Social Communication Therapy
Social Communication Therapy for Adults
Social communication difficulties are common living with a brain injury, neurological condition or disability, due to deficits in areas such as memory, attention, problem solving, planning, organisation, judgment and/or perception. These difficulties often have an impact on communication, personality and behaviour, and may mean that the person may act differently – and sometimes inappropriately, in social situations.
Being able to modify communication according to the environment and according to the person being communicated with are key components of appropriate social communication. It is a complex skill-set and is necessary to fulfilling successful roles and relationships on a daily basis. Since it is through conversation that we form and maintain relationships, social communication difficulties can have a significant negative impact on social competence, vocational competence and academic competence. The person may experience social isolation due to difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships, difficulty finding and maintaining employment, and difficulty identifying leisure activities. It can also be extremely challenging for the family and carers, as the changes can contribute to carer distress and carer burden, and often social isolation.
Some example of challenges include:
– Talking too much or too little
– Reduced eye contact
– Limited facial expression
– Difficulty initiating and/or maintaining a conversatio
– Reduced turn-taking in conversation
– Reduced awareness and /or sensitivity to the person they are talking with
– Difficulty perceiving personal space
– Reduced awareness of their different behaviours and interactions
– Excessive swearing
– Reduced tolerance – quick to express anger or yell at someone
– Inappropriate sexual comments or jokes
– Problems staying on topic
– Difficulty resisting distraction during conversation
– Problems keeping track of what other people are saying
– Repeating oneself when talking
– Losing track of the conversation topic
– Mixing up instructions or messages
– Having trouble starting conversations
– Interrupting others
– Poorly organised speech
– Excessive talking
– Difficulty understanding sarcasm
– Poor use of feedback from others
– Difficulty taking someone else’s perspective
We are here to help!
Speech Pathologists at iBrain have expertise in diagnosing and treating social communication difficulties. We have a focus on making strong connection with our clients and truly understand what matters to them the most, because we believe the best intervention is the one that is tailored for the person.
Some examples of treatment we provide include:
– Behavioural techniques – inappropriate social behaviours are targeted using direct feedback/ reinforcement. E.g. role-plays & video feedback
– Context sensitive training
– Extensive practice of social behaviours in the situations they are required
– Situational coaching
– Prosocial behaviour training – for instance, practice being assertive, but not aggressive.
– Social perception training – the ability to “read” social cues from others, including facial expression, tone of voice, and awareness of other points of view
– Specific training to improve self-monitoring of stress levels
– Counselling to help individual develop a personally compelling sense of self
– Communication partner training for family and carers to support positive and supportive interaction
