The Talkabout Series

Talkabout is a structured, hierarchical approach to teaching social communication, self-esteem and friendship skills for all ages. Later books include programmes to develop sex and relationship skills, theory of mind, and transition skills.

Written by a Speech and Language Therapist with years of experience working with children and adults with social difficulties, each practical workbook provides a clear programme of activities targeted to improve social skills. The topics are divided into manageable sessions with a range of activities, worksheets and handouts, and each session is introduced with lesson objectives and guidance on how to best use the materials. Ideal for use individually or in group sessions, the resources can be photocopied and evaluation sheets and record forms are provided.

Each book contains:

Engaging and practical resources
An initial assessment to decide which level needs to be taught
Numerous structured activity sessions
Planning and evaluation forms to make the most of the sessions
Full illustrations throughout

The hierarchical approach is based on Alex Kelly's clinical work in which she found that people with intellectual disabilities progressed more in social skills work if they developed foundation skills and non-verbal skills before the more complex ones such as verbal skills and assertiveness. The hierarchy means that you may start by developing a child’s self-awareness and self-esteem before progressing onto body language. You will then move onto conversation skills and then onto friendship skills and assertiveness.

The Talkabout resource manuals have been developed through years of practical experience into a complementary series of manuals targeted at different client ability/age groups with Talkabout, Second Edition also serving as the core manual.

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FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is TALKABOUT?
What is the hierarchy?
Can I measure the effectiveness of this approach?
There are lots of TALKABOUT books... which one should I buy?
What about the other TALKABOUT resources... which ones should I buy?

What is TALKABOUT?

Talkabout Assessment of Social Skills (TASS) is an assessment tool using a software programme. It is simple to use and easy to analyse and people generally love the visual nature of the assessment and summary wheel.
Talkabout Board Game – this is an excellent additional activity to play with your group. Alex Kelly herself, often uses it at the end of term to recap on some of the things learnt during the sessions. It can be played at the 5 different levels of Talkabout so for example easy challenges are on their self awareness and harder ones are on conversational skills or assertiveness.
Talkabout Cards – these are good for ideas for quick group cohesion activities – there are 2 box sets – one for general Group Cohesion games and one where the games are also to develop Self Awareness. These cards give you loads of ideas for group cohesion games and pictures to make the activities more appealing and accessible for some.

What is the hierarchy?

The hierarchical approach to teaching social skills is based on the clinical work Alex Kelly did in the early 1990s. She found that people with intellectual disabilities progressed more in social skills work if they developed foundation skills and non-verbal skills before the more complex ones such as verbal skills and assertiveness. These findings were then tested on different client groups around the UK and the resulting programme was published as ‘TALKABOUT: A Social communication skills package’ (Kelly, 1996).

The hierarchy means that you may start by developing a child’s self-awareness and self-esteem before progressing onto body language. You will then move onto conversation skills and then onto friendship skills and assertiveness.

Can I measure the effectiveness of this approach?

Yes. If you have received training from Alex Kelly, she will have given you some Excel spreadsheets so that you can use your pre and post assessments to evidence your progress. The spreadsheets record the results from the Talkabaout Assessment Tool and provide a simple way of comparing social skills before and after using the Talkabout programme. Managers and schools love this evidenced way of working.

There are lots of TALKABOUT books... which one should I buy?

The books are written with different client groups in mind so that you don’t have to adapt the activities too much to suit your situation.

Primary Schools… You need the Talkabout for Children series – 3 books to work through self-awareness and self-esteem; social skills; and friendship skills.
Secondary mainstream Schools… You need the Talkabout for Teenagers book – a book aimed at mainstream students that works through self-awareness and self-esteem, social skills, friendship skills and assertiveness.
Special schools… You will probably need the Talkabout for Children series – 3 books to work through self-awareness and self-esteem; social skills; and friendship skills. For some of your older students you may need Talkabout for Adults or if they would prefer a more mainstream approach, then you should consider the Talkabout for Teenagers book.
Adults with intellectual disabilities… You need the Talkabout, Second Edition book (this combines the previous Talkabout and Talkabout Activities books), Talkabout for Adults and the Talkabout Relationships book.
Adults with high functioning ASD… You could use the Talkabout for Teenagers book or the Talkabout, Second Edition book and the Talkabout Relationships book.

What about the other TALKABOUT resources... which ones should I buy?

Talkabout Assessment of Social Skills (TASS) is an assessment tool using a software programme. It is simple to use and easy to analyse and people generally love the visual nature of the assessment and summary wheel.
Talkabout Board Game – this is an excellent additional activity to play with your group. Alex Kelly herself, often uses it at the end of term to recap on some of the things learnt during the sessions. It can be played at the 5 different levels of Talkabout so for example easy challenges are on their self awareness and harder ones are on conversational skills or assertiveness.
Talkabout Cards – these are good for ideas for quick group cohesion activities – there are 2 box sets – one for general Group Cohesion games and one where the games are also to develop Self Awareness. These cards give you loads of ideas for group cohesion games and pictures to make the activities more appealing and accessible for some.

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