The Rules of Speech

In an earlier post, I mentioned that one of my goals was to develop a common social language in the speech room. After working with and teaching students who need social communication instruction, I realized that implementing social-based rules would benefit all of my students in the speech room. Here's what I came up with:

Using these rules as a foundation not only encourages better social thinking in my room, but also gives us a way to talk about social communication and the importance of it. I use the above five rules with most of my students, but I have a shortened rule list that I use with younger students. Here's what it looks like: 

When I'm teaching and reviewing these, I put them in a little chant/dance to help the kids get in to it and remember it. Each rule has a specific action to represent it, which I adapted from the idea of "Whole Brain Teaching". So far, my students have really responded well to this and I think it's helped define the expectations in my room even more this year! I attached the rules for you to use as you wish! 

The Rules of Speech