More Than Words Therapy

More Than Words hosts a social pragmatic group on Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., providing a fun group environment for children to enhance their social skills and development. Our social pragmatic group is facilitated by speech therapists, occupational therapists, teachers, and coaches, who always keep in mind all areas of development including emotional and sensory regulation. The activities are a means to an end, different scenarios to facilitate a variety of skills to be practiced and possible conflicts to be addressed accordingly. 

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Social pragmatic language consists of verbal communication and nonverbal communication (facial expression, body language, reading someone else's expressions and conveying information without words). Understanding meaning during social interactions includes both verbal and nonverbal communication, understanding "social rules" and decoding them, acting appropriately to one's age with peers. Pragmatic skills are crucial for communicating thoughts, ideas, opinions, and feelings, as well as playing with others. 

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Social skills for daily activities occur at home, at school, and in the community. Playing with peers, taking turns, being assertive, defending oneself, talking to a teacher, talking on the phone with a grandparent, choosing a cupcake flavor at a birthday celebration, ordering food in a restaurant, organizing a game in the playground with peers, stating the rules of a game are examples of social skills needed during interactions with others. Children interact with family members, friends, teachers, members of the community. What a family member might oversee, forgive, or excuse, a peer might not. That is why it is important that children know and respect social rules. It is important to role play and practice these skills under non-stressful situations or situations set up for practice, to increase chances of positive outcomes in "real-life situations."

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We practice and address: 

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• Language appropriate to a given situation

• Review rules for listening and taking turns

• Eye gaze

• Feelings (both reading them in someone else and expressing them appropriately)

• Play skills

• Work on voice volume

• Improve frustration tolerance

• Respect personal space

• Make and keep friends 

• Manners, interruptions

• Problem-solving skills and conflict resolution 

• Playing and learning 

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