Social Skills in people with Down syndrome

§ Pragmatics refers to the social language skills we use in our daily interactions
with others. They include what we say, how we say it, our body language and
whether it is appropriate to the given situation. Pragmatic skills are vital for
communicating our personal thoughts, ideas and feelings.

§ Social communication disorder can result in far-reaching problems, including
difficulty participating in social settings, developing peer relationships, achieving
academic success, and performing successfully on the job.

§ Specific deficits are evident in the individual’s ability to

§ communicate for social purposes in ways that are appropriate for the particular social
context;

§ change communication to match the context or needs of the listener;
§ follow rules for conversation and storytelling;
§ understand nonliterate or ambiguous language; and
§ understand what is not explicitly stated.





§ Interact daily with your children

§ Play games

§ Sounds back and forth
§ Ball play
§ Table time questions
§ Gross Motor imitation

§ Let them lead sometimes

§ Just engage!!



§ Start young and teach them to introduce themselves

§ Eye contact
§ Ask for name
§ Tell someone their name

§ Three ways to say hi

§ Handshake
§ Fist bump
§ High-five

§ What about the hugging???



§ Maintain eye contact
§ Give a reason for leaving
§ Say goodbye



§ Who
§ What
§ When
§ Where
§ Why
§ How

§ Listening

§ With eyes and ears
§ To whole question

§ Processing the question and answering

§ Asking the question back

§ Is it preferred

§ Perseveration of a topic

§ Rapid speech of speaker
§ Rapid change of topic



§ Identifying what my body looks like

§ Self awareness
§ Low tone
§ Hypermobility

§ Identifying other’s body language

§ Understanding the difference between peers and adults

§ Understanding subtleties.

§ Identifying emotions

§ Beyond the basics
§ In self
§ In others
§ Generalization of emotions

§ Across people
§ Across situations
§ Across enviornments

§ Labeling emotions

§ How to handle emotions

§ How does language development affect this aspect of pragmatics



§ Most difficult
§ Have topics in mind
§ Plan ahead
§ Practice

§ Conversational turns starts at a young age

§ Ball play
§ Sound play
§ Salt shaker game at table

§ This is difficult for our population

§ Processing time
§ Perseveration
§ Turn taking difficulties

§ Practice with known topics

§ Favorites (food, color, animal)
§ Start small
§ Remember processing time
§ Remember cognitive level of communication partner

§ Begin with preferred topics
§ Give cues to return to topic
§ Prompt when off
§ Slowly transition to non-preferred topics
§ Mix topics
§ Help them transition from non-preferred to preferred

§ When to walk away
§ What to say



§ Most difficult task for our population
§ Most dangerous
§ Learned helplessness has impacted this
§ Need initiation skills
§ Need permission – most want to please

§ It is ok to ask for help

§ Can be a trap

§ Give help only when needed

§ In small steps
§ After they have tried

§ Don’t practice new skills when in stressful situations



§ What is a compliment?
§ How do we give compliments
§ How do we receive compliments
§ Honesty
§ Filters