Friends Talk *(Aust Pub)
Adele Wallis
Friends Talk is a program which helps to develop a student's oral language skills particularly in understanding and mastering the language of friendship. It is not specifically designed as a social skills program, but does offer an excellent support for students who experience difficulties in establishing friendships and maintaining positive interactions with others.
The program uses ten stories from popular children's literature to help them understand and evaluate others' actions, and then compare their own responses in a supportive and non-critical environment. It aims to increase learning outcomes for spoken language, as well as to improve social behaviours. Elements of language learning and literacy are also modelled through the program. It is aimed at the early childhood sector, but could easily be adapted to older children.
The program has been used very successfully with a range of children, including children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Intellectual Impairment, and those who use English as a second language.
Each book has a lesson plan, student activity pages and parent letter. The lesson plans follow two sessions. The first session generally explores the text, working through the friendship theme and discussing the lesson in the story. The second session focuses on personal experiences and recount, linking what the children have learnt in the book, to what they would do in that situation.
Published 2005, Loose-leaf
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