Bee PALS • Free Foundation 02
What Is a Social Cue?
A social cue is a piece of information that can help me understand what may be happening in an interaction.
Before you start
How are you using Bee PALS today?
The big idea
A clue is information. It is not proof.
A person looking at the door might want to leave. They might also be checking the time, looking for someone, noticing a sound, or thinking about something else.
What can I actually observe?
What might it mean?
Do I need more information?
Regulate
Make room to notice.
Social information can be harder to notice when my brain is handling too much. I can support access first.
I may miss clues because my brain is already busy.
Less noise, more time, movement, a break, or clearer words.
I may have more room to notice useful information.
See
Six places clues can come from.
I do not have to use every clue. I can start with the information that is easiest for me to access.
You will see what that kind of clue can tell you and what it cannot tell you.
Clue or guess?
This describes something I could observe.
This is one possible interpretation, not a fact.
This can give me clearer information.
Try
Cue Detective
Look at the whole scene. Tap the clue buttons under it. You do not need to find every clue.
Tap any clues you notice.
It is almost closing time.
They say they need to head out soon.
Their backpack is on and body is angled toward the exit.
“Okay. Want to finish this another day?”
We did not need eye contact. We did not need to identify an emotion. The situation, words, and body direction already gave useful information.
Watch real examples
See social information in motion.
These links go to established university and professional resources. Use videos to notice context, words, movement, timing, and boundaries — not to copy one “correct” way of looking or moving.
Helpful and risky examples for conversations, groups, boundaries, teasing, electronic communication, and more.
Open UCLA resource ↗Watch for situation clues, timing, group activity, and the opening used to join.
Watch on UCLA ↗A useful clip for noticing distance and body boundary information.
Watch on UCLA ↗Professional reference covering social interaction, nonverbal communication, pragmatics, context, and cultural variation.
Read ASHA resource ↗Evidence based professional training on using brief videos to teach and practice skills.
Open AIM resource ↗A parent focused evidence based guide to using short visual narratives for social situations.
Open UNC guide ↗Bee PALS note: External resources use their own terminology and teaching models. Bee PALS does not require eye contact, stillness, masking, or imitation of a single communication style.
Do
Find one clue in real life.
Your mission
Notice one social cue during one interaction.You do not need to interpret it perfectly. Just name what kind of information you noticed.
Reflect
Which clues work best for me?
There is no requirement to be equally good at every kind of clue.
Want to write something down? Optional
Next you will learn how the situation itself can be a clue.
Future Bee PALS experience
Social Cue Lab
Eventually this lesson can become a simulated environment where a learner talks with an AI character, notices clues, asks questions, and sees how the interaction changes.
How the future AI practice could work
1. Pick an environment. The learner chooses a realistic setting instead of taking a generic quiz.
2. Interact naturally. The AI character talks, pauses, moves, changes plans, or communicates a boundary.
3. Notice clues. The learner can highlight situation, words, voice, face, body, or space.
4. Ask instead of guessing. Clarifying questions change what the bot reveals.
5. Multiple reasonable paths. The system explains consequences and context instead of grading one scripted response.
6. Adjust access. Noise, pace, text, captions, visual complexity, processing time, and communication mode can be changed.
For support people Parent, caregiver, teacher, or therapist coaching
Teach observation before interpretation.
Ask “What did you notice?” before asking “What do you think they felt?” This reduces pressure to mind read and makes the reasoning process visible.
Reduce barriers before asking the learner to process social information.
Describe concrete information: words, movement, context, changes, distance.
Generate two or three possible meanings instead of one correct interpretation.
Practice in a natural interaction, video, photo, show, or game.
Identify which kinds of clues are easiest and which supports improve access.