Mohammed’s Assessment Summary
 

So where should I start work with Mo? 
As we have already stated in a previous issue - choosing the right place to start work has to be the most important part of intervention as it makes the difference between potentially setting a child up to fail or succeed. 

Mo has good self and other awareness, and so using this hierarchical approach, we need to initially work on his body language prior to moving on to his verbal behaviours and assertiveness skills.  So my initial goal for Mo was to teach him appropriate touch and distance as it was felt that this would be a huge barrier to college life. 

Mo’s therapy included initially increasing his awareness of touch and distance through watching the relevant scenarios on the Talkabout DVD.  We then played some touch and distance games (p 119 – 126 in Talkabout Activities) and completed some Talking Mats on good touch / bad touch with different people.  We then brainstormed who it’s OK to hug and link arms with and how he could greet different people. 

Following these activities, Mo and I wrote a social story together called ‘I’m an adult’.  In Mo’s story, it explains that touching and hugging is special and is OK in some situations.  However, it can make people feel embarrassed and uncomfortable if done outside these situations.  It also explains that linking arms and holding hands is OK for some people, but is not OK in college.  The story then tells Mo who he can hug (see picture) and who he could high five. 

A Page from Mo’s Social Story
 

We also used comic strip conversations (see issue 7) to help Mo work through some specific situations such as what to do if someone tries to initiate a hug.  You may remember that in this previous issue I described how in one session Mo’s mother told me about a situation that had happened at the weekend when a friend of the family ‘encouraged’ Mo to break his new rules by opening her arms up to hug him.  By using drawings and identifying who did and said what, and also what they might have been thinking, Mo can see the consequences of his actions and can work out what would be better.

So where is Mo now? 
Well, a year on he is showing some real improvements.  He still loves his social story about being an adult and we have added to it on a couple of occasions as specific situations have arisen.  He is enjoying college and his tutors continue to remark on the progress he is making.  We are now working on his eye contact, which in turn will help when we come to tackle his conversational skills.

Alex Kelly
Speech & language therapist and social skills consultant www.alexkelly.biz

Alex Kelly is the author of Speechmark's best selling Talkabout series.

See the Talkabout online assessment tool at www.alexkelly.biz

Read more about comic strip conversations at
NAS or behaviour4learning

Read more about Talking Mats

Read more about social stories at
Polyxo or The Gray Center