Everyday Speech Social Skills (Review and Giveaway)

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I don’t really do reviews for commercial materials. I like to talk about my life, work, and creations. Not other people’s.

But last week I started really struggling with my social skills groups. The materials that I have on hand all seemed either too high, too low, or already used. I was in a rut and told my student intern that I may need to make some more materials for these kids.

And then… I finally opened the email about Everyday Speech Social Skills and watched one of the videos. I knew it was going to be perfect! I am a big fan on social skills videos and mastered iMovie this year so that I could record students doing their own video modeling and social skills. See my post from a few months ago here. There are some amazing benefits to making videos of your own students. The problems with this method, however, are that 1. they take a lot of time and 2. you cannot show them to anyone else because of privacy. Everyday Speech Social Skills solves both of those issues!

Here’s what I love about these social skills videos:

They are quick. At approximately 2 minutes each they provide the perfect warm up task for social skills groups.
They include real kids interacting in an unexpected way and then an expected way.
The thought bubbles really help kids understand the perspective of others.
The videos can be watched on the computer or tablet. Use this free app for easy iPad use.

I used the “Making Eye Contact” video with two groups of students on Monday. We were able to take the two minute video and expand it into an entire 30 minute therapy session by repeating information, predicting, and teaching each other about eye contact. It was great!

When the videos are released to the public on May 4th, there will be multiple videos on each of the following topics:

Nonverbal Communication
Making Friends
Solving Conflicts with Peers
Problem Solving
All About the Brain
How we act in school
Conversation Skills: Basic
Conversation Skills: Advanced

Do you want to win a copy of some of these videos? Two randomly chosen people who sign up for the mailing list through this link will be chosen to win a mini-pack of 5-7 videos!

Don’t forget to sign up for the mailing list here as your entry to win some of these videos!