Publisher's Synopsis
Anxiety has a negative impact on working memory, which can make it difficult for individuals to communicate with ease. With reduced experiences talking to a variety of people in various situations, speaking often becomes more challenging. The ECHO program was developed to build ease and comfort with social pragmatic communication, focusing on improving conversational skills for children from later elementary through teenage years. The program can be implemented by speech-language pathologists, psychologists, educators, and other facilitators including parents, who support the needs of children and teens with selective mutism, stuttering, and those in need of social communication support. This intervention program combines methods of vocalization and verbalization to enhance conversational skills with role-play simulations for real-life application.
