There are 3 distinct yet overlapping definitions:
What do we mean when we say, "social thinking?" We have a lot of information to share. Here are three ways to understand how we use the words "social thinking:"
- The Term
- The Business
- The Methodology
Watch the video or browse below to learn more!
Teaching social competencies—more than social skills
The foundation of our work provides interventionists (teachers, speech language pathologists, therapists, clinicians, parents) and social emotional learners with frameworks, tools, skills and a shared language to improve social competencies—more than just social skills.
Our goal is to help people learn explicitly how to engage in social information processing; how to attend, interpret, problem solve and respond in any situation—the thinking and doing skills that will aid them in becoming increasingly successful in the social world throughout their lives.
At some point we all struggle in social situations. Engaging in a social emotional thinking/feeling based process can be difficult at times for everyone in the social world. Our role as interventionists is to help motivate social emotional learners to "do the work" and explore how we all share social expectations, thoughts, feelings, make mistakes and try again as we learn to navigate our way toward our social goals. The practical nature of our teaching and the concrete way we explain social concepts helps engage people in social emotional learning not only about themselves but about others.
Evidence-based strategies for interventionists
The social world is an enormous and complex place. You, the interventionist, must first gain your own understanding of how the social world works before teaching social emotional learners. The next step is to explore how individual social emotional learners currently function in the social world. It is at this point that you can begin teaching social emotional learners how to work (navigate to regulate) in the social world to improve social competencies that impact self-regulation, based on individual strengths and challenges. The Social Thinking Methodology has specific components to teach interventionists about these aspects through free articles, products, conferences, eLearning modules, and free webinars.
Evidence-based strategies for social emotional learners
Social emotional learners are individuals ranging from age 4 through adulthood who are learning about how the social world works while also learning how to work (navigate to regulate) in the social world (in themselves and others). Over the course of our lives, we cycle through different phases of gathering knowledge about how the social world works and then use that information to work (navigate to regulate) in the social world. Being a social emotional learner is a lifelong process.
This has been a game changer for helping general education teachers better understand our ‘awkward’ kids who just don't get it. We have been using the Social Thinking Methodology with our students, they are making friends, are more successful academically, and generally happier in all they do. Thank you! - Jennifer, Special Education Teacher