interactions that meet them where they are at. This is differentiation at its best. Using Cartoon Strip Interactions Not everyone can draw, so I have created resources for you to use. The cartoon strips have four to six boxes and have pictures of the people participating in the interactions. I am offering a range of interactions: requests, greetings, initiating social interactions, and negotiations. I also offer these across milieux: many children do not understand that we interact differently with an adult, especially an unfamiliar adult or an adult in authority, than we do with a peer in an informal social situation. These nuances need to be pointed out and students need to learn criteria to figure out the unwritten social conventions. Introduce the concepts: What is a request, or an initiation? You need to teach and model these first. Have a typical student, an aide, or a high functioning student help you model: A request: Could you help me find the library?A Greeting: Hi, Im Amanda. Or, Hello, Dr. Williams. Its nice to see you.An interaction initiation: Hi, Im Jerry. I dont think weve met before. Whats your name?A Negotiation: Can I have a turn? How about after five minutes? Can I set the alarm on my watch? Templates for Comic Strips for making requests. Templates and lesson plans for Comic Strips for Initiating Interactions with Groups. Model creating a strip: Walk through each step of creating your strip. Use an ELMO projector or an overhead. How will you start your interaction? What are some greetings you can use? Generate a number of different ideas, and write them on chart paper where you can refer to them again, later. The large Post It Notes from 3M are great because you can stack them and stick them around the room. Write: Have students copy your interaction: You will have them decide on their own greetings, etc., after they have done one conversation together and practiced it. Student Role Play: Lead your students through practicing the interaction you have created together: you might have them rehearse in pairs and then have a few groups perform for everyone: you can have all perform or a few depending on the size of your group. If you videotape the interaction, you can have students evaluate each others performance. Evaluate: Teaching your students to evaluate their own performance and the performance of their peers will help them generalize the same activity when they are in public. We typical folks do it all the time: Did that go well with the boss? Maybe that joke about his tie was a little off color. Hmmmm . . . hows the resume? Coach and prompt the elements you want students to evaluate, such as: Eye contact: are they looking at the person they are addressing. Do that count to 5 or 6, or do they stare?Proximity: Did they stand a good distance for a friend, a stranger, or an adult?Voice and pitch: Was their voice loud enough? Did they sound friendly?Body Language: Did they have quiet hands and feet? Were their shoulders turned to the person they were addressing? Teach Feedback Skills: Typical kids have trouble with this since in general, teachers are not very good at giving or receiving constructive criticism. Feedback is the only way we learn from our performance. Give it kindly and generously, and expect your students to start doing it. Be sure to include Pats (good stuff,) and Pans (not so good stuff.) Ask students for 2 pats for every pan: i.e.: Pat: You had good eye contact and a good pitch. Pan: You didnt stand still.