Color My Conversation™ (3rd Edition)

Color My Conversation (CMC) is an interactive, multisensory program designed to improve social communication skills in children.

CMC features 14 ready-made lessons to teach the elements of conversation and guide children through the conversation flow. Lesson #1 begins with a basic greeting, and the lessons build systematically toward the most complex conversation that the child is capable of having with others.

The holistic approach fosters the development of turn-taking, eye contact, social awareness, self-regulation, executive function, nonverbal cues, and metacognitive and metalinguistic skills.

Color My Conversation™ includes comprehensive supporting tools for Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and educators, allowing for seamless implementation of each lesson. Further, the CMC lessons address a variety of English Language Arts standards from the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS outlines educational standards describing what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade.

Included is a CMC to CCSS Curriculum Map. This resource provides SLPs with a structure to demonstrate how their therapy services directly assist their students in meeting the standards for their grade level.

What makes the CMC so effective for improving social skills?

1. Incorporation of inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning fosters exploration, problem-solving, discovery and dramatization. CMC is client-led, curiosity-inspired, developmentally focused and neurodiversity-affirming.
2. Color My Conversation connects (1) through a common language shared between educators, parents, and children, (2) through a hierarchy in lesson development that moves from basic greetings to more complex social interactions, and (3) through cross-cultural experiential learning opportunities between home, school, and community.
3. Emphasis on the value of social-emotional awareness. Social-emotional development fosters a child's awareness of self (i.e. self-concepts, self-reliance, and self-regulation) and awareness of others (i.e. empathy).
4. Engaging activities for all learning styles. Through the use of multisensory teaching methods, lessons inspire ideas (brainstorming), provide knowledge (social rules), build relationships (role plays), and ignite independent learning (project development).
5. Focus on leading others to lead another and/or leading others to lead self. Through the lesson activities, children are given direct and indirect activities to support the development of self-leadership and the opportunity to lead others.

How It Works: Systematic Language Progression

14 Lessons

CMC provides 14 ready-made lessons to systematically teach the elements of conversation. The program guides children through the conversation flow, starting with a basic greeting. It also uses simple and practical language, allowing the concepts to be recalled easily in the classroom, at home, and in the community. 

3 Skill Levels

The lessons are broken down into two levels:

Beginner Level – Social Pragmatic Skills

• Lesson 1: Greetings & Farewells 
  
• Lesson 2: Short Conversation / Chitchat
  
• Lesson 3: Embedded Topics / Turn-Taking
  

Intermediate Level – Conversation Tools

• Lesson 4: WH Questions
  
• Lesson 5: Open & Closed-Ended Questions
  
• Lesson 6: Comment-Question Connections
  
• Lesson 7: Topic Changers
  
• Lesson 8: Nonverbal Communication

Advanced & Expert Levels – Social Cognition Skills

• Lesson 9: Social Filters
  
• Lesson 10: Social Filters In Action
  
• Lesson 11: Conversational Turn-Taking
  
• Lesson 12: Conversational Narratives
  
• Lesson 13: Gaining Perspectives
  
• Lesson 14: Customize & Carryover

Supporting Tools & Resources

Color My Conversation™ includes comprehensive supporting tools for the seamless implementation of the lessons. Each lesson includes the following resources:

• Video Overview of that Lesson
  
• Detailed Written Instructions for Implementation
  
• Lesson Goals and Helpful Hints
  
• Parent Letter Template for At-Home Support
  
• Reproducible Worksheets
  
• Home Practice Activities
  
• Teaching Tools
  
• Song Downloads
  
• CMC to CCSS Curriculum Map

Who is the Color My Conversation™ program helpful for?

The CMC program is designed to be used as a social communication curriculum that can be helpful to a broad range of individuals. Populations include language delayed, learning disorders, autism, as well as students in general education.

The Color My Conversation™  program can be used in various settings, including school, therapy room, or home environment. CMC is ideal for small groups of 2-4 children from kindergarten to grade 8; however, the lessons and activities are easily adaptable for individual therapy sessions. The program also includes guidance for adapting the lessons for special needs populations. 

Why Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), teachers, special educators, and parents love this social skills program: 

• It's very well thought out in terms of sequence and skills taught. Great for upper elementary and middle school students who find conversation challenging.
• Color My Conversation has been working nicely for engaging in conversation with kids with ASD. So far, CMC has been used with children ranging from Kindergarten to 8th grade who are verbal, minimally verbal, and even with a child using AAC. It's been easy to incorporate into classrooms, a small social group, and in therapy sessions. Have really seen great progress in many of my students!
• It's good to see my son beginning to use the skills he is learning to engage more fully in life and understand the finer points of conversations as they happen. I like the way the program progresses to explain fully how conversations work in a step by step method. Until now I had never thought about what goes into learning how to carry a conversation. I feel that Color My Conversation is a fabulous resource. It is a program that not only special needs children need. This is a program that all children should have access to.

Color My Conversation™ includes:

• 12 floor graphics (The Conversation Path)
  
• 110 topic prompt cards with organizational box
  
• 50 game tokens
  
• 50 dry erasable wall display cards
  
• 2 dry erasable pens
  
• Classroom poster
  
• CMC ball
  
• Foldable game board with activities on each side
  
• Cloth ribbon (approx. 9.5ft)
  
• 14 lesson plans, including downloads and reproducibles