Social Thinking

What is it?

How we are using it with all

students?

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.

• Most of us have developed our communications sense from birth onwards, steadily observing and acquiring social information and learning how to respond to people. Because social thinking is an intuitive process, we usually take it for granted. But for many individuals, this process is anything but natural. And this often has nothing to do with conventional measures of intelligence

• The curriculum developed by Michelle Garcia Winner targets improving individual social thinking abilities, regardless of diagnostic label.

What is the scientific evidence for the

information in this curriculum?

• Teaching students problem solving, personal advocacy, and social relatedness, which are fundamental skills to build lasting friendships and are essential for working successfully with classroom peers

• Teaching social thinking is a developmental, behavioral approach which utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to teach core social thinking concepts.

• CBT is based on the ideas that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors and that by changing the way that we think we are able to improve our life.

Major Themes of the Curriculum:

• People who pay attention to others make others feel good. When you make other people feel good they want to be with you.

• Students have to think about what others are thinking.

• Students have to learn to observe other people’s behaviors and form judgment about them.

• Students have to realize that others are also thinking about them. Students have to learn that social thinking is done in all environments (home, school, community) and the lessons need to walk with them out the door.

Benefits of Social Thinking

• Helping children to understand what is expected of them in social situations will assist them in getting along with their peers. If they know what the expected behavior is across schools settings (classroom, recess, lunch, hallways) than they can make good choices that coincide with these expectations.

• Teaching all students these concepts can potentially help them to attend better in class (“whole body listening”) which can create a better learning environment for all students.

• If children are able to understand that their actions affect other children’s’ thoughts about them then they can make better social choices. If students are doing what is “expected” of them in social situation then other children will want to spend time with them and everyone will be able to get along better. These concepts help to promote the idea of being a good friend.

• Promotes a positive school environment.

Benefits of Social Thinking (continued)

• Increases awareness and ownership of students behavior in social interactions

• Provides students with common language for problem solving and socialization

• Provides teachers and parents with common language and approach to dealing with problems

• Improves students ability to self-monitor their responses to stress and conflict

Social Thinking Concepts

• Expected vs. Unexpected Behavior

• Emotion Scale and/or Problem Scale-5 Point Scale

• Think with your eyes

• “Think about me” or “Show me you are thinking about me”

• Whole Body Listening

• Your behavior affects me/others

• Good thoughts vs. weird thoughts

• Good memories vs. not-so-good memories

Expected and Unexpected Language

• Expected vs. Unexpected is a teaching

intervention

• Expected/unexpected language is non-

judgmental

• We expect kids to to know the unwritten rules

about social environments (school, home, a

restaurant, recess, etc.) without being told

Examples of Student Work

Examples of Student Work

Examples of Student Work

Examples of Student Work

Examples of Student Work

Wrap Up

• Questions or comments?

• Thank you for your time!