Speech and Hearing Month – Social ABCs

Social ABC Team: Vareesha Khan, Karen Jagne, Janicka Auguste

Social ABCs is a caregiver-mediated program designed for children with social communication delays. The goals of the program include: helping children send directed, intentional vocalizations and helping caregivers and children share positive, meaningful emotions with each other. Social ABCs is one of the three caregiver-mediated programs offered in the Durham Region. Families are invited directly by the Ministry of Children Community and Social Services to enroll.

Social ABCs principles are implemented during natural, child-led play-based activities and daily routines that are fun and intrinsically motivating for your child. We directly coach caregivers to use the strategies with their child. The caregivers are directly interacting with their child, and clinicians get to celebrate the success with them. For this reason, the program is offered in a hybrid model of virtual and in-person sessions for the generalization of skills from in-centre to within families’ homes. 

Bath time, going to the park and snack time are some examples of daily routines that can be fantastic opportunities to create meaningful interactions with your child. These activities naturally encourage being face-to-face, being playful and allow you to share smiles and laughs with your child.  Children learn best when they are happy and feeling their best. Using naturally motivating activities where you and your child are engaged and having fun promotes bonding and further builds on social communication skills. 

To learn more about this program, please visit https://grandviewkids.ca/caregiver-mediated-programs/.