Free check-off worksheets for children with ASD’s to explore conversation topics with family members
Children with autism spectrum disorders often have difficulties having conversations with the people they live with. It really helps to use picture guides. Here is a set of easy-to-use worksheets for classroom, speech room and home.
Here is the first of the three sheets, a guide to explore talking with a sibling or other child in the household. Here is the second worksheet, which is a guide to exploring conversation topics with parents or other adult members of the household.
The third sheet is used in combination with the picture sheets to help create questions, compliments and comments.
How to use the worksheets:
1. Have the child put check marks next to the photos they think represent the person’s interests.
2. Go over the images one at a time with the child. Explain that the family member probably has many interests that are different from the child’s own interests.
3. The sheet “Questions, Comments, Compliments” can be used to set up role plays and actual conversation practice with family members.
4. Have family members fill them out for the child to use as a reference.
5. Project the sheets using a smart board or projector – this really helps for small group or classroom discussions about family members.
I hope these worksheets are useful for you.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
For more free materials on facilitating parent/child conversation for children with autism: How Was Your Day? Sheets
In counseling and psychotherapy, children can at times become overwhelmed with having to maintain a spoken exchange for a whole session. They can even freeze up entirely, particularly if the therapy topic is painful for them to discuss.
I created various drafts of this worksheet over the years of my own work with children on the spectrum. This is my final version. It is to be filled out by the child during a break while the spoken exchange stops, and the child quietly thinks, writes and draws independently to get their thoughts and feelings down on paper.
It has a very simple design, allowing the child to fill it out quickly. There is a large space for drawing, but some children prefer to just write and leave this part blank.
This simple resource gets downloaded a lot from this website. I hope you find it useful.
