Quick & Easy Turn Taking Tip

Today, I’m bringing you quick and easy turn-taking tip that I found worked well this week. I see a couple of 5th graders (one with autism) who are working on basic conversational skills. We have been focusing on having a conversation and making a balanced amount of comments vs. questions, while taking turns during the conversation so one person isn’t doing all the talking.

I usually record these conversations on my iPad and then we watch and critique them. This week, I wanted a visual for turn-taking. I happened to have a paint bottle on my table for the craft that I was doing, so I grabbed that. But really ANYTHING will work.

I told the students that whoever was talking had to hold the paint bottle. When your turn was over, you’d hand the bottle to the other person. I think it really helped give them both a concrete way to SEE turn-taking happening, rather than just talking about it. I’ll definitely be using this in the future!

I’d love to hear what you use to teach basic turn-taking in a conversation! Comment below!