This course introduces professionals and parents to the many important facets of development that underlie social learning in preschool and early elementary aged children.  What looks like pure fun to us has important social consequences for the developing mind. The ability to participate in collaborative pretend play and learn as part of a group depends upon having a flexible brain, competent language ability, self regulation, and solid social-emotional development as well the executive function skills to multi-task the use of all of the above! The Common Core Standards highlight the importance of “listening and collaboration” in the classroom, which are hallmarks of developmental learning in preschool and during the early elementary years. This course is designed to give participants knowledge of the key components of social cognitive development from birth to five years of age as they connect to the core concepts. Social-emotional growth, executive functioning/self-regulation and their interactive impact on socio-communicative abilities will also be discussed. This course will also focus on how to put the research and best practices of teaching social into action.  We will introduce five Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts that have been adapted for children ages 4-7:  Thoughts and Feelings, The Group Plan, Thinking With Your Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening.  We will explore methods to teach these concepts through storybooks, music, structured activities, and play.  We will also look at different strategies for service delivery in a variety of settings. Strategies for home and school are designed for young children with average to strong language and learning abilities.

PLEASE NOTE: While this course focuses on the use of one product - The Incredible Flexible You Vol. 1*,  there are strategies, concepts and vocabulary that apply to a wide range of materials. Our goal for this course is NOT to market this product, but instead to teach how to understand and use the curriculum in the manner it was designed. Our hope is to increase the consistency and fidelity in the ways in which all of us are teaching these concepts. If you (or your district or place of employment) are uncomfortable with a full day focusing on strategies related to a product(s), please select another course to attend.

Social executive functioning is at the heart of developing Shared, Collaborative, Interactive Play (SCIP). On this conference day we will teach how to move from the five basic Social Thinking lesson sets in We Thinkers! Volume 1**, our early learner curriculum, story books and music CD to the more complex lessons presented in Volume 2 (to be released in Spring, 2016). This day is filled with creative activities, which align with the research and extend our thinking about how to work, play and learn in groups.  Attendees will engage in group learning activities and learn strategies to use in their classroom or home the very next day! We will present concepts that include but are not limited to: The role of play and working as part of a group in the development of self-regulation, impulse control, social problem solving, and executive functioning. Why a child who has difficulty with social attention will have trouble with sharing an imagination and interacting/playing with peers. Strategies for individuals to develop the skills to decipher the “hidden rules” and social expectations in a specific context. The strategies revolve around the concepts of Flexible verses Stuck Thinking, recognizing the Size of the Problem, and strategies to stay calm, making Smart Guesses, and Sharing an Imagination. Learn to use our newest tool, Social Thinking’s Group Play and Problem Solving Scale (GPS) to understand the five different levels of play and how that relates to classroom participation and the Common Core/State Standards! Learn how the lessons and activities in the We Thinkers! curriculum are adapted for each level of the Social Thinking’s GPS. Explore how all of this is part of Social Emotional Learning that can be used in pre K-2 mainstream classrooms, connects to Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) as well as Response to Intervention (RTI).

*Treatment refers to conceptual and strategy-based frameworks for building understanding and use of social skills and social thinking.

**The Incredible Flexible You Volume 1 will eventually be renamed We Thinkers! Volume 1 Social Explorers due to the mass confusion caused by the use of the term "flexible" in the names of many of our products. There will be no content change in Volume 1, only a name change. Volume 2 is named We Thinkers! Volume 2 Social Problem Solvers. We thank you for being "flexible" about this change!

The reviews are in and they are terrific! Participants love the hands on activities while simultaneously learning how to teach core Social Thinking concepts and strategies. Utilizing video clips that incorporate deep lessons from The Four Steps of Communication treatment framework, we will guide you in hands-on activities to facilitate improved social communication skills with your students/clients/children. A detailed handout for guided observations, as well as a bag of physical manipulatives, will be provided for attendees to work in small groups to practice and interact with one another. Different activities will focus on students with different levels of the social mind:

1. Use the newly developed Cascade of Social Attention Checklist, which is only available at this conference. The Checklist is a tool to help evaluate an individual's social interpretive systems to better understand where to begin in the process of teaching how to think socially and ultimately produce related social skills. The Cascade also helps to explain why many of our students/clients/children have challenges with academic tasks such as reading comprehension and written expression.

2. For some literal-minded individuals who show challenges in social self-awareness and observational skills, we often see a struggle to distinguish what is real versus what they hope or wish would be real. The audience will learn and practice activities to encourage more reality-based perspective taking.

3. When trying to relate with others, many of our students/clients/children have a weak sense of physical presence and facial expressions. We will explore how to use simple technology (phone camera) and Popsicle sticks for teaching abstract ideas in very concrete ways.

4. We will also teach an array of activities to encourage social conversational skills within a group to balance participation between your more talkative and less talkative individuals.

5. Core lessons and activities will show a connection to the state and Common Core standards.  We will also include examples of goals and rubrics for the activities taught throughout the day. 6. Finally, we will track the social growth of four different clients over 5-15 years of development and discuss how social emotional and executive function needs shift across time.

It doesn’t get more exciting than this!  Dr. Ross Greene and Michelle Garcia Winner team up to help participants tackle a range of problems experienced by parents, professionals, and students.

Ross will kick off the day presenting his empirically supported model shared through his newest book, Lost and Found (2016). The Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) model has transformed thinking and practices in countless schools, inpatient psychiatry units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities. It has been associated with dramatic reductions in disciplinary referrals, detentions, suspensions, seclusions, and physical, chemical, and mechanical restraints.  The model represents a significant departure from discipline-as-usual:  it focuses on solving problems rather than on modifying behavior, emphasizes collaborative rather than unilateral solutions, encourages proactive rather than reactive intervention, de-emphasizes diagnostic categories, and provides practical, research-based tools for assessment and intervention. 

Ross will describe the key themes of the CPS model, how to assess lagging skills and unsolved problems, the three options (Plans A, B, and C) for solving problems with kids, and the ins and outs of solving problems collaboratively and proactively. Attendees will leave with an understanding of the underpinnings of the model, along with practical assessment and intervention tools to be used in a range of diverse settings.

Kicking off the afternoon, Michelle will explain how solving problems is at the heart of learning personal and social responsibility. In order to teach individuals how to engage in the problem solving process, we must also address social learning issues related to Theory of Mind, executive functioning and central coherence.  This leads us to teaching flexible thinking, exploring others’ points of view, making choices, identifying consequences, and a range of other strategies for helping people initiate communication and action plans related to their problems in times of stress. 

The ability to “blend in” socially is more about problem solving than it is about memorizing social skills to apply across different situations. It is through problem solving that we figure out how to choose and adapt our social and organizational skills to meet the hidden rules of any situation. Moving through a problem solving process to avoid or tackle difficult moments can also lead us to improved conflict resolution skills. 

Attendees will be provided a tool and a series of activities to engage individuals in the social and organizational problem solving process. This information is critical for improving social communication competencies.