UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL
THINKING MODEL
LIVES IN THE BALANCE
3RD ANNUAL SUMMIT
November 8, 2013
Portland, Maine
BARBARA BAUM FREETHY, M.ED.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE THERAPIST
225 COMMERCIAL STREET
PORTLAND, MAINE 04101
barbara@transdis.com
SOCIAL THINKING v. SOCIAL
SKILLS
“Social thinking is a user-friendly term for
social cognition. Social thinking is required
prior to the development of social skills.
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
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
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
What is a Successful Social
Thinker?
One who has the ability to adapt their behavior
effectively based on the situation and what
they know about the people in the situation
for them to react and respond to them in the
manner they had hoped
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
Why do we use
Social Skills?
To impact how we make people feel
which then impacts how they feel
about us
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
WHO HAS SOCIAL LEARNING
CHALLENGES?
Kids with lagging skills in:
Executive Functioning
Cognitive Flexibility
Language Skills
Emotion Regulation
Social Skills
Sensory/motor Difficulties
have
SOCIAL COGNITIVE CHALLENGES!
Freethy 2011
LANGUAGE
PROCESSING
COGNITIVE
FLEXIBILITY
SOCIAL
COGNITION
EXECUTIVE
FUNCTIONING
EMOTION
REGULATION
Mary Duggan, LCSW 2006
THINKING ABOUT YOU
THINKING ABOUT ME
Theory of mind is the ability
to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents,
desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.
—to oneself and others and to understand
that others have beliefs, desires
and intentions that are different from one's own.
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
THE I-LAUGH MODEL
MICHELLE GARCIA WINNER, MA, CCC-CLP
• I = INITIATION OF COMMUNICATION
• L = LISTENING WTH EYES AND BRAIN
• A = ABSTRACT & INFERENTIAL LANGUAGE
• U = UNDERSTANDING PERSPECTIVE
• G = GESTALT PROCESSING: THE BIG PICTURE
• H = HUMOR AND HUMAN RELATEDNESS
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
I= INITIATING
INITIATING COMMUNICATION
IN UNFAMILIAR OR
MORE STRESSFUL SOCIAL
COMMUNICATIVE CONTEXTS
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
.
L= LISTENING WITH EYES
AND BRAIN
Listening is not all about
auditory processing but also about
how we synchronize non-verbal
communication skills to process and
respond more succinctly to a message.
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
A = Abstract & Inferential
Language/Communication
• Understanding subtle nuances in verbal and body
language
• Take what we know about a situation and make a
guess
• Dealing with abstract language
• Formulating ideas
• Fully understanding the meaning of nonverbal
communication
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
U = UNDERSTANDING
PERSPECTIVE
•
Perceiving your own and others thoughts,
emotions, physical intentions, language based
intentions, prior knowledge and experiences,
belief systems, and personality
•
Incorporating the above information and
responding within milliseconds to two seconds
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
UNDERSTANINGPERSPECTIVE
Perceiving Your Own and Others:
• Thoughts
• Prior Knowledge
• Emotions
• Belief System
• Physical Intentions
• Experiences
• Language based
• Personality
Intentions
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
G =GESTALT
GETTING THE BIG PICTURE
• CENTRAL COHERENCE THEORY: getting the
point, or gist, of things. It is the ability to pull
information from different sources, experiences
and schemas, both internal and external, to glean a
higher meaning.
• Lacking central coherence can leave an individual
vulnerable to misinterpreting of situations and
communications.
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
H = HUMOR AND
HUMAN RELATI0NSHIPS
• IS AN ASPECT OF PERSPECTIVE TAKING
• ADDS ENERGY AND FUN TO THE
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
The Social Learning Tree
• Roots grow with neurological capacity
• Trunk, dependent on growth of roots, relates
in part to the I-LAUGH model
• Each branch represents one aspect of the
diverse range of concepts/skills the emerge
from the core
• Leaves represent individual strategies/skills
needed in executing that branch
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
4 Steps of Perspective
Taking
• When you come into my space, I have a little thought
about you and you have a little thought about me.
• wonder “why are you near me?,” “what is your
purpose for being near me?” “Is it because you are
just sharing the space, do you intend to talk to me or
do you intend to harm me?” I have to consider all
these things in order to keep me safe around people
as well as to predict what will happen next.
• Since we have thoughts about each other, I wonder
what you are thinking about me.
• To keep you thinking about me the way I would like
you to think about me, I monitor and possibly modify
my behavior to keep you thinking about me the way I
want you to think about me.
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
4 Steps of Communication
• Thinking about the person you are planning
to talk to
• Establishing physical presence
• Thinking with your eyes
• Use language to related to others
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION LEARNING
STYLES AS A GUIDE TO TREATMENT AND
PROGNOSIS:
THE SOCIAL THINKING-SOCIAL
COMMUNICATION PROFILE
formerly known as the Perspective
Taking Spectrum
Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke
and Stephanie Madrigal, January, 2011
www.socialthinking.com
Categories of Social Thinking
Scale
•
Severely Challenged Social Communicator
(SCSC)
•
Challenged Social Communicator (CSC)
•
Emerging Social Communicator (ESC)
•
Nuance Challenged Social Communicator
(NCSC) (a) weak interactive social
communicator and (b) socially anxious social
communicator
•
Neurotypical Social Communicator (NSC)
•
Resistant Social Communicator (RSC)
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
The Double Interview
Amy Miller, 2002; Michelle Garcia Winner, 2006
• Evaluates ability to shift perspective
• Evaluates ability to organize thoughts into
language that moves in a purposeful direction
towards someone else’s area of interest and
to follow up with more specific questions to
explore another’s interest
• Three parts to interview
Social Thinking Vocabulary
• Think with your Eyes
• Expected/Unexpected Behavior
• Good thoughts/Uncomfortable Thoughts
• Smart Guess/Whacky Guess
• Social Fake
• Social Rules Change with Age
• Size of the problem
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
Social Thinking in School
and Home
• Within the Classroom
• Social thinking groups
• Generalizing across settings
• Parent Involvement
Kari Dunn Buron, 2007
Superflex and His Team
Of Unthinkables
AN UNTHINKABLE
ON THE LOOSE!
Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
Core Social Thinking books include:
Inside Out: What Makes a Person with Social
Cognitive Deficits Tick
Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME, 2nd Edition
Think Social!
©2012 Social Thinking Publishing - Michelle Garcia Winner www.socialthinking.com
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON SOCIAL THINKING
WWW.SOCIALTHINKING.COM
INFORMATION ABOUT MICHELLE GARCIA WINNER’S
WORKSHOPS, NEWSLETTER,
BLOG, PUBLICATIONS
Text
http://www.facebook.com/#!/socialthinking
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON
TRANSDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOPS, INC.
WWW.TRANSDIS.COM
PROVIDING HIGH QUALITY CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS
INCLUDING THOSE RELATED TO COLLABORATIVE AND PROACTIVE SOLUTIONS
AND SOCIAL LEARNGING CHALLENGES
For More Information on clinical services:
BARBARA BAUM FREETHY
Social Cognitive
Therapist Certified CPS Provider
207-775-5100
barbara@transdis.com