“Thankful” Thanksgiving Conversations

For Thanksgiving dinner, try this family-friendly Thanksgiving conversation starter.

You will need….. some Fall coloured paper, a marker, leaf template and a jar.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut leaf shapes out of coloured paper.

Write questions about thankfulness or gratitude on pieces of paper and put them in a jar.

During your Thanksgiving meal, pass the jar around the table and have each person pull out a leaf. They can either answer the question themselves or choose someone and ask them the question.

WHY THANKSGIVING CONVERSATIONS ARE GREAT

This encourages many social language skills such as eye contact, using a person’s name to get their attention, initiating and maintaining a conversation, adding fillers, displaying appropriate facial expressions and body language as well as creating happy memories. These are great skills for young and old! For the younger family members, try giving them some choices to help get them engage in the conversation.

THE THANKSGIVING QUESTIONS

Here are some questions to get you started:

•  What are you most grateful for?
•  What invention are you most thankful for?
•  What do you often forget to be thankful for?
• Which season do you appreciate the most?
• Besides saying “thank you,” how do you show your thanks?
• What was the nicest thing someone else ever did for you?
• What are you grateful for every day?
• What activities are you thankful for?
• Name something about a person here that you really appreciate.
• What skills are you thankful you have?
• Look around this room, what item are you thankful for?

Family meal times, especially over the Holidays are an excellent opportunity to stay connected with each other and practice good social language skills.

Sandy is a dedicated professional with almost 30 years experience serving clients with diverse communication challenges. Sandy’s expertise includes planning and implementing social language programs for school-aged, adolescent and adult clients, as well as workshops for parents and social communication opportunities for stroke survivors.