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Add-a-Thought: Teach an Essential Conversation Skill

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What to Talk About When Hanging Out with Others
Ideas for Conversation Starters

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Visual Supports for 10 Key Social Thinking Vocabulary Concepts

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Strategies to Demystify Conversational Complexities

Online Course

Help Social Learners Build Strategies That Support Connection

Conversation is hard to do! For something that is so basic to human interaction and social connection, engaging in conversation requires a complex array of social competencies and, at times, is surprisingly difficult to pull off successfully. How do we teach social learners of all ages the why and how of developing meaningful connection with others through face-to-face conversations at home, school, in the workplace, and within their communities?


Whether we have conversations to share information, communicate physical and emotional needs, or simply to develop a personal connection through small talk, we cannot just follow a reliable script for how they will unfold. We can, however, learn to increase our social awareness, organize our thinking before conversations begin, and practice strategies to keep the connection going. Explore our broad range of resources for teaching conversation and connection to help guide social learners in some of the most significant learning of their lives.

 


 

The Social Thinking Methodology provides evidence-based strategies to help people of all ages develop their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving and improve: conversation & social connection, executive functioning, friendship & relationship development, perspective taking, self-regulation, and Social Thinking vocabulary.

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Free Video Lesson

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Ryan Hendrix, MS, CCC-SLP

In this free video lesson, Ryan talks about the Four Steps of Communication and how it works at home on a screen. Early on in childhood development, most individuals learn to coordinate their own body and mind, as well as interpret the words and actions of others to participate with increasing sophistication in the act of communication.

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Aha! Teaching Moment

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Compelling Social Anxiety

Telling individuals with compelling social anxiety that others are having thoughts about them might lead to more anxiety. In this video, Michelle Garcia Winner explains how she helped her 15-year-old client manage his social anxiety by focusing on the impressions he forms of peers, rather than on the impressions peers may be forming of him.

Initiating Communication

Initiating Communication to Help Yourself
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What to Talk About

What to talk about
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Related On Demand courses taught by thought leaders in social emotional & academic learning

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Combating Loneliness and Misbehavior

Loneliness is a dangerous national epidemic that has been growing in depth and complexity for many years. Loneliness not only endangers our mental and physical health, but it also can make us less kind and caring toward others, resulting at times in misbehavior at schools and within our communities. We’ll explore a range of research-informed ways we can cultivate meaningful relationships with others to foster our well-being, as well as kindness, empathy, and generosity of spirit toward others. Now more than ever, building social awareness, managing anxiety, and developing social communication strategies to combat this growing crisis of loneliness is critical for school-age children, tweens and teens, and all the way through the adult years.
Brand new course! Streaming live on Oct 19, 2023 | 9:00 - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
1.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
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Conversation & Social Connection

Small Talk & Conversations

Strategies to Demystify Conversational Complexities

Small talk and conversations are dynamic, and we cannot create reliable scripts for how they will unfold. We can, however, increase our students' awareness of why we engage in social exchanges such as small talk. In this online course, we will unpack the complexities of small talk and conversation. We’ll break these down into their component parts to build strategies that support engagement in initial and ongoing social connection for children, teens, and adults.
Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Early Learners (Ages 4-7)

Part 1: Foundations for Early Learners—Teaching Thoughts, Feelings, and The Group Plan

Series Name: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula

Guide children’s early social learning and play experiences to strengthen social competencies and classroom learning. Part 1: Foundations for Early Learners—Teaching Thoughts, Feelings, and The Group Plan examines the foundations of our work with early learners, delves into the core concepts thoughts and feelings and the group plan, and provides strategies, lessons, and examples for teaching them to children ages 4–7 years old using We Thinkers! Volume 1 with fidelity.

Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Early Learners (Ages 4-7)

Part 2: Building on Foundations—Teaching Thinking with Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening (Listening with Body and Brain)

Series Name: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula

Part 2 of this four-course series expands on the research-based foundations of our work with early learners introduced in Part 1 related to the core Social Thinking® concepts taught through our curriculum. In this course, we focus on the concepts thinking with your eyes, body in the group, and whole body listening (listening with body and brain). Learn strategies, lessons, and examples for teaching these concepts with fidelity using our We Thinkers! Volume 1: Social Explorers Curriculum with 4–7-year-olds in the mainstream classroom and specialized treatment settings.
Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Early Learners (Ages 4-7)

Part 3: Assessing Peer-Based Collaboration and Play to Provide Specific Teaching Pathways

Series Name: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula

In this third part of a four-part series, we explore the use of the Group Collaboration, Play and Problem-Solving (GPS) Scale for 4- to 7-year-olds to better assess a child’s ability to relate with peers, what to focus on in teaching related lessons. Learn cutting-edge information about how to use the We Thinkers! Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers Curriculum with fidelity. This course builds on the precursory courses in the four-part series: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula: A Four-Part Series.

Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Early Learners (Ages 4-7)

Part 4: Advancing Social Learning with Five Concepts to Promote Executive Functions

Series Name: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula

In this last part of a four-part series, we explore how to teach more advanced social and executive function concepts, expected/unexpected behavior based on the situation, flexible thinking, smart guess, size of problems and sharing an imagination. We’ll demonstrate how to use our curriculum, We Thinkers! Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers with fidelity. This course builds on the precursory courses Parts 1-3 of the series: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula: A Four-Part Series

Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Executive Functioning

Part 1: How Do We Get Things Done?

Series Name: Fostering the Development of Executive Functions

Organizational skills for homework and classwork start with organized thinking. In this first of a two-part series, we explore three critical and fascinating aspects involving how every individual engages in organized thinking and then explore the process of identifying goals, creating action plans, and developing metacognitively based strategies to help our children, students, or clients get things done.
Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording
Executive Functioning

Part 2: Finding One’s Motivation to Tackle Many Moving Parts of Any Assignment

Series Name: Fostering the Development of Executive Functions

This second part of a two-part series is an exploration of metacognitive strategies to help students find their motivation, learn about time prediction, prioritize their workload, and track multiple assignments simultaneously. We explore the importance of perspective taking and how we can help.
Expires
Replay access through November 30, 2023
3.5 hours toward CE credit, if applicable
Get Recording

What is Social Thinking?

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Strategies to Build Social Competencies

The Social Thinking Methodology provides evidence-based strategies to help people ages four through adult develop their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving to meet their own social goals and improve:



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