Facial Expressions & Body Language | Silly or Serious?
by Atypical Living © 2026
Price: $5 USD
Subjects: speech,specialed,lifeSkills,Special Autism,communicationModalities,modalitiesAAC,expressiveLanguage
Grades: 0
Description
Help students strengthen social awareness by learning to interpret facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal cues. In this activity, students decide whether people in photographs are being silly or serious and identify the clues that support their answer. š· Is this person being silly or serious? Students will examine 44 photographs and determine whether each person appears to be silly or serious. Encourage students to explain their reasoning by discussing facial expressions, gestures, posture, and other nonverbal communication cues. This activity can be used to target: Understanding facial expressions Reading body language Nonverbal communication Social inference Social skills Describing people Justifying answers Critical thinking Students may respond using: Single words ("Silly." "Serious.") 2-word utterances ("He silly." "She serious.") 3-word utterances ("He is silly." "She is serious.") For an increased level of difficulty, students can practice using not. To target not, keep the same target word throughout the activity (e.g., silly/not silly or serious/not serious). Features: 44 photographs Targets facial expression recognition and body language Encourages discussion and explanation of answers Adaptable for AAC users and verbal communicators
Acknowledgements
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