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Janet Dudley, M.Ed., CCC-SLP and Juli P. Vazquez, M.S., CCC-SLP, co-directors of Social Communication Specialists Speech Therapy Clinic
With speech and language skills as the primary focus in typical therapeutic interventions, the importance of play is often underrated, leading us to wonder how much we really understand about the nature of play. Please go to the Conference Session Selection menu if you'd like to attend.
According to Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1966, 1978), play is not parallel to development but rather a central driving force to its unfurling. Current research findings support play as an essential part in facilitating joint attention, symbolic understanding, language, Theory of Mind and self-regulation and, according to some, teaching language use and promoting symbolic play skills should co-occur in standard fashion (Preissler, 2006).
Our presentation examines the connection between symbolic play and social thinking skills. We discuss how we incorporate components of a number of approaches in our Connect 2 Communicate program, successfully utilizing play to promote the development of social thinking skills and utilizing social thinking skills to facilitate the development of symbolic play. Case studies are presented with a discussion of how we determine each child’s profile of strengths and weaknesses and how this profile drives programming decisions. The general structure and content of therapy sessions along with specific therapy examples are provided.
Learning Objectives
1. Participants will increase their knowledge of research supporting play as a component in the development of social thinking.
2. Participants will describe two ways that a child’s ability to use language meaningfully coincides with the emergence of symbolic play skills
3. When provided a description/video of two children, participants will be able to determine the child’s placement on MGW’s Perspective Taking Spectrum (broad category: SIPT, EPT, IIPT), Westby’s Play Scale, McDonald’s Communication Continuum and Dr. Wolfberg’s play style/social domain of play.
Presenters
Juli P. Vazquez, MS, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist in private practice specializing in social communication skills. As the co-founder and co-director of Social Communication Specialists Speech Therapy Clinic, APC in Chula Vista California, Juli provides assessment, parent/school consultations and clinical and educational interventions.
Janet Dudley, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and the co-founder and co-director of Social Communication Specialists in Chula Vista, CA. She has completed Michelle Garcia Winner's mentorship and internship program. Janet conducts assessments and trainings and provides social thinking therapy for children, teens and adults. |
