What is Social Thinking
Social Thinking in the ASD Nest Program's Inclusive Public School Model: Lessons in Differentiating, Generalization, Trapdoors, and the Benefits of Dynamic Social Thinking Groups
Brennan & Lanou
Sunday, June 24, 2012 10:15 AM
Click here for the handouts 
Description
Having implemented Social Thinking in groups for students with ASD, we knew that social cognition was essential for our students. However, what if we could bring the ST paradigm into students’ schools and classrooms every moment of every school day? What if academic lessons could be taught using ST language and peer relationships could be facilitated “in the moment” using ST concepts? Imagine the possibilities for student growth and generalization across environments.The New York City ASD Nest Program has done just that, in the largest public school system in the country. The ASD Nest provides ST supports for children on the spectrum and their neurotypical peers. For over 500 students with ASD in NYC, the school day is saturated with ST concepts and supports. The Nest aims to provide a supportive learning environment for our students to actively engage in social thinking.
In this presentation, we will share what the Social Thinking Paradigm looks like when combined with the developmental pragmatics model (DPM) in inclusive public school classrooms. We will demonstrate how the ASD NEST structure molded our use of ST. Lastly we will combine what we learned about ST with our belief in a strength based model. This will be illustrated in our work with The Subways Sleuths at NYC’s Transit Museum and at The Social Underground in dynamic social groups for middle and high school students.
Objectives
- Participants will understand the implementation of the Social Thinking Paradigm into the Nest's ASD inclusive (ICT) public school classroom.
- Participants will learn about the benefits of ST to both ASD and neurotypical peers as well as the 'trapdoors' of implementation into a model where students are exposed to this thinking 5 days a week by all educators.
- Participants will be given salient and concrete examples of the Nest's use of ST and how to combine this approach with student's strengths and interests in social groups outside of the school setting.