• https://youtu.be/w4JC7L95JDE
• https://youtu.be/t_Y3ueji6NY
What’s the difference
between teaching Social
Skills and teaching Social
Thinking? Why is it
important?
Social Skills vs. Social Thinking
• Social skills are defined as a set of skills people use
to interact and communicate with one another.
Social rules are created, communicated and changed
in verbal and nonverbal ways.
• Social Thinking is a way to train your brain to help
you figure out the people around you- what they
may be thinking, how that compares to what you’re
thinking, and how to vary your actions based on
what you and other people are thinking. Social
Thinking is social cognition.
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Michelle Garcia Winner
Being a social thinker helps you
understand and use social skills.
• Social Thinking © is
required prior to the
development of social
skills. Social Thinking
helps you learn the
points of views,
emotions, beliefs, prior
knowledge and
intentions of others.
www.socialthinking.com
Assumptions about students’
Social Thinking abilities
upon entering school:
• We assume that students will:
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Know others have different thoughts than theirs.
Know they can learn by watching others.
Know what nonverbal communication to look for.
Know to attend to the teacher for information.
Know how to use social thinking skills to regulate their
behavior in a group.
– Know how to communicate and navigate friendships.
Why is this important for all kids?
COMMON CORE
4 Anchor Standards
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Reading
Writing
Language
Speaking and Listening.
These anchor standards require knowledge/skills that are
grounded in social learning areas such as :
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critical thinking
perspective taking
narrative language
Inferences
organizational skills
Teaching Social Thinking
Address the areas of deficits with
teaching skills required.
Provide concepts in a child friendly
framework that encourages active
participation.
• Stories, skills and strategies
• Superheroes and Unthinkables
Superflex Curriculum
Developed to help :
• students understand the concept of flexible
thinking by Michelle Garcia Winner and
Stephanie Madrigal.
• students with social cognitive challenges
(often ASD, Asperger’s, ADD, ADHD, nonverbal learning disabilities) but applicable to
all kids! (Grades K-5)
• students become more aware of their
behavior and take steps towards selfregulation.
• introduce the idea of behaviors getting in
the way and causing problems (without
naming and pointing out specific students).
• make social thinking kid-friendly and fun.
Who is
Superflex?
• A superhero who helps
students develop
strategies to defeat the
“Team of Unthinkables”.
• The “Team of
Unthinkables” keeps the
brain rigid and makes it
difficult for students to
become flexible thinkers.
• Superflex helps us
become friendly, flexible
thinkers.
Team of Unthinkables
D.O.F vs. I.O.F
Who would you rather be with when you are playing a game?
D.O.F (Destroyer of Fun) makes you forget that it’s only a game. He wants you to focus on
winning, being first or playing it your way. When you act like a D.O.F. it ruins the game for
everyone else playing it. Remember I.O.F. – stay positive! Remember how much fun you can
have by playing fair and cooperating. Winning isn’t everything and losing certainly isn’t a
LEVEL 5 problem!
Practice being I.O.F. with your friends or family this week. How many times can you be the
I.O.F.? Play a game and strike out the balls when you act like an I.O.F.
Stories
Superflex Stories:
Julia Cook Stories:
Others:
Expected vs. Unexpected Behaviors
• We have them for all settings
• Not the same for all settings
• When we exhibit expected behaviors people have
“good thoughts” about us
• When we exhibit unexpected behaviors people
have “weird thoughts” about us
• These thoughts impact the way
others treat us
Michelle Garcia Winner
Easy Ideas for Whole Class
• Red, Yellow, Green thoughts
Thinking and Saying Thoughts
Okay
Green thoughts are good thoughts. These are
thoughts that you can think in your head and
say without offending someone.
Caution
Yellow thoughts are caution thoughts. These
are thoughts that you can think in your head
but use caution when you say them. These
are thoughts that are okay to say to some
people but not okay to say to other people.
No
Red thoughts are thoughts that you should
not say out loud. These are thoughts you can
think in your head but not say. Red thoughts
usually offend people when you say them
out loud.
5 POINT SCALE
by Kerri Dunn Buron
1. Need to have concept that can be
broken into 5 parts.
2. Use a story/social story to teach the 5
parts of the concept.
- can be positive or negative
3. Create a scale
www.5pointscale.com
REFERENCES and RESOURCES
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Winner, M.G., (2007). Thinking About You Thinking About Me. Think Social Publications, San Jose, CA. Available on her
website at : www.socialthinking.com
Winner, Michelle G. (2005). Think Social!,A Social-Thinking Curriculum for School Age Students. Think Social Publications
Winner, Michelle G. & Crooke, Pamela. (2009) Socially Curious and Curiously Social: A Social Thinking Guidebook for Teens
& Young Adults with Asperger’s, ADHD, PDD-NOS, NVLD, or other Murky Undiagnosed Social Learning Issues. Think Social
Publications, San Jose, CA.
Winner, Michelle G. & Crooke, Pamela. (2009) You are a Social Detective! Think Social Publications, San Jose, CA.
Madrigal, Stephanie & Winner, Michelle G. (2008). Superflex: A SuperHero Social Thinking Package. Think Social
Publications, San Jose, CA.
Dunn-Buron, Kari & Curtis, Mitzi. The Incredible 5 Point Scale. Autism Asperger Publishing Company (AAPC).
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Alexander no good day unit http://www.franklincollege.edu/pwp/cmahaffey/LitUnit.pdf
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/Cloudy/cloudytg.htm
Michelle Garcia Winner’s website: www.socialthinking.com
Social Thinking Materials & Resources by Jill Kuzma http://jillkuzma.wordpress.com/
Circle or Lunch Bunch Groups- http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~impact2/pdf/pkts2006/Lions%20Lunch%20Bunch.pdf
http://meesterc.wordpress.com/social-thinking-skills/
www.juliacookonline.com
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