Talkabout for Teenagers

by Alex Kelly

Published 13 October 2009
Talkabout for Teenagers is a comprehensive program of professional resources to help you deliver group sessions on social and relationship skills for teenagers with social, emotional or behavioral difficulties. The program follows the Talkabout hierarchy, building self-awareness and self-esteem first, then moving on to non-verbal communication, talking, friendship and assertiveness. Features: a social skills assessment framework enables you to evaluate a young person's social skills and identify where to start work; the huge range of activities, group discussions and handouts for each level of the program mean that you have everything you need to deliver a successful social skills curriculum; group cohesion activities help you to ensure that all participants benefit fully from attending your group sessions. Suitable for Speech and Language Pathologists, Teachers, Social Workers, Child Psychologists and School Counselors, Talkabout for Teenagers has been thoroughly updated and edited for a US audience. "This next installment of a proven social communication skills curriculum series does not disappoint! The straightforward writing, clear protocols for assessment and practical guidance are exactly what busy teachers and therapists need to help them plan and implement social learning lessons for students." (From the foreword by Debbie Meringolo MA, MS and Nancy Tarshis MA, MS, CCC/SLP of Social Thinking).

Talkabout for Children 3

by Alex Kelly

Published 28 January 2012
Designed specifically for young children (aged 4 and above) or children with special needs, this practical resource is packed with activities and games for developing friendship skills. The book includes: over 25 activities to develop friendship skills; a CD with colour versions of the activities to print out and use; a 1 year teaching plan to help teachers incorporate groups into the school curriculum; a short introduction to working with children with friendship and social skills difficulties; 25 excellent group cohesion activities to use within in your groups; and forms and evaluation sheets to help with the smooth running of groups. This resource has already been piloted across the UK and abroad and has proved to be very popular with teachers, therapists and children. This is certainly a must have for anyone working with young children or children with special needs on developing their social skills and skills at making and maintaining friendships.

Talkabout for Children 1

by Alex Kelly

Published 3 March 2011

Talkabout for Children: Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem is a bestselling professional workbook supporting educators and therapists who deliver social and relationship skills groups for children with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties.

Self-awareness and self-esteem is an essential prerequisite to developing social skills and so this book is an excellent first step to any social skills programme. This resources creates the foundation of the Talkabout heirachy, where self-awareness comes before non-verbal skills and non-verbal comes before verbal, with assertiveness coming last.

Resources include:

  • an assessment framework
  • planning and evaluation forms
  • a three-term intervention plan for schools
  • over 40 structured activity sessions focussing on self-awareness and self-esteem
  • all the supplementary handouts and images needed to deliver the sessions.

This second edition is presented with full-colour illustrations and handouts, and includes a new introduction by Alex Kelly reflecting on her own experiences of using the resources since they were first developed.


Talkabout

by Alex Kelly

Published 11 August 2011

This core Talkabout manual is a practical resource essential for Speech and Language Therapists and other professionals who need to help people with special needs develop social skills. Over 60 activities form an extensive, structured social skills programme that can easily be adapted for use with children, adolescents and adults. Written by bestselling author and practising Speech and Language Therapist, Alex Kelly, this book sits at the centre of an internationally renowned series of resources supporting social skills.

Contents include:

a social skills assessment and intervention planning tool to help you identify the best way forward for each client or groupover 60 activities focussing on body language, conversation and assertiveness25 group cohesion activities to help you facilitate well-run, productive group sessionsa wealth of handouts supporting the activities that can be freely downloaded and printed.

This updated second edition of Talkabout sits alongside Talkabout for Teenagers and Talkabout for Adults, as well as three titles published for children (Developing Self Awareness and Self Esteem, Developing Social Skills and, Developing Friendship and Skills).


Talkabout Activities

by Alex Kelly

Published 14 March 2003
Provides practical activities for social skills training, this book includes general group cohesion activities that can be used at any stage as starting or finishing activities.

Talkabout for Children 2

by Alex Kelly

Published 30 September 2011

Alex Kelly's internationally renowned TALKABOUT books are a series of practical workbooks designed to develop the self-awareness, self-esteem, and social skills of people with special needs. The three TALKABOUT for CHILDREN books, now in their second edition, are specifically designed to provide a foundation of social skills through which children can grow and develop with confidence. Revised for US professionals, and with a new Foreword by Nancy Tarshis and Debbie Meringolo (Altogether Social LLC, New York), TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 2 focuses on social skills including body language, talking, and assertiveness.

Resources include:

  • An assessment framework to help identify specific needs
  • Over 60 structured activity sessions focusing on social skills, and the resources needed to deliver the sessions
  • 25 group cohesion activities to help facilitate productive group sessions
  • A three-term intervention plan

This book is an invaluable resource for therapists, teachers, child psychologists, and all professionals looking to develop the social skills of children aged 4 + or children with special needs.


Talkabout for Adults

by Alex Kelly

Published 28 April 2014

Talkabout for Adults is a practical resource to help therapists or support staff to develop self-awareness and self-esteem in adults. It has been particularly aimed at adults with an intellectual disability (learning disability) or older children with special needs.

It has been adapted from Talkabout for Children: Developing Self-awareness and Self-esteem to be suitable for an older audience. This means that some of the activities are almost identical but a number of them have been adapted to be more appropriate. There are also some new activities such as the 'A book about me.' which enables the adults to make up a book over the course of the sessions that will summarise some keys personal facts. This can work well as an addition to a communication passport or equivalent, or can stand alone as an alternative.

Talkabout for Adults is a stand-alone resource with approximately a year's worth of activities to develop self-awareness and self-esteem. It has 50 activities to do with adults and it has been successfully piloted at Speaking Space. It includes:

  • a short assessment of self-awareness and self-esteem
  • a year's worth of work on self-awareness and self-esteem including 50 activities and some worksheets
  • practical suggestions to make your group work successful including 25 group cohesion activities
  • a plan for intervention, and forms for monitoring and evaluation.

This resource continues to use the Talkabout hierarchical approach to teaching skills, that is, basic self-awareness skills are taught prior to more complex skills such as social skills and friendship skills. This also means that this resource is designed to be used logically from topic 1 through to topic 8. Most of the activities are more suited to working in a group setting but some of them can be adapted for one-to-one work.


Talkabout Sex & Relationships 1 is a comprehensive toolkit for all therapists, educators and support staff who deliver relationship education to people with special needs. It is intended primarily to support groupwork but activities can be easily adapted to suit the needs of individuals with varying abilities.

The resource emphasises the importance of happy, healthy and positive relationships. It looks at the life cycle of a relationship from finding a partner, coping with problems, staying safe and maintaining a relationship to dealing with the potential ending of a relationship.

This toolkit is the first in a two volume set, the second of which will focus on sex. Created by Alex Kelly and Emily Dennis as part of the bestselling Talkabout series, this publication constitutes the most complete and trustworthy set of resources available for groupwork focussing on relationships for people with special needs.


Talkabout Sex & Relationships 2 is a comprehensive toolkit for all therapists, educators and support staff who deliver sex education to people with special needs. It is intended primarily to support groupwork but activities can be easily adapted to suit the needs of individuals with varying abilities.

The resource emphasises the importance of being well informed in regards to the physical, interpersonal and emotional aspects of sex; including body awareness, consent, sexual health and guidelines for a healthy sexual relationship. It is packed with practical activities which are designed to open up discussion around sensitive issues in a fun, informative and non-judgemental way. Each activity comes with guidance for practitioners on how to prepare for and delivery the sessions.

Features include:

  • guidelines to assess the suitability of students for the programme
  • visually appealing and engaging activities with full colour illustrations
  • photocopiable activities which can also be downloaded for free on the accompanying website
  • template letters for parental permission in delivering the sessions

This toolkit is the second in a two volume set, the first of which focuses on relationships. Created by Alex Kelly and Emily Dennis as part of the bestselling Talkabout series, this publication constitutes the most complete and trustworthy set of resources available for groupwork focussing on sex and relationships for people with special needs.


Talkabout Relationships

by Alex Kelly

Published 30 August 2004
The third title in the successful "Talkabout" series, "Talkabout Relationships" reflects current literature and research on developing relationships for people with learning disabilities, and aims, through groupwork, to improve self-esteem and relationship skills in people who are having difficulties in making or maintaining friends. This highly illustrated, practical resource: is designed to help teachers or therapists to work through self-esteem and relationship skills within a group setting in a structured way. It was originally written for young adults with a learning disability, it has also been used successfully with children with learning disabilities and those who present with social skills difficulties. Includes a staff rating assessment of a client's relationship skills and criteria for inclusion in a relationships group, as well as a self-esteem assessment and a self-rating assessment of relationship skills. This title contains illustrated, photocopiable group activities and worksheets to address self-image, identity and self-confidence as well as the different types of relationship, the qualities of friends and some of the skills involved in improving and developing relationships. Illustrated by the author, this hands-on groupwork resource is ideal for speech language therapists, teachers, occupational therapists, community learning disability nurses and anyone working in the field of learning disability.

Talkabout Poster Set

by Alex Kelly

Published 26 November 2010
This is a superb set of posters designed to complement the Talkabout range. The posters provide visual stimulus to support work on social skills covering: Talkabout Talking - How do we communicate?; the way we talk; starting a conversation; ending conversations; listening. Talkabout Assertiveness - Assertiveness; making suggestions; apologising; disagreeing; refusing; express your feelings. Talkabout Friendship - Giving compliments; coping with anger; peer pressure; coping with peer pressure; coping with jealousy. Ages 7+ Contents 16 A3 posters.

The hugely popular Talkabout, photocopiable manual, provides a framework for the development of social skills. Beginning with a basic assessment to evaluate the client's selfness, as well as the awareness of others. Talkabout Activities, is primary aimed for those using Talkabout, and gives suggestions for groups' activities at all levels and stages of therapy within Talkabout. It can also be used running models of social skills training programmes. This photocopiable resource is packed with 225 group activity ideas for those running social skills training for children and adolescents. The first section covers general group cohesion activities that can be used as starting or finishing activities, while the remainder is divided into six levels: self and other awareness; awareness of communication; body language; the way we talk; conversational skills; and; assertiveness.

Talkabout Video Library

by Alex Kelly

Published 28 February 2022

*This resource was previously published as Talkabout DVD and includes the same video scenarios*

This is a valuable resource for anyone using the 'Talkabout' series, bringing social skills to life! The video library contains acted scenarios for each skill being taught, modelling both poor and good behaviour, and includes videos taken in a number of settings and with a range of different ages. The videos are essential for situations where there is only one group facilitator and therefore difficulty in modelling different skills and behaviours. The resource includes an instruction booklet on how to access the video library and use the video in conjunction with 'Talkabout', and is a must-have for anyone using the 'Talkabout' books, teaching social skills, or working with people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, learning disabilities or social communication disorders.