SOCIALTHINKING

Demystifying Executive Functions: What They Are and How to Teach Them

What You Get. Click here to watch!

During this webinar, discover:

• Why it’s so important to avoid assumptions about your students’ functioning levels.

• How executive functions are critical for success in the social, academic, and job worlds (even though this skillset isn’t measured through IQ and academic tests!).

• Two strategies to help students understand and improve targeted executive functions that impact their broader lives.

Social Anxiety: Breaking It Down to Build Up Social Competencies

Social Anxiety. Click here to watch

Anxiety and stress are normal life experiences that we should all learn to manage as part of our life skills. One specific type of anxiety is social anxiety. If you have self-awareness then you’ve experienced social anxiety. When children learn to manage their social anxiety, it can help them collaborate with others and build relationships, core essentials for college and career readiness. In this webinar, learn how to break down social anxiety and get strategies to build up social competencies. Explore what helps and what DOESN’T help when supporting someone who is socially anxious, and tools to manage in the social world.

Understanding Self-Regulation: Help Your Students Learn to Help Themselves

Self-Regulation. Click here to watch

What is self-regulation? How can we teach it in our schools and homes? There is a big difference between using reward systems to encourage students to behave and teaching students how to self-regulate. Join Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of the Social Thinking Methodology, to explore the many moving parts of social and emotional self-regulation and how it involves personal problem solving. Discover which of our strategies, frameworks, and teaching materials to use to help students develop these competencies across age groups. Here’s a hint: it all begins with teaching students the fundamentals of how the social world works and how to work (navigate to regulate) in the social world!

Thoughts & Feelings

#1 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Thoughts & Feelings. Click here to watch

Join us to explore the first of 10 concepts in 10 months, thoughts & feelings! Social Thinking founder Michelle Garcia Winner starts by giving an overview of the webinar series and sharing the goal of this 10-month learning journey. She then explains best practices for teaching thoughts and feelings with different age groups, and shares which Social Thinking products (classic and brand-new!) offer lessons and activities to expand your teaching of this concept.

Thinking with Your Eyes

#2 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Thinking with Your Eyes. Click here to watch

Join us and explore the second in our series of 10 sequential concepts, thinking with your eyes! (Please allow your students to spend time with the first concept thoughts and feelings before moving on to this second concept.) In the second webinar, Social Thinking founder Michelle Garcia Winner provides examples of how to teach thinking with your eyes across age groups, all the way into adulthood, and shares which Social Thinking products offer lessons and activities to expand your teaching of this concept. She also explores how digital devices may stifle the development of social competencies and how to motivate students to use their social attention when in the presence of others.

The Group Plan

#3 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

The Group Plan. Click here to watch

Teachers depend on students figuring out how to read the group plan for a classroom to run effectively; peers depend on peers reading the group plan to hang out, play a game, or engage in project-based learning. Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of Social Thinking, explores why this concept is essential to social interactions across ages and cultures, how to teach it to students, and what resources can help. The group plan is to be taught after your students understand and are using the first two concepts discussed in the webinars thoughts and feelings and thinking with your eyes.

Is Your Body in the Group?

#4 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Is Your Body in the Group? Click here to watch

When hanging out with peers, some of our students think they’re part of the group when in fact they’re many steps away. Where your body is relative to the group matters—it influences how others perceive you and your intentions, and ultimately their relationship with you. How do you know if your body is in the group? Join Social Thinking’s founder, Michelle Garcia Winner, as she deconstructs this seemingly simple concept and exposes the many things we consider when getting—and keeping—our bodies in a group.

Whole Body Listening

#5 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Whole Body Listening. Click here to watch

Whole body listening (WBL), first introduced by Susanne Poulette Truesdale (in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, July 1990, Vol. 21, 183-184) is a popular concept taught in schools to help students focus and actively listen with more than just their ears. WBL is essential for collaborative engagement, relationship development, and peer-based group work. In this webinar, Social Thinking founder Michelle Garcia Winner shares strategies and materials for teaching this critical concept beyond simply having students sit up straight and keep quiet. At the conclusion of this webinar, she recaps the five Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts covered so far in our 10 Concepts webinar series, and how they can be used in tandem across different situations.

The next five webinars in our 10 Concepts series build on the concepts of the previous five, and dive into more complex concepts that actively develop socially based executive functioning.

Expected & Unexpected Behavior

#6 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts. Click here to watch

Social expectations become more complex with age. Join Michelle Garcia Winner and explore the hidden expectations that surround us whether we are 4 years old or 40! Learn the dos and don’ts for using our popular terms “expected behavior” and “unexpected behavior” to best support your students, clients, and children. Help them figure out what’s expected by building awareness of situations, people, and social context—and identifying what they expect from others. Finally, discover which Social Thinking materials will help you teach this concept across different age groups.

Smart Guess

#7 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Smart Guess. Click here to watch

Students are normally expected to figure out what they should be doing and, often, how they should do it. Social problem solving requires making educated guesses, or smart guesses, about what to do. In this webinar, join Social Thinking founder Michelle Garcia Winner for strategies to help people navigate social situations by making smart guesses. Encourage individuals who tend to be black-and-white thinkers to engage in gray-area thinking, stay calm, problem solve, and meet their social goals.

Flexible & Stuck Thinking

#8 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Flexible & Stuck Thinking. Click here to watch

Flexible thinking is essential in the social world. Many things we do every day require it: interpreting what others are saying and doing, understanding humor, learning in a classroom, working with others, being an effective employee, etc. The first step to becoming more flexible is developing awareness of our own and others’ stuck thinking. Join Michelle Garcia Winner for strategies to help individuals develop more flexible thinking and learn how our Superflex curriculum is part of this journey. Plus, discover which Social Thinking materials will help you teach this concept across different age groups!

Size of the Problem

#9 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Size of the Problem. Click here to watch

Math is not the only activity that requires problem solving; we’re constantly problem solving socially when communicating with others, working in groups, doing homework, self-regulating, etc. Along the way, we encounter problems of different sizes that can cause negative emotions. We teach that it’s expected to match the size of our reaction to the size of the problem (though this concept should be taught differently to different ages). For example, small problems warrant small reactions or none at all—however, this often requires emotional regulation—and that is easier said than done! In fact, some kids and adults get stuck focusing on their negative emotions instead of solving the problem—which can cause even more problems. Join Michelle Garcia Winner as she cracks open problem solving and emotional responses and shares developmentally based strategies to help individuals navigate it all. Plus, discover which Social Thinking materials will help you teach social problem solving across the ages!

Sharing an Imagination

#10 in Our Series of 10 Core Concepts

Sharing an Imagination. Click here to watch

We tend to think imaginations are only for the young! Yet sharing an imagination is essential across the ages for having a conversation, working in a team, creating new things, reading comprehension, peer play, social networking, and more. Join Social Thinking’s founder, Michelle Garcia Winner, as she explains what we mean by sharing an imagination, how all nine Social Thinking concepts taught in this webinar series lead to it, and how this concept is critical (and, we think, uniquely suited) to helping individuals of all ages develop social competencies. Plus, discover which Social Thinking materials will help you teach this concept across different age groups!