Develop Social Communication Skills For Children in Early Grades
Good Talking Words is an engaging and developmentally appropriate curriculum designed to help young children in preschool and the early grades develop effective social communication skills. It facilitates social-emotional learning (SEL) through lessons focused on progressively helping young children learn specific concepts, vocabulary, and the expected behaviors needed for successful communication and interactions with their peers and adults.
Social-emotional learning contributes to many positive aspects of academic and life success. Social-emotional learning helps us:
- Understand and manage our emotions
- Build a sense of resilience
- Establish and maintain positive relationships
- Attend to feelings
- Set and achieve positive goals
- Make decisions
Good Talking Words provides a series of 10 engaging, playful, and developmentally appropriate lessons that follow learning principles based in cognition and brain research. Lessons are delivered in an intentional sequence that cover these critical skills:
- Foundational sensory perceptual skills (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic)
- Personally responsible social communication skills
- Interaction skills
- Problem-solving skills
Meet the Authors
Dr. Lucy Hart Paulson, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, is an author and literacy specialist with a mission of bringing research to practice. She is also a speech-language pathologist with years of experience working with educators and young children and their families in a range of educational settings. In addition, Hart Paulson was an associate professor teaching and conducting research in the areas of language and literacy development and disorders. She provides professional development using a broad-based perspective blending areas of language and literacy together resulting in effective, appropriate, and engaging language-based literacy instruction and intervention for all children. Additionally, she is the co-author of Good Talking Words, a social-communication skills program for young children; LETRS® for Early Childhood Educators, 2nd Edition; and Building Early Literacy and Language Skills, a resource and activity guide for young children.
Lynnea A. Avenetti, M.A., LPC, is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) helping individuals of all ages, including children and their families, gain emotional awareness and regulation, learn and implement more effective communication and coping skills, work through past trauma, and navigate relational challenges. She has worked in a myriad of therapeutic settings for children including inpatient and outpatient hospitalization programs and day treatment and residential treatment programs. Lynnea holds a master’s degree in Professional Mental Health Counseling with an emphasis on children and adolescents with specialized training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), mindfulness-based practice, and Attachment Theory.
Resources
5 Ways to Integrate SEL Into Your Classroom
We know weaving SEL into your academic curriculum may seem overwhelming, but we’ve compiled a list of simple activities you can begin implementing this fall to get you started. Regardless of what grade your students are in, these activities can be adapted to help teach the core social and emotional competencies.
Read MoreA Teacher's Guide to Having an Inclusive Classroom
One simple but important way to foster student success is to establish a space that is welcoming and comforting for all. Inclusive classrooms are those in which each student can equally participate in every learning experience.
Read MoreTransform Your Classroom with a Sound Wall
A sound wall is an interactive reading and writing instructional tool for students. It focuses on sound, instead of the letters of the alphabet, with the 44 phonemes in the English language. Sound walls are created to facilitate the connection from speech to print.
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