An approach to ameliorate social perception deficits in learning disabled children is described. Based on task analysis and diagnosis and prescription, the approach is seen to cover four stages in teaching nonverbal communication skills: discrimination of specific social cues (body language), understanding of the social meanings of such cues,…

Describes the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT), a videotape of brief scenes for teaching about verbal and nonverbal communication. Reports that the IPT includes all communication channels, several categories of interaction, and an objective criterion of accurate judgment. Discusses communications cues, using the IPT to introduce research…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a Social Story [TM] intervention in teaching a young child with hyperlexia to appropriately obtain the attention of his peers. The Social Story intervention consisted of verbal and visual cues incorporated into an age-appropriate storybook format. Attempting to obtain the attention of a…

Sighted (n=37), partially sighted (n=20), and blind (n=17) participants answered questions about their expression and interpretation of verbal and nonverbal cues during telephone conversations, face-to-face encounters, and dating. The groups used an equal number of cues. Results have implications for developing specific communication skills of…

The encoding and decoding of verbal and nonverbal cues is basic to the process of social interaction. A method of teaching about verbal and nonverbal communication--the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT)--consists of a videotape divided into 30 brief scenes. After each scene viewers answer an interpretive question by decoding the verbal and…