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Your Child With Autism Is Capable of Having Better Conversations & Stronger Relationships!

~ Is your child sometimes unsure about what each person in a conversation thinks, feels, and says?

~ When having a conversation, does your child not always talk, understand, or express his or her emotions effectively?

~ When your child returns from a day at a friend’s or relative’s house, is she or he excited to tell you about the visit, or do you have to start the conversation by asking her or him about it first?

~ Is your child able to start, maintain, and end a phone conversation without your help?

~ Would your child be able explain to community helpers if he or she were lost?

If you feel that your child has difficulty with everyday conversations and that social relationships suffer as a result as in these examples above, yet you know that he or she is capable of so much more communication, you might be thinking, “What can I do to provide more specialized instruction for my child?” Like no other tool available, “I Can Have Conversations With You!™” finally provides the solution. If your child is talks in sentences, reads, and is at least 6 years old, my breakthrough iPad therapy system will help your child become an independent, confident, and proud communicator. Easy to follow, “I Can Have Conversations With You!” captivates your child’s interest within a fun, supportive manner. Going beyond routine scripts and rote responses, your child will learn how to communicate during meaningful conversations with many people in different conversational situations encountered in his or her daily life. HOW IT WORKS

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In the beginning of the app, a questionnaire within the ‘Adult’s Menu’ helps you analyze your child’s communication strengths and needs. Then, “I Can Have Conversations With You!” teaches your child all parts of conversation, such as:

  • Eye contact

  • Emotions and feelings

  • Intentions and motivations

  • Perspectives and points-of-view

  • Interjections like, “Oh, really?”; “Uh-huh!”; “Cool!”

  • Relationships among people having a conversation

  • Summarizing the topic of conversation

  • Different uses of language (such as giving opinions, warnings, wondering, congratulating, exclamations, questions, comments)

  • Nonverbal body language, facial expressions, and gestures

  • Social rules and appropriate conduct

  • Logic/problem solving, figures of speech, grammar, vocabulary

“I Can Have Conversations With You!” guides your child through hi-resolution video clips, clear audio tracks, self-recordings of your child’s own voice, and situational photos in which all kinds of people are engaged in all different types of everyday conversations like the ones mentioned above. REWIRING THE COMMUNICATION PATHWAYS

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First, before the conversation even begins, “I Can Have Conversations With You!” ensures that your child is aware of and completely understands the conversational situation. Your child will learn who the conversational partners are, their relationship, where they are situated, how they feel, what they want to say, and why they want to say it. Now, your child is thoroughly prepared for the conversation that will follow.

Repetition and redundancy are the key methods to learning, especially for children with autism. At the heart of it, “I Can Have Conversations With You!” teaches your child how to understand and say the same concept in different ways through questions, statements, commands, and exclamations. In this way, your child will become more flexible with language and truly experience the meaning behind words.

One learning module, for example, teaches your child multiple ways to start a conversation about having a good visit at a relative’s house:

“I was so excited to visit Grandpa today.”

“Dad, I was so happy to spend time with Grandpa today.”

“It was fun at Grandpa's house today.”

“Dad, I had an awesome time at Grandpa's house today.” Then, in the following section, your child learns several possible ways the conversational partner could respond:

“Yeah? What did you do today at Grandpa's house?”

“Ah! I would like to know about your visit.”

“Oh, really? Tell me about what you did at Grandpa's house today.”

“I'd like to hear all about it.”

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Later, your child ‘role plays’ using his or her own voice as if he or she were part of the conversation. The recording and playback of your child’s own voice is particularly fun and engaging. At the end, videos and audio clips tie the pieces of the conversation together. For a well-rounded conversation, “I Can Have Conversations With You!” follows up with your child to summarize the main idea of the conversation he or she just experienced. Here, other aspects of language are also targeted, such as vocabulary, grammar, figures-of-speech, and more. These methods are highly structured and aid in rewiring the learning pathways of the brain for optimal communication.

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REWARDS AND REINFORCEMENT Throughout the app, I personally guide your child with help, encouragement, and praise. “I Can Have Conversations With You!” will build your child’s confidence and pride to talk and understand successfully unlike any other iPad program available!

CLINICAL EXCELLENCE “I Can Have Conversations With You!” uses evidence-based techniques which are effective interventions based on scientific research. These evidence-based techniques include:

  • Technology-aided instruction and intervention

  • Errorless learning

  • Discrete trial training

  • Prompting

  • Reinforcement

  • Task analysis

  • Video/Auditory modeling

  • Visual supports

(More on evidence-based practices here: http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/evidence-based-practices)

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THE LEARNING CYCLE Your child’s learning journey starts with Conversation #1. After your child works on multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, and interactive role playing exercises, scores are processed. You will review your child’s score to become aware of his or her strengths, progress, and weaknesses. Based on your child’s score, you will be directed to download Conversation #2 at the ability level best-suited for your child (Novice, Intermediate, Skilled, Advanced). This ‘learning cycle’ repeats with Conversation #3, 4, and so on to ensure your child’s continuous improvement to communicate successfully. HELP SPREAD THE WORD If you know of a child who will benefit from “I Can Have Conversations With You!”, please share this article with his or her family. ~Thank you,

Karen :)

Are you eager to help your child communicate better but not sure where to begin?

Hi! I'm Karen Kabaki-Sisto, an autism communication expert for over 20 years.

If your child with autism talks, he or she likely has difficulties understanding and expressing words, gestures, and feelings. I created this user-friendly tool to turn your observations into real insights about:

 

  • SOCIAL INTERACTION

  • BODY LANGUAGE

  • EMOTIONS

  • VERBAL ABILITIES

  • PERSPECTIVE-TAKING
     

Upon completion, you'll instantly receive a detailed report of your child's current communication strengths and weaknesses. Over time, you can make new assessments (as often as you'd like) to monitor her or his progress.

 

Easy-to-follow and so necessary! 

What you will learn...

By submitting your E-mail, you'll receive a link to my FREE Communication Assessment Tool and ideas for overcoming communication challenges your verbal child with autism may be experiencing. I'll also send my personal E-mail address to connect with me directly about your concerns!  ~Karen :)

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