Your child may have a great vocabulary. They may speak in complete sentences and clearly tell you what they want.
But conversations with other people still seem difficult.
Maybe they talk extensively about a favorite topic without noticing when someone else wants to speak. Perhaps they struggle to answer questions, interrupt frequently, take jokes literally, have difficulty joining other children in play, or aren’t sure what to say when meeting someone new.
Communication involves much more than knowing words and producing clear speech.
Children also need to learn how to use language socially.
These abilities are often referred to as social communication or pragmatic language skills, and they play an important role in friendships, classroom participation, play, family interactions, and everyday life.
At BK Kids Pediatric Therapy in Joliet, IL, our Speech-Language Pathologists can help children strengthen social communication skills through individualized, engaging, and play-based therapy.
What Are Social Communication Skills?
Social communication refers to how we use verbal and nonverbal communication when interacting with other people.
Think about having a conversation with a friend.
Without consciously thinking about it, you probably:
- Listen while the other person talks
- Determine when it’s your turn to respond
- Stay relatively close to the topic
- Notice facial expressions
- Adjust what you say based on the other person’s reaction
- Ask questions
- Provide relevant information
- Recognize humor or sarcasm
- Understand when the conversation is ending
Adults perform many of these skills automatically.
Children have to develop them over time.
And because social situations constantly change, social communication can be much less predictable than learning a specific vocabulary word or speech sound.
What Can Social Communication Difficulties Look Like?
Social communication challenges don’t look exactly the same in every child.
One child may talk constantly but have difficulty participating in a true back-and-forth conversation.
Another may speak very little around peers because they aren’t sure how to enter the interaction.
Parents or teachers might notice a child:
- Frequently interrupting
- Talking mostly about preferred interests
- Having difficulty staying on topic
- Giving too much or too little information
- Struggling to initiate conversations
- Having difficulty asking appropriate questions
- Not noticing when someone is confused
- Struggling to join group play
- Having difficulty taking conversational turns
- Misunderstanding jokes or figurative language
- Struggling to adjust communication for different situations
- Having difficulty repairing communication when misunderstood
Any one of these behaviors can occur occasionally in typically developing children.
The bigger question is whether the pattern is consistently interfering with relationships, classroom participation, play, or everyday communication.
Conversation Is More Than Taking Turns Talking
We often teach young children:
“Wait for your turn.”
That’s certainly part of conversation—but successful conversations require much more.
Children need to listen to what someone else says and then formulate a response that connects to that information.
For example:
Child 1: “I went swimming yesterday.”
A related response might be:
Child 2: “I went swimming last weekend! Did you go to a pool?”
But a child with difficulty maintaining conversational topics might immediately respond:
“I have 47 Pokémon cards.”
The child is communicating successfully from a speech and language standpoint, but the social connection between the two statements is missing.
Speech Therapy can help children practice recognizing these conversational connections.
Why Does My Child Only Talk About Their Favorite Topic?
Many children have subjects they’re incredibly excited about.
Dinosaurs. Trains. Minecraft. Animals. Sports. Space. Video games.
Having strong interests isn’t a problem.
The challenge arises when a child has difficulty recognizing how much information the listener wants or whether the listener is still interested.
A child may provide extensive details without noticing that the other person has stopped responding or is trying to change the subject.
Rather than discouraging the child’s interests, therapy can help them learn additional skills such as:
- Asking the other person questions
- Pausing to allow someone else to speak
- Recognizing signs that someone wants to change topics
- Finding shared interests
- Transitioning between topics
The goal isn’t to change what children enjoy.
It’s to expand the tools they have for connecting with other people.
Joining Play Can Be Surprisingly Difficult
Imagine walking up to three people who are already having a conversation and trying to join them.
Adults sometimes find this awkward.
Children experience a similar challenge when approaching a group already playing.
They need to figure out:
- What the other children are doing
- What the rules of the activity appear to be
- Whether there’s a role they can take
- What they could say
- When they should speak
- How to respond if the other children say no
Simply saying “Go play with them” doesn’t provide the child with these skills.
Some children benefit from practicing specific strategies for entering play and navigating group interactions.
Understanding Nonverbal Communication
We communicate enormous amounts of information without words.
Facial expressions, body position, gestures, tone of voice, and physical distance can all change the meaning of an interaction.
Consider the sentence:
“That’s great.”
Depending on someone’s tone and facial expression, it could communicate genuine excitement, disappointment, sarcasm, or frustration.
Children who have difficulty interpreting nonverbal information may understand the words literally while missing some of the speaker’s intended meaning.
Speech-Language Pathologists may help children learn to consider multiple sources of information when interpreting communication.
What About Eye Contact?
Eye contact is often discussed when talking about social skills, but communication shouldn’t be reduced to whether a child looks directly into someone’s eyes.
People can listen and participate in conversations without maintaining continuous eye contact.
For some children, forcing eye contact can actually make it harder to process what someone is saying.
A more useful goal is engagement.
Is the child participating?
Are they responding to the other person?
Can they recognize when someone is communicating with them?
Can they share information and respond to another person’s ideas?
Those functional communication skills are much more important than simply teaching a child to “look at me.”
Social Communication and Emotional Regulation
Social situations can become significantly harder when children are frustrated, excited, overwhelmed, or dysregulated.
A child who normally knows how to take turns may interrupt constantly when excited.
A child who can usually problem-solve with peers may struggle when a game doesn’t go their way.
This is where Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy can sometimes address different pieces of the same functional challenge.
A Speech-Language Pathologist may support the communication skills needed to navigate the situation.
An Occupational Therapist may help with areas such as emotional regulation, sensory processing, flexibility, or impulse control when those factors are affecting participation.
Looking at the whole child can help determine what is actually making the interaction difficult.
Does My Child Need to Be More “Social”?
The goal of therapy should not be to force every child to become outgoing.
Some people naturally enjoy large groups and frequent conversation.
Others prefer quieter environments, smaller groups, or spending time independently.
Those are personality differences.
The goal is to make sure children have the communication tools they need when they want or need to interact with others.
A quiet child doesn’t need to become the most talkative student in the classroom.
But they may benefit from knowing how to:
- Ask for help
- Tell someone they need space
- Join an activity
- Advocate for themselves
- Respond to a peer
- Solve a misunderstanding
- Communicate their ideas
Social communication should support autonomy—not erase individuality.
How Can Parents Support Social Communication at Home?
Social communication develops during real interactions, which means everyday life provides plenty of opportunities for practice.
Play Games Together
Board games and card games naturally involve:
- Turn-taking
- Waiting
- Following rules
- Handling unexpected outcomes
- Communicating with others
Talk About Characters
When reading or watching a show together, ask questions such as:
“How do you think that character feels?”
“What makes you think that?”
“What could they say next?”
This helps children think about perspectives and social information in context.
Practice Conversation Instead of Quizzing
Children often hear many questions throughout the day:
“How was school?”
“What did you eat?”
“What did you do?”
Try sharing information yourself too.
For example:
“Something funny happened to me today…”
This creates a more natural back-and-forth interaction.
Give Children Time to Respond
Some children need additional processing time.
Try allowing a few extra seconds before repeating the question or answering for them.
Model How to Fix Misunderstandings
If your child says something you don’t understand, help them try another strategy.
They could:
- Say it differently
- Show you
- Add more information
- Point
- Describe what they’re talking about
Learning how to repair communication is an important lifelong skill.
What Does Speech Therapy for Social Communication Look Like?
Pediatric Speech Therapy should be engaging and meaningful.
Depending on the child’s age and goals, social communication skills might be practiced through:
- Board games
- Pretend play
- Conversation games
- Cooperative activities
- Storytelling
- Role-playing
- Problem-solving scenarios
- Books
- Movement activities
- Real interactions with the therapist
For example, a therapist might intentionally create a situation during a game where the child needs to ask for clarification.
Or the therapist may pause during play to practice entering an activity, negotiating a rule, or explaining an idea.
The goal is to develop communication skills that transfer beyond the therapy room.
When Should Parents Consider a Speech Therapy Evaluation?
An evaluation may be helpful when social communication difficulties consistently interfere with a child’s ability to participate in everyday activities.
Parents or teachers may notice:
- Difficulty having back-and-forth conversations
- Trouble joining peers in play
- Frequent misunderstandings
- Difficulty staying on conversational topics
- Challenges recognizing social cues
- Difficulty adapting language to different situations
- Trouble explaining thoughts or experiences
- Significant frustration during peer interactions
- Difficulty communicating needs appropriately
- Challenges forming or maintaining friendships
A Speech-Language Pathologist can evaluate the child’s broader communication profile and determine whether therapy may be beneficial.
Pediatric Speech Therapy in Joliet, IL
Communication isn’t only about saying words correctly.
It’s about being able to connect, participate, advocate, share ideas, ask questions, solve problems, and interact with the people around us.
At BK Kids Pediatric Therapy, our Speech-Language Pathologists provide individualized, play-based Speech Therapy designed around each child’s unique strengths and needs.
Depending on the child, therapy may address social communication, expressive language, receptive language, speech sounds, articulation, vocabulary, following directions, and other communication skills.
And because children learn through play and meaningful experiences, therapy might involve games, toys, movement, books, conversation, pretend play, or activities within our pediatric therapy environment.
We want children to enjoy coming to therapy while developing communication skills that make everyday interactions easier and more successful.
BK Kids Pediatric Therapy is located in Joliet, Illinois, and serves families throughout Joliet, Plainfield, Shorewood, New Lenox, Lockport, Romeoville, Minooka, Channahon, Morris, Bolingbrook, and surrounding communities.
If you have concerns about your child’s conversations, peer interactions, or social communication development, contact BK Kids Pediatric Therapy to learn more about a pediatric Speech Therapy evaluation.