Social executive functioning is at the heart of successful play, social interaction, and learning as part of a group. In this course, we teach how to move from the five basic Social Thinking lessons in We Thinkers! Volume 1: Social Explorers to the more complex lessons presented in We Thinkers! Volume 2. Attendees will learn strategies to apply in the classroom, online learning environment, clinic, or home the very next day!

In Part 3: Assessing Peer-Based Collaboration and Play to Provide Specific Teaching Pathways , we share key information and an innovative tool for helping early learners with average to strong language and learning abilities develop critical social competencies. Attendees will:

• Explore concepts such as the role of play and working as part of a group in the development of self-regulation, social problem solving, and executive functioning.
• Examine why individuals who experience difficulty with social attention tend to have troubles sharing an imagination and interacting/playing with peers.
• Learn to use the Social Thinking - Group Collaboration, Play and Problem Solving (GPS) Scale, to understand the five different levels of play and how they relate to classroom
• Understand how the GPS, interfaces with, and expands upon, other known scales such as the Westby Play Scale (2000), a highly regarded standard in the literature of play assessment.
• Learn how to use We Thinkers! Volume 2 and related teaching ideas with fidelity.
• Understand that this course builds on the five core Social Thinking concepts presented in our precursory series, Parts 1 and 2 in the series: Introducing Social Thinking® Concepts to 4–7-Year-Olds Through Ten Storybooks and Two Curricula: A Four-Part Series.

In Part 4: Advancing Social Learning with Five Concepts to Promote Executive Functions we explore the Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts of expected and unexpected behavior for the situation, hidden rules, smart guesses, flexible and stuck thinking, the size of the problem, and shared imagination.

Course Content Disclosure: While this course includes information about other products and the work of other authors, it primarily focuses on the content included in the We Thinkers! Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers curriculum guide and 5 storybooks to teach this information with fidelity.

Who Should Attend

The Social Thinking Methodology is used by a wide variety of professionals; including speech-language pathologists, special and general education teachers, social workers, counselors, clinical and school psychologists, occupational therapists, behavior specialists, and school administrators to name a few. It’s also used by family members and caregivers across settings.

This four-part series teaches interventionists (parents and professionals) to implement with fidelity our award-winning curriculum, storybooks, and music collection when using We Thinkers! Volume 1: Social Explorers and We Thinkers! Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers (formerly The Incredible Flexible You!).

Using examples, multi-sensory lessons, and strategies to promote social collaboration and play at school, home, and in the community, we’ll explore social development and demonstrate how to teach 10 core Social Thinking® concepts and use the storybooks to help students learn how the social world works, so they can better learn to navigate in the social world. We’ll also review the use of the Group Collaboration, Play and Problem-Solving (GPS) Scale to provide individualized treatment pathways for different types of social learners. The vocabulary and strategies are adaptable for use with other activities and age-appropriate literature.

The series includes four courses preferably experienced in the following order, beginning with Volume 1 in our two-volume We Thinkers! curricular set:

Part 1: Foundations for Early Learners—Teaching Thoughts, Feelings, and The Group Plan
Part 2: Building on Foundations—Teaching Thinking with Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening (Listening with Body and Brain)

The next two courses provide information on the GPS assessment tool, as well as five executive function concepts:

Part 3: Assessing Peer-Based Collaboration and Play to Provide Specific Teaching Pathways
Part 4: Advancing Social Learning with Five Concepts to Promote Executive Functions

Throughout this series, you will learn not just the “why” behind the concepts we teach but the “how” with practical strategies and examples that you can start infusing into the things you already do and say.

Series Content Disclosure: While this series includes information about other products and the work of other authors, it primarily focuses on the content included in the We Thinkers! Volume 1: Social Explorers and We Thinkers! Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers curriculum guides and 10 storybooks to teach this information with fidelity.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe two aspects of each of the five levels of play as explained through Social Thinking’s Group Collaboration, Play and Problem Solving (GPS) Scale.
2. Define two different strategies to provide differentiated instruction to students who have different interactive play abilities.
3. Design a lesson to promote a social learner’s development of shared, collaborative, imaginative play (SCIP).

Agenda

• 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • Explore shared, collaborative, imaginative play (SCIP): how it develops, the relation to social executive functioning, the connection to academics and classroom learning, and why it can be so difficult for an individual with a social learning differences/challenges
• 2 hours and 10 minutes
  • Introduction to Social Thinking’s Group Collaboration, Play and Social Problem Solving Scale (GPS)
  • Previously Recorded Q & A

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We are proud to provide access to continuing education credit for:

• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Educators
• ...and others!

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