Keeping a conversation going
Somebody says something, and what comes back either gives them somewhere to go or leaves them nowhere. Your child works out which.
Keeping the talking going
Somebody says something. Decide what the next person's answer does to the talking.
For grown-ups
What this pack teaches
How a reply either gives the other person somewhere to go or closes the door. It is about what the words do, not about being interested.
Most conversations between children end by accident. A reply lands, there is nowhere obvious to go next, and both children drift off. Once a child can see which replies open a door and which close one, the ending stops feeling like something that happened to them. It is a mechanical thing, and mechanical things can be practised.
- Ask about the thing they just said.
- Add one thing of your own.
- Give them something they can answer.
- Questions hand the talking back.
- Join your new topic onto theirs.
How to use this
- Sit next to your child rather than opposite them. This works best as a thing you do together, not a thing you set them.
- Read the speech bubbles aloud if that helps. Nothing here needs to be read independently.
- Talk about the picture before the buttons. “What's happening here?” is often more useful than the sorting itself.
- Five situations is a session. Stopping after two is a fine session too.
Practising away from the screen
- At dinner, play “one more thing”. Somebody says a sentence and the next person adds one thing to it before anybody changes the subject.
- In the car, notice out loud when a conversation kept going. “You asked me which one — that's why I kept telling you about it.”
- Watch two characters talk on telly with the sound down for a moment. Guess who is going to keep it going.
Things you can say in the moment
- He said he got a new game — you could ask what game it is.
- She just told you about her dog. What's one thing you'd like to know about a dog?
- You could say “me too”, and then say what yours was.
- If you want to talk about Minecraft, say “that reminds me of Minecraft” first, so it joins on.
What not to push
- Looking at somebody while they talk is not the skill here. A child who listens while looking at the floor is listening.
- Nobody has to keep a conversation going when they have had enough of it. “I'm done talking now” is a whole sentence.
- Short answers are not a failure. Some days one word is what a child has, and a conversation ending there is not a problem to fix.
If this pack is hard today
Drop the sorting and just do the demos together — watching the talking keep going teaches more than deciding about it. You can also do three cards instead of five, or read them out and let your child point. Coming back next week is a fine answer too.
Nothing is counted
No marks, no tally, no percentage, nothing saved. A child who taps the other mat gets exactly the same screen as a child who did not, because the explanation is the point and the tap is only how they get to it.
Social situations depend on the people in them. Everything here is one common way things tend to go, not a rule — and a child who reads a situation differently from us may well be reading their own life correctly.
Social situations depend on the people in them. Everything here is one common way things tend to go, not a rule. This is an educational resource, not therapy or medical advice.