Meeting 5 with Dr Johann
2 December 2014
Lauren's 5th session with Dr Johann had her put together everything she had learnt in the last four weeks:
Step 1: Greetings and introduce herself.
Step 2: Speak within an appropriate time frame. Use three
pointers to keep her new friend from falling asleep!
Step 3: Paraphrase. Use this to show her friend that she is listening to her, and also to keep herself tuned in to her. We agreed on a
sentence like “….so you like…., that’s cool!” to paraphrase appropriately.
Step 4: Minimal encouragement cues. Nod her head (every 3
seconds), interject conversation with “u-huh, yes, ahh…” to indicate that she is still listening and interested in what her friend is saying. Keep hands
unfolded – shows open-ness to listen and maintain eye contain.
Step 5: End conversations with “I have to go now. It was
nice talking to you. Let’s talk again later”.
Dr Johann then told Lauren that they would string together
all these steps in one conversation. He would talk to her about a really boring
topic (eg. surfing!) and she would have to look interested the whole time.
The verdict? Lauren did extremely well. She was able to go
through each step, sequentially. Practised all the things she had been taught.
Only thing: she was not able to smile throughout the conversation! Lauren’s
mind was so busy going through the steps and trying to remember each of them,
smiling was completely forgotten:P
How we forget that social conversations are not as natural
as breathing for Aspies!
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