Talksmith: A Person Who Makes Conversation

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[fbshare]Recently Geoff Brown, the President of Talksmith, left a comment on my post titled Asperger’s on the Job. I was intrigued with his comment and decided to learn more about Talksmith.

As an English suffix, -smith suggests a meaning of a specialized craftsman,  for example, blacksmith, coppersmith, goldsmith, and locksmith. (Wikipedia) A company geared towards creating specialized craftsmen in conversation, piqued my interest. Here is what I found.

Talksmith is a Minneapolis startup offering software that allows people to rehearse difficult conversations online and to receive immediate feedback. Geoff Brown further explained, “Our current niche is Asperger’s Syndrome students and special education departments in school districts, but we also make corporate training and e-learning courses.”

An autism spectrum disorder (ASD) course library was created with the support of the West Fargo, North Dakota school district, Osseo Area Schools (Minneapolis), and Hennepin County, Minnesota, along with the assistance of the Autism Society of Minnesota. Geoff stated, “Our conversation rehearsal courses also draw on the ASD expertise of Lisa King of College Autism Spectrum (advisor on transitions from high school to college) and Theresa Namie of ANSWER (an Asperger’s parent support group).”

Youth with Asperger’s (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) are able to use Talksmith to rehearse social skills in a private setting. The courses use a multiple choice branching technique attempting to better replicate a typical conversation. This technique allows for mistakes, feedback, recovery, and normalization. A student also has the ability to try out different conversational approaches.

Talksmith offers three free courses: asking for what you want; disagreeing with a friend; and a warehouse interview. I decided to give them a try. In general, here is how it worked:

1. I logged on using the FREE password and account.
2. I selected the course.
3. I was presented with a written introduction to the scenario and an explanation on how to select my responses.
4. When the course started, a face popped up to represent a friend and I read what he said to me.
5. I had three options from where I could select my response.
6. When I made my selection, I received written feedback on my response and then I had the option to return to the role-playing.

At each response selection a new screen appeared. My friend’s facial expression changed based on how I had replied, his new response was indicated, and then I was able to select another response. Because Talksmith uses a branching technique, I could replay the course and get an entirely different interaction by changing my responses.

The courses that can be purchased for a monthly or annual subscription fee are:

• Handling unfair criticism,
• Coping with frustration,
• Disagreeing with a teacher,
• Fast food job interview,
• Disagreeing with your boss, and
• Electronics job interview.

For me it was awkward to have a “conversation” but to not hear anything. I think I would have liked the course more and it would have felt more realistic if the friend’s part of the conversation was spoken and I could have heard it. A voice could even be applied to my part of the conversation so that my selection could also be heard.

Overall, Talksmith appears to have promise. Children with AS and HFA need to work on their social skills and this gives them one more way to do it. Many of these children (and children in general) are very comfortable with the computer and may actually prefer to learn this way. Also, many times children with special needs require a lot of repetition to really learn a particular concept. Talksmith can easily be used over and over until the concept has been grasped.

That being said, there really is no substitute for a one-on-one real-life conversation. Once a person with AS or HFA feels comfortable with a particular scenario, I could see the benefit of taking that subject and role-playing it with another person. I could imagine that school districts could build around Talksmith, making it one component of many in their social skills training. Talksmith is certainly an interesting idea that was brand new to me.

To find hundreds of more resources like Talksmith, join S-O-S Step-by-Step.  You can access close to 100 social skills resources for free.