'Talking At', or 'Talking With'-- Visuals to Use with our One-Sided Conversationalists

I have a couple of little friends at school who are a bit on the spectrum, and who just love to talk, a lot!!!  Whether it's rambling on about the latest Bruins game or more tangential rambling about the animal species facts of the day, talking is their favorite thing to do.  All they need is a warm body to be sitting near them (such as a friendly speech pathologist) and the trivia and facts roll off their tongues, with only ever so occasional pauses for the 'listener' to say a couple of words.  Needless to say, it's getting a bit tiring.   When I talk to these children's parents, I see the haggard looks, and whatever the boys are doing at school, it's tenfold for home. 

To help teach the children the difference between tangential monologues and actual conversations, I made a simple visual.  In my world, simple is good.

I used this visual to teach one of my students the difference, along with showing him five different YouTube videos.  Each video illustrated either Talking At, or Talking With.  I asked him to decide which each illustrated.  I'm proud to say, he achieved 100%.

Judging videos and actually learning to self-monitor conversations are two completely different tasks, so I made a small poster with the visuals above for his classroom and for his parents.  They will use this vocabulary with him at appropriate times to help him reflect on his own behaviors.  I'll also use this in our social thinking group.  You can grab the visuals here.

Here are the videos.  My student didn't need to watch the entire length of any of them--just a minute or two---he was very attentive, and actually remarked on his own that 'Talking With' was the better way.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3





Click here for this video example


Video 4---Start at 1:18

Video 5

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