updated 12/24
Keep your making inferences activities and perspective taking scenarios relevant by working on how to receive a present and choose the right gift! Do your students celebrate Christmas, Kwaanza, or another holiday where gift-giving is part of the custom? If this answer is “yes,” this post is for you. Most of our students love to receive presents! However, the process of choosing a gift for others is also gold when it comes to addressing multiple goals in your speech therapy interventions. If your making inferences activities and perspective taking scenarios are relevant to your middle and high school students, you are on the road to ENGAGEMENT!
Read on but this prior post on polite lies might also come in handy!
Receiving gifts and presents:
Teach students how we know when someone likes or dislikes a gift. Often, the differences are subtle. Use making inferences activities and perspective taking scenarios centered around gift-giving and receiving during Christmas and other holidays.
Introduce the types of nonverbal and verbal communication that may indicate the recipient likes the gift?
- smiling or open mouth if surprised,
- direct or brief eye contact,
- relaxed and open posture,
- if excited: arm movements,
- saying “thank you,” “I love it,” “can’t wait to use it,”
- a higher tone of voice.
What nonverbal and verbal communication indicates the recipient dislikes the gift?
- half-smile, short flash of a smile, no smile
- tilted head,
- limited eye contact, furrowed eyebrows,
- a monotone or unenthusiastic tone of voice,
- more subdued body movements,
- a brief “thank you” if they are trying to be polite.
This video from Kevin Parry on “50 ways to open a gift is great for identifying the nonverbal communication that indicates we like or don’t like a gift!
I also have an activity to accompany the video in my subscriber’s library (free when you join my newsletter).
After teaching this information, role-play how to respond politely when they receive a gift they do not like. Include these points:
- avoid sarcasm,
- use your social filter, (keep your true thoughts about the gift in your head),
- consider a “polite lie.”
Choosing a “just-right” gift!
The process of choosing a gift is ripe for making inferences activities and perspective-taking scenarios for our students. It also takes students out of their “me” zone to consider what other people like! Here is a general sequence that I use:
- Introduce how we make inferences, if this hasn’t been done. It’s a mixture of text clues, background knowledge and what we know about the current situation.
- In my set of Boom cards on “gift-giving inferences and perspective-taking,” I present a situation that combines these pillars of inferencing, as shown below.
Discuss what we take into consideration when we make gift-giving inferences!
- likes and dislikes,
- needs,
- personal preferences and beliefs (don’t give a gift card to a steak restaurant to a vegan),
- committment involved in the gift (pets),
- anything you like to do together?
- are they family or non-family? There are certain gifts that are too personal for a non-family member.
- what is the nature of your relationship with this person? Co-workers? Friends? Dating?
Then, present your perspective taking scenarios with gift choices. Do some open-ended activities where students have to come up with their own gift ideas for the person in the scenario. If you have a student with identification of emotions goals, focus in on how people feel when they receive a “good fit gift” versus a “bad-fit gift.” Check out the BOOM card slide below.
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