Social Communication Disorder is characterized by persistent difficulties in using verbal and nonverbal cues when interacting with people. It consists of 4 components:
- Pragmatics-language that is oriented more towards our goals in social situations.
- Social interaction-When talking to two or more individuals.
- Social cognition-Able to understand the mental and emotional states, social schemas and knowledge that individual beliefs and values influence behavior.
- Language processing-Being able to generate and understand the language we and other people speak.
- Inability to use appropriate greetings.
- Language tends to be easily influenced by other people.
- Inability to narrate stories.
- Inability to engage in meaningful and long conversations.
- Inability to rephrase or repeat when misunderstood or misheard.
- Inability to correctly interpret verbal and non-verbal cues displayed by others in social situations.
- Inability to understand indistinct language.
- Inability to create and maintain meaningful relationships.
Seek the support of a speech-language pathologist and a psychologist for mental health support.
The TalkAbility Program is designed to help parents develop the theory of mind in daily life activities. It helps children understand the perspective of others, adapt language accordingly and improve their social skills.
Behavioural interventions help to identify and reinforce desirable behaviours. It can also be used to practice social interactions in face-to-face settings or a controlled and natural setting. Positive behaviour should be rewarded and can serve as motivation.
Social communication treatments:
Comic strips-Conversations being drawn in a comic format helps the individual understand how conversations occur. The information exchanged can help conflict resolution, problem-solving, and effective communication.
Social communication intervention-Particular emphasis is placed on how motivated the individual feels when talking about their goals to another person, teaching the child social language, stimulating the theory of mind and for the child to reflect on any social encounter, they might have had.
At TBC, our Lebanese Therapists in Dubai provide therapy sessions in Arabic, French, and English to help clients overcome mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and trauma, as well as occupational therapy, psychomotor and speech therapy.