Selfie Sticks and Social Skills
I love a selfie stick… not to take selfies but because it makes a fantastic resource to which you can add a puppet and engage your child.
A puppet is a brilliant way of engaging with a child in a story, it’s also a brilliant way to work on visual attention skills which are beneficial for social interaction situations
A puppet is also brilliant for conversing with, making up funny voices, laughing and having fun with. It is also brilliant for the child to talk through…. to tell what they are thinking, to say how they are feeling
I love puppets, they make me laugh. When I look at Marvin during the Story Time Show, he always makes me laugh! I love the simple things in life and one of them is pretend play and pretend conversations. This way you can work out what it is you are trying to express and say. As adults we pretend play-out scenarios in our head all the time when we are working things out. Pretend play is so important for children to engage in for this reason and for the development of their social communication skills. They are interlinked.
Back to the selfie stick….
The selfie stick is a great way of the puppet interacting with the child whilst you are standing further back. This is because the selfie stick is extendable.
Black t-shirts and standing against a black background, whilst wearing black gloves and hat are vital before you use the puppet and selfie stick.
The selfie stick can be extended to move nearer or to move it further away from the child and it also works beautifully in a group of children.
When I started my business 13 years ago and I began to write courses on social communication skills I couldn’t find any suitable resources on the internet. There is no shop that sells such things.
Hence I created and designed my own. I have to date developed many social skills resources which are part of Positive Eye’s unique product range including:
Easy-Easier Learner’s Voice Resource
Social Skills Programme for young children
Thumbs Up, role play activities to support understanding of voice tone, body language and facial expressions
Social Skills Picture Cards
Facial Expression Picture Cards.
I deliver highly practical training on this huge and ongoing area of need. In the photographs that accompany this post I share some of the ideas I use on Positive Eye social skills courses.
They include:
The aims for social skills
The Facial Expressions Game
The Guess the Message Game – teaching body language, voice tone, and facial expressions.
Sentences that are used with the above game
Setting targets and breaking the target into steps to scaffold development towards mastery
Selfie Sticks and Puppets!
