The Social Thinking® Methodology emerged from working with teenagers in high school. It was apparent, at that time, that some needed help with executive functions and learning how to engage in the process of social emotional learning (SEL). Over the years we have developed frameworks, strategies, and tools for teens to explore how the social world works to help them learn to navigate to self-regulate in that world. In this process, we have learned to recognize the challenges of or more resistant (self-protective) social learners. And, it is important that interventionists (parents and professionals) understand how the expectations within the social world are literally shifting under their children’s’ feet as they legal world no longer views them as children. This series provides some highlights of what we’ve learned about working with teens with SEL challenges for the past 25 years.
The foundation of our work provides interventionists (teachers, speech-language pathologists, therapists, clinicians, parents) and social learners with frameworks, tools, skills, and a shared language for understanding the social world. 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 promote well-being.
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 empower social learners with strategies for understanding that 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 learning not only about themselves but about others.
Counselor
Gen. Ed. Teacher & Mom
Social Worker
Gen. Ed Teacher
Social Worker
