Some people worry about participating in social settings because they lack confidence in their conversation skills. They may dread an evening at the pub or even just a chat with one friend, for fear of saying the wrong thing, not being able to think of anything to talk about, or whether they will find themselves feeling generally embarrassed about their conversational technique. This book offers a structure to help with the skills needed for initiating, maintaining, and ending conversations. It looks at casual chat and formal talk with one person face-to-face and on the phone, as well as how to converse in a group. There are over 30 chapters, each dealing with an aspect of conversation such as Greetings How to remember names Being topical, Using humour Reminiscing Repairing conversational gaffs, Escaping! The Conversational Menu Each topic is considered and discussed; exercises are suggested; "homework" is given on credit-card-sized cards, and then the Checklist is filled in, so that learning is secure. This is a complete course on conversation skills. designed for people over 16, either to work with the Speech and Language Therapist, or for some, to work on their own. Alison Roberts is a Speech and Language Therapist whose work has chiefly focused for the last 20 years on the communication needs of 11-25 year-olds with a wide variety of intriguing differences in ability. She works with several brilliant therapists who together form a team called Good Communication. Alison lectures to SLT students and to Careers Advisers and has written several sets of cards and books which have been published by Speechmark Publishing. She is also an enthusiastic craftswoman with an endless need and desire to devise her own SLT games, which gave rise to the original series of articles in the Speech and Language Therapy in Practice magazine.

1 Introduction , 2 Procedure 4 Opening gambits 5 Introducing yourself 6 Remembering names .7 Mechanical rules 8 Formulaic interchanges9 Formal and casual conversations10 Body language11 What are other people's interests? 12 Open and closed questions and invitations to speak 13 The technique 14 Choosing and introducing a conversation topic 15 Noticing, commenting and making polite observations 16 The Social CV17 Using humour 18 Compliments 19 Criticism and complaints 20 Reminiscing and reflecting21 Being optimistic 22 Being positive about other people23 Argument, making a point and detachment from your opinions 24 Apologies and repairing conversational 'gaffes'25 Escaping! 26 Electronic conversations 27 Eavesdropping 28 Conversation at parties and special occasions 29 The conversation 'menu' 30 Sayings and points to consider about conversations.