Conversation Pie

I'm sure many of you have heard of Joel Shaul.  His blog, Autism Teaching Strategies is a common source of therapy ideas for us.  Recently he spoke to a group of autism teachers in surrounding districts.  Of course, he gave a great presentation -the kind that are rejuvenating.  He provided many ideas and resources, some of which are located on his website.

After working hard throughout the year on foundational skills for conversation such as whole body listening, joining a conversation group, eye-contact, understanding different types of questions and comments, and generating "friend files,"we finally found the direction we needed to go, thanks to Joel.  Conversation pie charts.  Genious!

This activity was perfect for our social skills groups.  It seems that most of our groups are compromised of several different types of students: the one who talks (all the time), the passive one, the inattentive one, the off-topic one, the one-upper, etc. On many occasions, the students serve multiple roles!

We started the first session of the week by having an unstructured conversation in which the students were able to talk about whatever they wanted - a preferred topic.  The ASD teacher and myself took data, tallying each speaking turn each student took.  Next, we showed them the conversation pie charts on Joel's website, which you can find here.  We discussed that the pie represents a conversation and that everyone should have a similar-size piece, or talking turns.

Next, we showed them this visual, agin from Autism Teaching Strategies.  We asked the students to share how each person might feel (using the Zones of Regulation).

We explained to the students that we had taken data at the beginning of the session and would graph it for the next session.  Before they left, we asked them to make a prediction about the size of their piece of pie.  

When the students arrived for the next session, they were anxious to see the conversation pie. We just used our data and plugged it in to the pie chart found on Word or PowerPoint.  (It honestly took less than five minutes.)  We even added the students' pictures to their piece of pie, which they thought was a hoot!

Most of the students were surprised at the size of their piece of pie, and a few were not.  We talked about ways that they could try to balance the size of the pieces, including asking others' questions to bring them in to the conversation or even making supportive comments to show an interest in what others say.  At the end of the session, the students were given a few minutes to have another conversation, and again, we took data.  Although the concept was fresh in their minds, they had shown marked improvement in their ability to gauge the amount of talking they were doing, notice who wasn't involved in the conversation, and include others.  We know that the students are expecting us to take data at this point, so our plan is to do it intermittently to give them feedback.  Thanks for the fantastic idea, Joel!