Do you or a loved one ever have problems with effectively communicating with others? Perhaps it’s not a matter of language delay or speech impediment. Perhaps it’s a matter of how language is used in social situations: something that you (or your loved one) just cannot master. Lynne Alba Speech Therapy offers assistance with social communication issues for children and adults. We can enlighten you on the social communication disorder basics to give you some potential insight into your situation.

What is Social Communication?

In a sentence, social communication is the framework by which people in a society communicate with each other. The rules may differ slightly from culture to culture, and across languages, but the basic principles are universal to human society. Acquiring the social skills necessary for standard, functional social communication is in general something that happens gradually over time. Early on in a child’s development, we teach them basic social skills by talking to them, which means they can learn their name, and that they can respond to it and other sounds that people make. When a child is at pre-school, social communication takes on a new relevance as they must learn to interact effectively with new and strange children. Successful interactions and relationships rely on effective communication: initiating and maintaining friendships, dealing with conflicts, and more.

There are three pillars of social communication. The simple acquisition of language, and its use in different contexts, is the first and most straightforward of these pillars to achieve. Contexts such as greeting, promising, informing, and requesting are all simple to acquire. A child will normally be proficient in the basics of using language by the time they reach pre-school. The second pillar is understanding how to adapt the language you have to match a situation. For example, using more formal or informal tones when speaking to an authority figure or friend. As people grow up, most learn to adapt the amount of information they share depending on the context: the person they are speaking to. A rocket scientist should understand that explaining their job to a complete layperson will require basic grounding in the field of rocket science, information that the head of their department would not. Lastly, the third pillar of social communication is understanding the (largely unspoken) rules of conversations. Skills like understanding comfortable distance from someone for a conversation, appropriate use of gestures and body language, and taking turns when conversing.

How is Social Communication Related to Speech and Language Development?

What is the relation between speech and language development and social communication? The two are often learned in parallel, as children develop more complex ways of interacting with their families and peers. Once a child has learned how to ask a question, such as requesting water, they should quickly intuit that the question is more likely to be understood and responded to if eye contact is used, if the person they are asking is at a suitable distance, and if they wait for their turn to speak so as not to interrupt. Sometimes it can be helpful to gently point out these rules of conversation (also known as pragmatics) so that a child can gain awareness and practice it next time. This kind of interaction is invaluable and greatly contributes to a child’s verbal and nonverbal communication skills as they develop. Your child’s teachers, for one, will thank you! Individuals who experience language delay can also struggle with slower acquisition of social communication skills, as they may not be able to use much language in social interactions. However, on occasion there are examples of children and adults who experience social pragmatic communication disorder without any language impairment.

How Do I Know If My Child Has a Problem?

Someone may have a social communication problem if:

• They frequently say ‘the wrong thing’ or act oddly when talking.
• They laugh at inappropriate times.
• They bring up tangents irrelevant to the conversation.
• They struggle with certain ways of using language, such as greetings, farewells, or asking for things.
• They speak in exactly the same way regardless of the situation (for example, speaking to a teacher or grandparent the same way as they speak to a friend)
• They talk over others in the conversation.
• They are incapable of rephrasing themselves if misunderstood.
• They don’t use facial expressions or eye contact to facilitate communication.

Of course, children learn these communication skills over time and at different rates, but if your child has a lot of problems with communication rules, it may be indicative of a social communication disorder. This can often be related to other speech or language problems. Speech-language pathologists (also known as SLPs) are available to assist people with social communication problems. An SLP can test you or your loved one’s speech and language skills, and train an individual in learning how to use language with different people and in different situations.

 

 

Social Communication Disorders and Diagnoses

For a child to be diagnosed with SCD (social communication disorder) the symptoms must be present in early childhood. It is not uncommon that a child with autism speaks in a way that indicates they may have SCD, but a SCD diagnosis excludes autism spectrum disorder. It is possible that people with SCD were diagnosed with another condition before the current edition of the DSM was released. Pervasive developmental disorder is a common culprit.

Social Communication Tips

Social skills training in social communication can help your loved one become more at ease with conversations and social situations. Lynne Alba Speech Therapy Solutions frequently uses these tips with children with SCD. Treatments for social communication disorder build on these steps.

Prompt them to use language in different ways. For example, if you want your child to request to leave the table, you could prompt them: “What do you want?”
Use everyday situations to your advantage. Good social communication is easier the more practice people get in everyday contexts. Initiate a conversation about school, for example, and practice staying on topic, not deviating from the subject matter.
Practice messages. You could ask your child how they would phrase a question in an impolite way, then a polite way. Or how to express a wish directly versus indirectly: ‘I want some cake’, as opposed to ‘That cake looks yummy.’
Demonstrate the importance of nonverbal cues to communication. It’s easy to find photographs of people making different expressions in magazines or newspapers. Look at the pictures and talk to your child about how they think the person in the photo might feel, based on their expression. You can also talk to them about how someone’s facial expression might alter the meaning of what they say. For example, someone smiling and saying ‘I can’t believe this’, as opposed to someone scowling and saying the same thing.
Model good communication behavior. When you’re with your child, emphasise your eye contact. Talk about how to politely ask for things and why being polite can be more beneficial. Provide your child with opportunities to practice those skills at home. Offer praise when they demonstrate those skills.

Social Skill Classes for Children in Los Angeles

Lynne Alba Speech Therapy Solutions offers specially designed and curated programs for children of all ages working on speech and language development disorders, including SCD. For very young children, the Toddler Talk program is available. Older children may qualify for the Kid Talk program. Contact us at 310-856-8528 to begin the discussion of how we can help your child.