I’m a big follower of Michelle Garcia Winner and her Social Thinking Creation (socialthinking.com). I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the week attending the Chicago Social Thinking Conference with Sasha. I have attended her conferences for the past 3 years and began using her ideas and materials right after I attended my first conference. I always learn so much useful information when I hear her speak and look forward to any new materials and resources she publishes.
What is Social Thinking? – “Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people: we think about them. And how we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotions.” (socialthinking.com)
Who can I use it with? Many of my students have social language challenges. The Social Thinking methods to build social thinking and related skills can be used with young preschool students all the way through adulthood. Social Thinking challenges are “commonly experienced by individuals with autism spectrum disorders (high-functioning), social communication disorder, Asperger’s, ADHD, nonverbal learning disability (NLD) and similar diagnoses, children and adults experiencing social learning difficulties often have received no diagnosis.” (socialthinking.com).
How do I get started? If you want to start learning more information about Social Thinking I would recommend first getting the book Thinking About You Thinking About Me, 2nd Edition by Michelle Garcia Winner. Yes it’s a big book and it hard to take time to read when we as teachers and therapists have some much other responsibilities and lesson planning to do but it is worth it! It really outlines what Social Thinking is, how to assess it, and strategies to build communication skills.
I will share more information about how I use Social Thinking in therapy with my preschoolers, elementary, and junior high students in the future. I really recommend checking out Michelle’s website and blog if you haven’t done so already.
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