Social interaction is the non-verbal aspects of language, such as facial expression, eye contact, body language and tone of voice, that help to put a message across effectively. This includes rules of social interaction and subtle use of language.

Early Communication

Communication is about getting a message across to someone else and listening in turn to the messages they send back. When we think of communication we think of speech but there are many other ways of getting our message across.  We can communicate by pointing, looking, making different expressions with our faces, moving our bodies in different ways, shouting, crying, laughing, using our hands, throwing things and even by saying and doing nothing at all.
Babies, therefore, are ready to begin communication as soon as they are born, and by trying to understand your baby’s or your child’s messages and responding to them with your own, you will be helping your child to learn how to communicate effectively, even before speech develops.

1. Spend time talking to your child and let them watch your face. Use your face and exaggerate your facial expressions to keep your child interested, as well as making your voice sound interesting by varying pitch.
2. Encourage your child to listen to different sounds by playing with different noise-making things e.g. rattles, drums and see if your child will turn their head to look at them. Encourage them to look, by slowly bringing the item closer and showing interest in it yourself.
3. Encourage your child to copy different activities:
   1. Pulling faces e.g.
      1. Sticking out tongue
      2. Puffing out cheeks
      3. Saying ee-aw like a donkey when you see a donkey or a picture of one
   2. Babbling – When your child babbles, copy him and this will encourage him to do it again. Taking it in turns to babble in this way is a form of early conversation.
   3. Actions
      1. Playing peep-po
      2. Banging a drum
   4. Social situations
      1. Waving bye-bye
      2. Shaking head for no
   5. Making different noises
      1. Animal sounds
      2. Object sounds
4. Encourage your child to notice when someone  appears. For example: “Where is daddy/nanny/mummy?”
5. Music – Encourage your child to listen to musical toys and even dance to the rhythm.
6. Encourage your child to notice things around them and take interest in them.
   1. By pointing to things and talking about them as you walk to the shops.
   2. By saying your child’s name you can alert them to look at people or things close to them.  An interesting face or object will then encourage them to continue looking (and learning).
7. Spend time with your child encouraging them to look and be interested in different things.  Talk to your child in simple, repetitive language while you share activities with them.
   1. Blowing bubbles – let them pop on your child’s hand and feet
   2. Jack in a box – say boo as Jack pops up
   3. Touching thing with different textures. Let your child feel different things but do not leave them alone with them. Here are some ideas:
      1. cotton wool
      2. fur
      3. water
      4. bubbles
      5. keys
      6. fruit
      7. fir cones
      8. grasses etc
8. Encourage your child to tell you what they want by gesturing, if they cannot say the words yet.  Always say the word to your child so that they can hear how you say it even if they don’t say it themselves.
9. Let your child see that sounds are fun, by talking to your child in many different situations and smiling and taking notice of your child when they make sounds of their own.
10. Let your child see that you have understood their attempts to communicate by:
    1. Responding when they:-
       1. cry
       2. point
       3. shout
       4. make sounds
11. Early attempts at words often go unnoticed, because they do not sound very much like the words they are intended to be.  Try to be aware of any attempt to say a word and give as much encouragement as you can e.g. child points to ‘cat’ and says ‘ta’’.  Say, “yes, it’s a cat” in a lively manner.  It doesn’t matter if your child was not trying to say the word, this will give him the correct encouragement to try another time.

Play

Techniques to encourage communication

Sharing attention

Observe the child and take notice of what they are interested in. By becoming interested and involved in the same activity you can make opportunities for communication.
Comment on what is happening while you are both sharing the activity: the words you use should be simple and directly related to what is happening or what you are looking at.

Encourage the child to watch your face as you speak by positioning yourself so that it is easy for them to see your face while they are engaged in the activity.
When the child shows signs of wanting to change activity, try to encourage the child to spend just a moment longer on it by adding something interesting where possible: for example making a noise associated with the activity or thinking of something new to do with the same activity.

Allow the child to move to another activity and again join in with what they are doing, being careful to note what they are looking at and what interests them.

Sharing activities

Join in whatever the child is doing and copy their actions. When the child is aware that you are taking part in their activity, then add another activity that the child can copy. Try to pick a similar activity to the one the child is doing as this will help encourage the child to copy.
Once the child is joining in with some of your activities you can initiate others and encourage the child to join in.

Taking turns in ‘conversation’

While playing with the child, try to set off a pattern of taking turns, by copying the child and then by pausing to give the child a chance to copy you back. Perhaps you might copy a sound, a facial expression, an action or a movement. Keep doing this so that the child has the opportunity to notice that you are copying them but always pausing to give them a chance to respond. Use language such as ‘Your turn’ when this seems appropriate.

If the child plays ‘copycats’ with one activity then you can try introducing another copying exchange.

Play with Language

By playing with noises and sounds a child has the opportunity to learn about making different sounds and the affect they have on other people. With encouragement to make different sounds a chid learns important steps in communication – listening, copying, taking turns to speak, as well as understanding words and learning to say them.

• Talk to your child whenever you are with them and let them see your face when you speak.
• Play finger games and make a noise alongside the game e.g. fingers walking making a clicking sound for each step.

Make your hand jump like a frog and accompany it with a croaking sound, or walk like a spider and make another appropriate sound for a spiders quick legs.

• Play rhyming games with accompanying actions such as “This little piggy went to market” or “Down at the bottom of the deep blue sea, catching fishes 1-2-3eeeee” – lift child up on the count of three.

Play with toy animals and help your child make the different animal noises. Later look at pictures and do the same.

• When looking at books, use actions and noises to go with some of the pictures e.g. telephone – ‘bring-bring’ then pretend to pick up the receiver and say ‘hello’ etc.

Playing with sounds involves listening to them as well as saying them. When your child babbles they are practising speech sounds and if you join in the game they may learn to copy some new sounds.

• When your child say ‘ba-ba’, ‘da-da’ or ‘ma-ma’, copy him and say it back or say it in a slightly different way eg ‘baba’ or ‘baby’, ‘mam’ or ‘mummy’.

Speak in a lively way and let your voice go up and down to make it interesting to listen to.

• Have a large piece of card with a small hole in it. Encourage your child to push things through the hole. Begin with just one toy.

You sit on the other side of the cardboard and encourage your child to ‘talk’ before you send the toy back. If he makes a sound you pop it through the hole.

• Make a ‘train’ out of boxes and as you push it round the floor, make a train noise ‘ch-ch-ch’. Encourage your child to do the same.
• Cut a round piece of paper into a spiral snake shape with the snake’s head in the middle. Lift the snake’s head up and make a hissing sound (s-s-s). Encourage your child to copy and let the snake drop when he tries to copy.

Play with Objects

Your child learns about their environment by exploring the things around them. By playing with objects, your child finds out what they are, how they work and what to do with them. While learning all about the objects they encounter, your child also has the opportunity for social interaction with other people (Smiling, talking, looking at each other, sharing things etc) and for expressing their needs and feelings.

1. Encourage your child to explore different things in the world around them. To look at them, touch them, hold them, smell them and listen to the sounds they make, e.g. keys, boxes, rattles, paper, water, feathers etc. Show your child what they can do with each one e.g. splashing with water in the bath, rattling keys, tickling with feathers and encourage them to try blowing bubbles.
2. Encourage your child to look for things when they have disappeared from view. Do this by:-
   1. Playing “jack in a box” – you may have one already, if not, make your own with a doll, teddy or hand puppet and a cardboard box with a lid.  Cut a hole in the bottom of the box and hide the doll inside with the lid shut. Let the doll spring up to surprise your child, and then hide him again in the box. Counting and encouraging your child to look at the box will help keep his interests while the toy is hiding “1-2-3- boo” (Jack jumps up)
   2. Hide a small toy in your hand and then open your hand to show your child the toy. As your child learns to recognise where the toy is make the game harder by using both hands and hiding the toy in a  different hand each time. Open the empty one first and then the one with the toy in.
3. Encourage your child to copy simple activities e.g. clapping hands, shaking a toy, waving bye – bye.
4. Encourage your child to use objects appropriately e.g. brush his hair with a brush, drink out of a cup, push a car and go ‘brmm, brmm’ etc
5. Encourage your child to put one object on or in another e.g. one brick on another, a spoon in a cup etc.
6. Show your child how to copy everyday activities e.g. feeding dolly, brushing the floor, washing clothes, reading a book etc.
7. Play alongside your child with the same kind of toys and talk about what you are doing. Encourage your child to copy some of your actions with their own toys.
8. Help your child learn how to play with imaginary toys. E.g. pick a sweet out of an empty tin and pretend to eat it, give one to your child to eat too. Stir your cup with a pretend spoon. Encourage your child to copy.
9. Encourage your child to imagine that one object can be used instead of another in play. E.g. a box could be a bed for a doll; a cup could be a doll’s hat.
10. Encourage your child to play in a sequence of events. Join in the play activity and suggest what might happen next, e.g. dolly’s hungry, she wants to have dinner. What does she need to get dinner?

Play with Social Materials

By playing with everyday things that are found in your home, as well as toys that copy real objects e.g. dolls house, toy cars, etc, your child learns about the world about them and how to use things, what to do with them and also how to play and behave with other children and adults:

1. Show your child how to play with some of their toys, e.g. making engine noise ‘brmm’ while pushing a toy car. Rock teddy or dolly to sleep, etc.
2. Let your child copy some of the things you do round the house, e.g. mopping, dusting, by letting them watch you and by giving them a mop or duster of their own.
3. Have a number of dolls, teddies and/or other toys and make them do different things, e.g. sleep, run, jump, eat, etc. Encourage your child to copy your game with their own toy.
4. Encourage your child to use some everyday things, e.g. brush hair, eat with a spoon and drink out of a cup. Show them how to feed their teddy or dolly too. 
5. Encourage pretend play by pretending to be asleep, pretending to eat something that isn’t really there, or drink a pretend drink. Offer some to your child and see if they will copy.
6. Help your child act out some pretend games, e.g. being a nurse, postman, etc. Encourage them to think of different things to do in their game, e.g. posting the letter.

Play with Motion and Interaction

From a very early age, children enjoy play that involves movement. This can mean that the child them-self is moving or that they are involved with something else that moves. Movement can help develop a child’s attention and can be combined with language games, which help develop the child’s understanding and use of language. As well as this, ‘movement games’ will encourage a child’s physical development. They will learn to run, hop, balance and use their eyes and hands to hold things carefully and to develop the control needed for later reading and writing skills.

1. Long mobiles above your child’s bed or play area, to encourage them to focus their attention for a short while. Spend time showing your child the pictures hanging on the mobile and/or make them move by blowing or tapping them gently. When your child’s attention begins to wander tap the mobile again.
2. Play peep-po with a teddy or another soft toy. Hide the toy from sight and then let it jump up saying ‘peep-po’ at the same time.
3. Walk a teddy or doll along in front of your child and talk to your child at the same time.
4. Roll a ball to your child and let it gently bump into his toes and fingers. Encourage them to roll or kick it back.
   • Eg ‘ Ready, steady, go’
   • ‘Here it comes’
   • ‘Catch it’, Kick it’ etc
5. Lift your child up in the air and say ’weee’ or ‘up we go’, or ‘bump’ as you go down.
6. Play ‘Row, row, row the boat’ where you sit facing each other on the floor, hold hands and rock back and forth in time to the rhyme.
7. ‘Ring a ring of roses’ is another rhyme to play.
8. Encourage your child to mime the actions of different animals, by pretending to be an animal yourself and getting your child to copy, e.g. crocodile – open and shut hands together for the mouth of the crocodile, turn your hand into a slippery snake, or a fish, or pretend it is a frog and make it jump. Make the sound to go with the animal actions and tell your child what it is.

Play Alongside Your Child

Let your child choose a toy or activity and allow them to control what’s happening. Comment on what they are doing or looking at.
For example: “you’ve got teddy. He’s going to bed. Night night teddy. He’s gone to sleep. Wake up teddy. Wake up.”
Play alongside and copy what s/he is doing.
Comment on what you are doing. “My car is going in the box now. Oh it’s gone. My car’s gone. Here it is again. My car’s going fast. It’s going to crash.”

Techniques to Encourage Communication

Sharing attention

Observe the child and take notice of what they are interested in. By becoming interested and involved in the same activity, you can make opportunities for communication.  

Comment on what is happening while you are both sharing the activity: the words you use should be simple and directly related to what is happening or what you are looking at.

Encourage the child to watch your face as you speak, by positioning yourself so that it is easy for them to see your face while they are engaged in the activity. When the child shows signs of wanting to change activity, try to encourage the child to spend just a moment longer on it, by adding something interesting where possible: for example making a noise associated with the activity or thinking of something new to do with the same activity.

Allow the child to move to another activity and again join in with what they are doing, being careful to note what they are looking at and what interests them. 

Sharing activities

Join in with whatever the child is doing and copy their actions. When the child is aware that you are taking part in their activity, then add another activity that the child can copy.

Try to pick a similar activity to the one the child is doing as this will help encourage the child to copy.

Once the child is joining in with some of your activities, you can initiate others and encourage the child to join in.

Taking turns in ‘conversation’

While playing with the child, try to set off a pattern of taking turns by copying the child and then by pausing, to give the child a chance to copy you back.  Perhaps you might copy a sound, a facial expression, an action or a movement.  Keep doing this so that the child has the opportunity to notice that you are copying them but always pausing to give them a chance to respond.  Use language such as ‘Your turn’ when this seems appropriate.

If the child plays ‘copycats’ with one activity, then you can try introducing another copying exchange.

Building Conversational Skills

Some children may need help to develop their conversational skills. The following strategies and activities can help.

Active listening that includes:

• learning ‘what listening looks like’ and the signals that speakers need from listeners in order to keep talking – do the listeners seem interested? Are they responding?;
• taking in what someone else is saying and responding to it by asking a relevant question or adding a relevant comment;
• being able to report back on what someone has just told you.

Turn taking:
At a very basic level, this can be explained to children in terms of fairness: who hasn’t said anything yet?

Learning to pick up on signals
Some children may need to be taught to read the body language of listeners, or a speaker’s tone of voice and the information this gives. This can be done by:

• discussing extracts from videos such as soaps;
• being asked to comment on their own experiences – how did their friends react when they were told something exciting, important, upsetting, annoying?

Discussion can range from the very simple to more complex ideas:

• ‘Did X look interested or bored, when you told her you were going to have a new dog?’
• ‘Mrs C’s voice sounded a bit creaky, when she said she liked football … do you think she really likes it? What told you she doesn’t?’

Adult role play can be used to exemplify being: (im)precise, or (ir)relevant, or too lengthy, or just boring.

‘Semantic’ and ‘Pragmatic’ Language Difficulties

Sometimes children have difficulty in using language in conversation in a social manner. They may have difficulty with the ‘semantic’ or ‘pragmatic’ aspects of speech and language.

‘Semantic’ refers to the meaning of words.

‘Pragmatics’ refers to the use of language in a social context, taking into account the rules of social interaction, such as: –

• Taking turns.
• The manner in which we speak to people in different situations.
• Interpreting and using facial expression, body language and tone of voice.
• Timing of responses: knowing when to interrupt and how to interrupt a conversation.
• Knowing how much information to give
• Checking that the listener has understood the message,
• Staying on one topic, or….
• Introducing the listener to a change of topic.

A child with ‘Semantic’ and/or ‘Pragmatic’ difficulties may show some, but not necessarily all, of the following features in their communication or behaviour: –

• Difficulty in joining in a conversation at the right time.
• Asking too many questions but not showing any interest in the answer, or knowing the answer already.
• Saying something that has nothing to do with what you are talking about at that moment or shifting from one subject to another very quickly, leaving you wondering what they are talking about.
• Not giving adequate eye-contact during a conversation.
• Not understanding body language or tone of voice.
• Talking in a sing-songy voice.
• Echoing what someone else has said or using phrases that they have heard on many occasions.
• Lack of pretend play or imagination e.g. difficulty pretending that a box is a car or a hat.
• Difficulty in working out some of the things that we ‘infer’ in what we say(but do not actually put into words) An example may help explain this:
  For instance a child might say: ‘Can I go outside to play’ and his mum says, ‘Well it’s nearly tea-time’. What she means is that there isn’t enough time before tea for him to go outside to play. So the answer is ‘No, because it’s tea-time’. The child may find it hard to ‘infer’ what is meant from what is actually said. As a result a lot of misunderstandings can occur.
• Difficulty in concentrating, particularly when the activity has been chosen by someone else.
• Difficulty in understanding questions and instructions.
• Appearing quite comical or bizarre in the things they say and do.
• Saying too much and not giving the listener a chance to talk.
• Not checking whether the listener is interested in the conversation or understands what they are saying.
• Liking to do things in a particular way. May get upset if their routine is upset.
• Very specific interests such as trains, dinosaurs, sometimes to the point of not wanting to do anything else.
• Reading skills may be ahead of their understanding.
• May be clumsy or uncoordinated.
• May have repetitive movements such as shaking their hands or flicking their fingers.