Listening position, eye contact, and tone of voice lesson

Domain: Pragmatics, Language

Age: School-Aged

Setting: Public School, Other group settings

Duration: 1.5 hours

I planned this lesson on Listening Position, Eye Contact, and Tone of Voice for my Out and About group, which is a social group for pre-teens with Austism and Aspergers. There were 5 kids in the group, and a clincian for each student, though you could adapt it for a lower clinician to student ratio. Anything in bold is a simple script for myself.

Ice Breaker

Supplies: A ball of yarn

The students will sit in a circle. The first student will hold the ball of yarn, and roll or throw it to one of the other students. When they roll it, they will ask a question that they have drawn out of a bowl. That student will answer the question, then ask the next student. As we go along, we will build a “web” of connections between the students.

Using “Whole Body” Communicating

Supplies: Butcher paper, a marker

One student will volunteer to be “traced”. We will then talk about all the parts of the body we need to use to be good communicators. We use our whole body to communicate well. What are some parts of the body you think we use to be good communicators?

The Parts of the Body:

Eyes to look at the speaker

Ears to listen to what is being said

Hands to stay still and gesture appropriately

Mouth to speak and use the correct tone

Brain to focus on what is being said

The whole body to keep an appropriate distance

Talk about why each is important, especially eye contact, as it lets our listeners know that we are listening and care about what they are saying.

Tone of Voice Activity

Supplies: “Emotion” popsicle sticks

Talk about what “tone of voice” means. Your tone of voice helps people know how you are feeling. So if someone is feeling sad, how do they sound? What about when they are happy, or mad? Why is it important to pay attention to someone’s tone of voice? How does that make us better communicators?

Each teacher and student is going to read a sentence that would make someone feel happy, sad, worried, or mad. After the leader reads it with the right tone of voice, you will hold up the stick with the emotion you think they were feeling.

The students will get popsicle sticks with different emotions on them (with a face for the emotion, and the name of the emotion). The clinicians will demonstrate the different emotions, and the students will have to guess what emotion the clinician is feeling.

Emotions:

Happy-

I got a 100 on my math test!

We’re going to Disneyworld on vacation!

Sad-

My best friend is moving away...

I didn’t make the basketball team.

Mad-

It’s not fair, my mom yelled at me for something my brother did!

I don’t want to do my homework!

Worried-

I don’t know if I remembered to bring my homework.

I didn’t study enough for my history test, and I bet I’ll make a bad grade.

Tone of Voice Role-Playing

Supplies: “Emotion” popsicle sticks, slips of paper with scenarios listed

Now, we will get in groups. Each person will pick a slip of paper with a scenario. Work with your group and your teachers to work out what tone of voice you should use

Put the kids in groups (2-3 kids). They will work with their clinicians on role playing the appropriate tone of voice depending on the situation, and also the appropriate response to their partner, depending of the tone of voice and words of the speaker. This might also be a good time to do some individual therapy with the kids, and have them talk about tone of voice with their clinicians.

Scenarios:

I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out forever, and I get to see it tomorrow!

Everyone was invited to go to the mall after school except me.

I lost my notebook, and I need it for class tomorrow.

Thanks for the present, I really like it! (what if you DON’T like it?)

By Julia