1. Social Thinking® Content by Michelle Garcia Winner Presented by Suzy Dees and Ashley Schnittker

2. 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.

3. Who are you? Welcome back to your original seats! Introduce yourselves to your tablemates

4. I am a GOLD STAR STRATEGY; use me in your classroom! I’m a VISUAL STRATEGY; use me as you plan your lessons!

5. 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

6. 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

7. Why do we use social skills? To impact how we make people feel which then impacts how we feel about ourselves.

8. 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.

9. 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 impairedKira - Emergent Sheldon- Impaired Interactive/Nuance Challenged

10. Why talk about nuance?

11. 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

12. 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) –

13. 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.

14. 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

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

16. 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.

17. How do we figure out the process of thinking through teaching social thinking and related skills?

18. Social Thinking Lessons Friendship Peer-a-mid Social Behavior Mapping 4 steps of Perspective Taking

21. 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”

22. 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

23. 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

27. Examples & Practice Look through the completed example and discuss with an elbow partner

28. 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 pass to the person on his/her right. Keep passing until you feel each column has sufficient information and everyone 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

29. 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

30. 4 Steps to Changing One’s Own Behavior Self-awareness Monitoring/Observing others Self-monitoring Self-control

31. 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

32. Perspective Taking Watch Michelle teach a lesson in perspective taking…

33. 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

34. 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

35. Three levels on the Spectrum of Perspective taking Thasya - Severely impaired Kira - Emergent Sheldon- Impaired Interactive/Nuance Challenged

36. 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)

37. 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

39. Hierarchy of Visual Representation Systems Concrete 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

40. Target Check – post assessment