Social Communication Disorder-Related Concerns
Social communication is the language that we use in social situations. Social communication work is similar to the services we offer for social skills, however the difference is that social communication is specifically associated with a new DSM – 5 diagnosis: Social Communication Disorder. At Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy we work with adults diagnosed with Social Communication Disorder and with clients who struggle with social communication weaknesses.
Social communication is how we connect and cooperate with others. It is more than vocabulary or grammar. It includes tone of voice, facial expression, body language, eye contact, and the unwritten rules that change with context. We use these signals to start conversations, share airtime, show interest, and repair misunderstandings when they happen. Adults seek help for many reasons. Some had a concussion or stroke and feel not quite themselves in conversation. Some are autistic or have ADHD and want tools that fit how their brains work. Others feel rusty after years of remote work and want clearer ways to lead meetings or network. Our approach treats social communication like any other complex skill: break it into parts, practise in low pressure steps, then apply it in the moments that matter. We do not force one way to be social. Your culture, goals, and comfort shape the plan. We teach options, not scripts you must memorize. We also try to protect energy. Social tasks can be draining, especially when you feel you must perform. Short, focused practice with quick wins builds confidence without burnout. When needed, we involve partners, family, or coworkers only if you want to align expectations and reduce friction. The outcome we want is simple: conversations that cost less energy and give you more of what you came for connection, clarity, and choice.
Social Communication Disorder is an impairment of pragmatics (use of language) and is diagnosed based on difficulty in the social uses of verbal and nonverbal communication in regular communication contexts. The effects of these limitations on social relationships and discourse comprehension, cannot be explained by a language disorder or general cognitive ability. “Persistent difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication as manifested by all of the following:
– Deficits in using communication for social purposes, such as greeting and sharing information, in a manner that is appropriate for social context.
– Impairment in the ability to change communication to match context or the needs of the listener.
– Difficulties following rules for conversation and storytelling, such as taking turns in conversation, rephrasing when misunderstood, and knowing how to use verbal and nonverbal signals to regulate interaction.
– Difficulties understanding what is not explicitly stated (e.g., making inferences) and non-literal or ambiguous meaning of language (e.g., idioms, humor, metaphors, multiple meanings that depend on the context for interpretation).
– The deficits result in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, social relationships, academic achievement, or occupational performance, individually or in combination.
– The onset of the symptoms is in the early developmental period (but deficits may not become fully manifest until social communication demands exceed limited capacities).
– The symptoms are not attributable to another medical or neurological condition or to low abilities in the domains of word structure and grammar, and are not better explained by autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder), global developmental delay, or another mental disorder.
” — Criteria for Social Communication Disorder Diagnosis – APA-DSM 5, 2013
There is no single prevalence number for adult social communication needs because they occur across many groups. After brain injury or stroke, pragmatic changes are common even when speech sounds normal. Adults with autism or ADHD often report fatigue from masking, trouble reading subtext, or difficulty adjusting formality between settings. Hearing changes add load and can make quick overlaps or soft cues harder to catch. Culture and language background also shape expectations; what counts as polite eye contact or direct feedback varies. Finally, the modern workplace increases demand: rapid fire meetings, group chats, and video calls compress time and reduce rich signals. Because these factors overlap, we focus on impact rather than labels.
Useful indicators include how often misunderstandings slow work, how much energy a typical meeting costs, and how confident you feel entering or exiting groups. We also notice where strengths shine clear writing, deep one to one conversation, or strong problem solving and build from there. In short, social communication challenges are common and normal. They deserve support not because something is wrong, but because better tools make life easier and relationships stronger.
Signs vary by person, but common patterns include difficulty adapting tone to context, missing hints, or taking things literally when subtext is expected. Small talk may feel awkward or pointless, leading to long explanations or very brief answers. In groups, you may find it hard to join smoothly, share airtime, or recover after an interruption. On video calls, delayed timing and fewer visible cues increase the risk of talking over others or going silent. Some adults struggle to read sarcasm and teasing, or to judge when a story is too long for the situation. Others want help coordinating eye contact, gesture, and prosody so that the spoken message and the nonverbal signals match. The effect shows up at work (updates that drift, feedback that lands poorly), in relationships (missed bids for connection), and in daily life (avoidance of noisy or unstructured settings). These signs do not point to a character flaw. They point to a set of trainable micro-skills. When we target the highest\u8209?value parts first entry and exit lines, headline first updates, concise summaries, and kind repair when signals cross conversations move faster, feel easier, and leave more energy for content and connection.
There is no single cause. Social communication sits at the intersection of neurobiology, learning, culture, hearing, and the environment. Concussive injuries and strokes can disrupt attention, processing speed, or inference, which makes reading situations harder. Neurodevelopmental differences, including autism and ADHD, change how signals are sent and received; many adults benefit from direct teaching that honors this. Anxiety and depression can narrow attention and reduce risk-taking in conversation. Hearing changes make soft cues and overlaps harder to detect. Workplaces with unclear norms or chronic time pressure reduce the space needed to plan what to say. Culture and language background shape ideas about personal space, prosody, and eye contact. Rather than searching for blame, we identify the barriers that affect you now and remove or work around them. Sometimes the best treatment is an environmental change clearer agendas, written follow-ups, or turn-taking rules so people are not forced to infer everything in real time.
SLPs assess strengths and needs, then coach specific strategies that fit your life. We explain the why behind social patterns in plain language and demonstrate options you can try immediately. We practise with feedback until skills feel natural. When useful, we involve partners or coworkers to align expectations and reduce friction. We also track what matters: fewer misunderstandings, faster repair, shorter meetings, and less end-of-day exhaustion. Our role is part teacher, part coach. We give you tools, not rules. You decide which ones fit your identity and goals. We aim for transferable skills that survive stress: scripts you can adapt, frameworks you can lean on, and habits that run in the background while you focus on content.
Assessment blends interview, surveys, questionnaires, conversation samples, and role plays built around your real contexts. We watch turn-taking, topic shifts, and how you manage interruptions and ambiguity. We include quick tasks for inference, summarizing, and repair. We ask about high-value situations, team updates, presentations, dating, or family gatherings and what success would look like in each. We consider cultural norms and your preferences for eye contact, gesture, and personal space. If hearing, language, or memory might play a role, we screen or refer. By the end, we have a short list of targets, the order we will address them, and simple ways to measure progress in real life, such as a weekly self-rating of ease and a count of repeats per meeting.
Treatment is active and respectful. We don’t just tell you what to do. We don’t want you to be a social robot. Instead, we try strategies and discuss frameworks together, adjust in real time based on what’s working, and continuously measure how you’re doing.
If something feels awkward, we modify it on the spot. If a strategy clicks immediately, we build on it right away. Treatment becomes a series of collaborative, tiny experiments where your feedback shapes every session.
The ILAUGH Model
The ILAUGH model provides one framework for organizing our work across six key areas. Each letter represents a domain where social skills challenges commonly appear:
I — Initiation of Communication
This covers starting interactions appropriately for the context. We practice context-specific opening lines. A greeting that works at a networking event differs from one that works in a team meeting. We work on reading social availability cues—is this person open to conversation right now? We develop your repertoire of openers so you have options, not scripts you repeat robotically. Informal Dynamic Assessment means we practice an opener, you try it in a real situation, then we debrief what happened and adjust.
L — Listening with Eyes and Brain
This addresses taking in nonverbal information and making inferences. What does that crossed-arm posture mean? Is that pause confusion or disagreement? We break down observable cues and teach systematic scanning—where to look and what to track. Rather than vague advice like “pay attention,” we identify specific signals relevant to your contexts. We practice observing, then immediately checking your interpretation. Did you read that correctly? What else could it mean? Dynamic assessment reveals which cues you pick up naturally and which need explicit teaching.
A — Abstract and Inferential Communication
Social communication is full of implied meaning. “We should grab coffee sometime” might be genuine interest or polite dismissal. “That’s an interesting choice” could be sincere or critical. We teach concrete strategies for handling ambiguity—clarifying questions you can ask, contextual factors to consider, ways to test your interpretation before acting. We use real examples from your life. You bring in a confusing interaction, we analyze it together, identify the inferential demand, and build a strategy for similar situations. Dynamic assessment shows us how quickly you can apply inference strategies to new examples.
U — Understanding Perspective
This is theory of mind work made practical. Does your listener know what you’re referring to? Do they share your background knowledge? Are they following your logic? We build habits of perspective-checking. Before launching into an explanation, pause and assess: what does this person already know? We practice adjusting detail level on the fly based on listener cues. We use role reversal—you play the confused listener so you can feel what it’s like to miss context. Dynamic assessment means trying a perspective check in session, seeing what happens, and refining your approach immediately.
G — Gestalt Processing (Getting the Big Picture)
Some people get lost in details and miss the main point. Others grasp big ideas but can’t track the steps. We work on both directions—zooming out to see the gist and zooming in to catch important specifics. In meetings, can you summarize the core decision in one sentence? When giving updates, can you lead with your headline before diving into details? We practice chunking information, identifying what matters most, and organizing thoughts before speaking. Dynamic assessment reveals your natural processing style and shows us which direction needs more support.
H — Humor and Human Relatedness
Humor is high-level social communication. It requires timing, shared context, reading the room, and understanding what’s appropriate for the relationship. We don’t teach joke-telling—we teach the mechanics underneath. When is teasing okay? How do you signal you’re joking? What does it mean when others laugh at something that doesn’t seem funny to you? We also address broader relatedness—how to show interest in others, how to reciprocate personal sharing, how to maintain connection over time. Dynamic assessment means trying a strategy for building rapport, seeing how it lands, and adjusting your approach in real time.
How Dynamic Assessment Shapes Each Session
Every session includes a cycle: try something new, get immediate feedback, adjust, try again. You’re not practicing in isolation and hoping it transfers. We simulate your actual environments, test strategies under realistic conditions, and problem-solve obstacles as they arise.
If you’re working on meeting participation, we don’t just talk about it—we role-play your actual meetings. You practice your entry line, I respond as a colleague would, and we pause to analyze. Did that feel natural? Did it achieve your goal? What would you change? Then you try the modified version immediately.
This approach reveals learning patterns we couldn’t see otherwise. Maybe you grasp strategies quickly but struggle to adapt them to new contexts—that tells us we need more varied practice. Maybe you need strategies repeated several times before they stick—that tells us to build in more repetition and review. Maybe you learn best by seeing failure first—that tells us to show what not to do before showing what works.
Progress happens faster because we’re not guessing what might work. We’re testing, measuring, and adjusting continuously based on your actual performance and your feedback about what feels sustainable.
Commonly Treated Goals
Our clients work on practical, measurable goals that reduce daily friction and build confidence. These aren’t theoretical exercises—they’re the specific skills that make meetings less exhausting, conversations more natural, and social situations less draining. We identify what’s costing you the most energy right now and start there.
Grice’s Maxims
Learn to structure updates using the four cooperative principles: give the right amount of detail (quantity), base statements on what you know (quality), stay relevant to the task (relation), and be clear and orderly (manner). This framework prevents rambling and reduces repetition.
In Power Relationships
Practice adjusting your communication style based on hierarchy and relationship dynamics. Learn when to defer versus when to assert, how to navigate feedback with supervisors, and how to mentor junior colleagues effectively. Develop flexibility to shift between different power contexts.
Gender Communication Differences
Build awareness of different conversational styles and expectations across gender groups. Practice recognizing when overlapping speech signals engagement versus interruption. Learn to navigate mixed communication norms without losing your authentic voice.
Code-switching
Develop the ability to shift your communication register across different contexts—formal presentations, team meetings, client interactions, and social gatherings. Build a flexible repertoire rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. Practice reading contexts to match expectations without losing yourself.
Elevate Your Communication
Discover our tailored coaching/therapy services designed to enhance your social skills (also called social communication).
Learn the Frameworks
Understand how you are communicating now, and how it could be improved using evidence-based concepts and frameworks
Practice with Feedback
Practice a new way of doing it with professional guidance, 1-on-1, tailored to your learning style, context and needs.
Optimize and Refine
Achieve your goal through step-by-step generalization and supported accountability in a safe space.
Our Distinctive Approach to Social communication Disorder
Using an evidence-based and adult-centric approach, we will work with you employing the latest research, and with your other health professionals to achieve your Social Communication Disorder goals.
At Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, we have the experience and dedication to help you achieve measurable results and improved social communication that you can use in your real life. Using an evidenced-based and adult-centric approach, we will work with you, using the latest research to achieve your social interaction goals.
Our services are covered by most workplace and education insurance plans. Try our “Is Social Communication Work for Me?” self-reflection tool below to discover how you might benefit.
Experienced Guidance
Our skilled therapists provide tailored programs to address your unique speech and communication needs, ensuring effective and meaningful progress.
Holistic Techniques
We integrate a variety of techniques for a comprehensive approach, focusing not only on speech but also on building confidence and reducing anxiety.
Empowered Clients
We believe in empowering our clients through knowledge and skills, fostering independence in their communication journey.
Is Social Communication work for me?
Are you unsure if voice work is right for you? Try our new self-assessment tool by clicking on the box below. A redirect will open to a page with a series of questions. Complete the questions and get a PDF report organizing and visualizing your needs. This report is perfect for clarifying what you need and what your goals are.