Social Communication / Pragmatics
Learn the essentials, plan useful therapy, write a measurable goal, and document the work.
- Learn
- Therapy Ideas
- Write Goals
- Document
- Use Resources
General Information
Social communication includes using language and other modes with partners in real contexts. Assessment asks what interactions matter to the person and how partner behavior, access, culture, and environment affect participation. The SLP supports mutual understanding, repair, and self-advocacy; differences in eye contact, movement, or style are not automatically deficits.
What to consider in assessment
Ask the person which interactions matter and what feels comfortable. Observe communication with peers and adults, repair, participation, partner support, and environmental demands. Interpret eye gaze, body movement, and interaction style within cultural and neurodivergent contexts rather than treating difference alone as impairment.
What the SLP can address
The SLP can support mutual understanding, conversation repair, self-advocacy, and access to meaningful group participation. Goals should be developed with the person, respecting boundaries and preferred communication styles.
Therapy Tips
In a cooperative activity, offer multiple roles and ways to contribute. Practice a chosen clarification request or idea-sharing strategy, and teach peers to respond. Note whether the activity supports genuine connection rather than rehearsed “typical” behavior.
- Co-design interaction goals with the student and include their comfort and autonomy.
- Document partner, context, initiation, response, and communication repair rather than judging how typical a behavior appears.
- Create peer opportunities that allow several valid ways to participate.
Choose strategies using assessment findings, the person’s preferences, and the treatment context.
Goal Writing
Specify the functional context, observable response, criterion, support level, and how progress will be checked.
In a chosen group activity, the student will communicate a preference or request for clarification through an available modality in 4 of 5 relevant opportunities with agreed supports across three sessions.
SOAP Note Tips
Describe the communication opportunity, partner response, and result. Do not equate eye contact with engagement or infer a mental state from a checklist. Record the person’s own perspective when offered.
- S: Record the person’s perspective and preferred communication style.
- O: Identify interaction context, partner, opportunities, modes, and supports.
- A and P: Interpret meaningful participation and plan a preferred peer or community context.
In a small-group design task, the student shared two ideas using AAC, requested clarification once independently, and accepted a peer’s alternative after a visual summary of the choices.
Site Resources
Continue with resources currently available on Culturally Speaking SLPs.