Social Thinking®

Content by Michelle Garcia WinnerPresented by Suzy Dees and Ashley

Schnittker

Who Sat Where?

• If you came by yourself today and don’t know the people around you, stay in your seat.

• If you came in a group or know the people with whom your are sitting, you have 90 seconds to move to a new “temporary” (20-25 minutes) seat.

• Once you “land” in your new seat, complete the activity on the table.

Who are you?

• Welcome back to your original seats!• Introduce yourselves to your tablemates

I am a GOLD STAR STRATEGY; use me in your classroom!

I’m a VISUAL STRATEGY; use me as you plan your lessons!

Targets

• Summarize a working definition of Social Thinking

• Determine how your awareness of Social Thinking will impact your students

• Discuss and practice strategies for explicitly teaching Social Thinking skills

• Identify and select tools to use for teaching Social Thinking skills

What are considered to be good social skills?

The ability to adapt your behavior effectively based on the situation and what you know about the people in the situation for them to react and respond to you in the manner you had hoped

Why do we use social skills?

To impact how we make people feel which then impacts how we feel about ourselves.

What is Social Thinking?

The ability to consider your own and others’ thoughts, emotions, beliefs, intentions, knowledge, etc. to help interpret and respond to the information in your mind and possibly through your social behavioral interactions.

Social competence is a continuum

Emerging Social Communicators

• Less awareness of overall social communicative process

• Require us to frame lessons as rules.

Nuance Challenged Communicators

• Have more awareness about the complexity of communication and self-awareness

Thasya - Severely impaired Kira - EmergentSheldon- Impaired Interactive/Nuance

Challenged

Why talk about nuance?

Rules-based vs. Nuance-based

• Rules-based– Applied at all times in all relevant situations– Lend themselves to a script– Can be easily observed– Can be easily measured– Can be easily practiced– Can be memorized

What are some nuances we do on a regular basis in communication?

• As a table group, brainstorm all the nuances that we do regularly…– e.g. appropriate level of eye contact (Suzy & Ashley

model)– – – – – –

Rules-based vs. Nuance-based

• Nuances Challenged Learners – Apply the basic principals that guide social rules

but then be prepared to subtly adapt the application of the rules.

Nuanced Skills

• Situational – based on context• Are necessary to problem solve appropriately• Requires keen observations to interpret

meaning accurately• To measure success of nuance skills you also

have to consider the communication partner’s interpretation of the behavior

Nuance challenged can have a lot of social information and become pretty adept at citing the social rules, but lack deeper analytical awareness.

Questions to keep in mind

• Does the student know the social norms? If not then you can not teach the nuance.

• At what point in the social exchange do his skills break down?

• Is the student self-aware? – Social nuance requires a level of self-awareness.

How do we figure out the process of thinking through teaching social thinking and related

skills?

Social Thinking Lessons

• Friendship Peer-a-mid• Social Behavior Mapping• 4 steps of Perspective Taking

Social Behavior Mapping (SBM)

• For students who are nuanced challenged, social behavior mapping helps explain the “why” behind the behavioral system

• Students don’t often “get” the connection between the consequence and the behavior or the perspective of others related to his behavior

• They miss the “hidden rules”

Core principles of SBM

1. Different environmental contexts command different behavioral expectations

2. Context-specific behaviors are defined as expected (socially appropriate) or unexpected (unexpected) through the eyes of the person who is interacting with the student

3. Behaviors, whether they are expected or unexpected, affect the emotional state of those who are in close proximity

Core principles cont.

3. Consequences occur not because of the behaviors themselves, but from the impact of these behaviors on others; emotional states

4. The emotional state of the student is affected by the consequences he or she experiences

Examples & Practice• Look through the completed example and

discuss with an elbow partner

Your Turn! – Pass the Sheet• As a table group, come up with a context – Start with the UNEXPECTED sheet Each person in your group will fill in a bullet and passto the person on his/her right. Keep passing untilyou feel each column has sufficient information andeveryone has participated--Do the same procedure with the EXPECT sheet for the same

context• When your group is finished, share out with your

tablemates and discuss how you envision using this with students

How do I use this thing?

Goal= Catch the student in the act of doing what’s expected to build up a bank of positives

• Circle the expected or unexpected behavior• Circle an emotion the caregiver feels is appropriate• Circle an appropriate consequence• Circle the student’s emotion• Connect the 4 circles to “map” student behavior

4 Steps to Changing One’s Own Behavior

• Self-awareness• Monitoring/Observing others• Self-monitoring• Self-control

Where can we use Social Behavior Maps?

• School– Classroom wide– SAIGs– Individual sessions

• Home– to target specific areas– to prepare for upcoming events or situations

Perspective Taking

• Watch Michelle teach a lesson in perspective taking…

To enable us to teach these nuanced skills…

Social Thinking® emphasizes a common vocabulary

• Establishing a physical presence– Keeping your body in the group

• Thinking and listening with your eyes– Keeping your mind in the group

• Choice of language– Thinking about what other people think

• Expected vs. Unexpected

Perspective Taking

• Definition– Understanding the point of view of another

person; the ability to consider the contents of other peoples’ minds• Related terms are theory of mind and social cognition

Three levels on the Spectrum of Perspective taking

Thasya - Severely impaired Kira - Emergent

Sheldon- Impaired Interactive/Nuance

Challenged

Perspective Taking Lessons Jigsaw

• In your table groups, have each participant select and read one of the perspective taking activities in your packet (10 minutes)

• Go around the table and have each person share out the activity they read and whether or not they could use this activity with their student(s) (10 minutes)

Packet Check!

• Go through the PowerPoint and packet (up to the divider) and highlight, post-note, or identify which of the strategies you will use with students and how you will use them

• Share out with an elbow partner the best strategy/tool you’ve learned or been reminded of thus far

Hierarchy of Visual Representation SystemsConcrete to Abstract

• Real Object – ( real pretzel on a card)• Miniature real objects (mini tennis shoe)• True Object Based Icons (T.O.B.I. )– Juice box – cut out

• Photograph (Picture This Software) takes away extraneous background information.

• Real Drawing• Line Drawings (black and white or color) BoardMaker

Software• Written Word

Target Check – post assessment