Hello there! How many greetings have you heard and used today? The ability to greet others spontaneously and respond to their greetings is an important social language skill. It shows the other person that you want to communicate with them!
Some children may not respond to a “Hi!” or “How are you?” or seem unsure about what they are expected to do in response. If this sounds like your child, a speech pathologist can help maximise your son or daughter’s use of greetings.
First, we want children to respond to a greeting. It’s even better when the child looks at us to respond. We get really excited when the child initiates the greeting (she or he says it first) and they use our name too!
– Some students may need to be reminded with a gesture such as a wave.
– Others need prompts such as “What do we say to someone who has just come into the room?”
– Practise giving a greeting at home before visitors or relatives arrive.
– With your child, discuss different ways to greet or farewell someone at various times of the day (and even in a different language!). Add them to the list below – be inventive!
- Good morning
- Bye
- See you tomorrow/Cya
- Night night (sleep tight)
– Praise your child if they respond to your greetings but really be impressed if they initiate the greeting first!
– Encourage your family to model a range of greetings at home and in other social situations, eg. at kinder or school, the shops etc.
If you have concerns about your child’s social language skills, call Box Hill Speech Pathology on 9899 5494 for more information or to book an initial assessment with Rochelle Vizelman, Jocelyn Leung or Rachel Saldanha.
Goodbye, see you later, ciao!
Image from: sciencedaily.com
Content by Vicky Andrews and Genevieve Callister
Editing by Nicola Anglin (Speech Pathologist)
