Building Conversational Skills for School-Aged Students

Audience: Teachers of the deaf, pediatric speech-language pathologists, parents

As students move from preschool to grade school, they develop a larger language base. They also face increasingly elaborate considerations when it comes participating different kinds of conversations, from class discussions to talking with a group of friends.

Typically, school-age children who are deaf or hard of hearing have inadequate opportunities to overhear and observe how others converse. They may not be confident initiating and maintaining conversations.  They may not know how to follow group conversations and assert themselves. They may not know they can repair a conversation that fails.

There are so many skills we don’t think about while we’re having a conversation. This course, Building Conversational Skills for School-Aged Students, outlines how conversational skills develop and how they can be improved in older children. It presents specific developmental goals and ways to achieve them, for example by teaching students to use pragmatic language and repair strategies when conversations break down.

This course features Nancy Tye-Murray, PhD, a renowned expert on aural habilitation and conversational skill development, and Amanda Dunaway, MSDE, CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd, a CID primary school teacher, describing issues and successful strategies. Example activities are presented using classroom video.

Every member of the team will benefit from better understanding how to foster conversational skills and confidence in school-aged children with hearing loss.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Identify factors that contribute to conversational difficulties
• Teach strategies for developing conversational skills in school-aged students
• Implement activities with school-aged students to build conversational skills
• Identify opportunities for students to practice conversational skills throughout the day
• Collect and analyze data on student outcomes for developing conversational skills

Length:  30 minutes

Continuing Education Credits

.5 LSLS CEUs, AG Bell Academy

Disclosure Statement

Financial: At the time this course was produced, Ms. Manley was the Associate Coordinator of the Emerson Center for Professional Development at CID – Central Institute for the Deaf.

Non-financial: Ms. Manley is a co-author of the SPICE for Life auditory learning curriculum. CID holds the copyright to the SPICE for Life. Ms. Manley receives no royalties or financial benefit from its sale.