Comic Strip Conversations

In our ‘Social Thinking’ group we have been using something called Comic Strip Conversations. A Comic Strip Conversation uses simple drawings to slow down and analyse a situation or conversation, to find out what each person was feeling, thinking, said and did.
Why we use them:
To engage in problem solving/conflict resolution where a social situation has been unsuccessful.
To help a young person communicate their feelings and perception of a situation (helping others to understand the experience from their point of view).
To enable reflection in a non-threatening manner (“drawing the story” of what happened rather than being asked lots of questions).
It slows the conversation down, making it less stressful and allowing time for verbal processing.
The end product is visual and can be referred back to promoting understanding and learning.
To help the young person understand why things went wrong and work out a different course of action for next time so they could successfully negotiate a similar situation in future.

How to use:

Begin by asking the child to draw the event that caused the problem. Where were you?
Draw the key people that were involved in the event.
Draw what was going on. What happened?
What did others do? Draw relevant actions and items.
Use thought bubbles to show what the student was thinking and what they think the other people were thinking.
Use heart shapes to show what the student was feeling and what they think the other people were feeling.
Use speech bubbles to record what was said by the student and others.
Add a solution which will help them know what to do differently next time, e.g. add another thought bubble “I will walk away and ignore him”.