THAT WAS RANDOM

            Children with ASD often blurt out random comments when they don't really know what to say or how to join the conversation. This is both frustrating and confusing for the listener. It's hard to talk with someone when you feel they aren't listening to you or when they continue to talk about the same thing over and over

            You can help your child learn to stay on topic by teaching him to really listen to what the speaker is saying. When you listen to someone telling a story you can usually pick out two things from the conversation that you could talk about without getting off topic. For example, if your friend is talking about the time he went to the beach and saw a shark, you could talk about sharks by telling about something you saw on TV or read in a book or you could talk about something you saw one time when you went to the beach. So from that conversation you can pick out “beach” or “shark” and start talking about something about one of those two subjects.  Or he could ask a question about something he heard the person say, such as, “Was the shark really close to the shore?” or “Do you know what type of shark you saw?” Explain that by asking their friend questions about what they are saying we show we are listening. And being a good listener helps us make friends.