Key concepts explored in this series: executive functioning, organizational skills, self-motivation, growth mindset, academic performance, study skills, homework help

The majority of individuals with social learning challenges have difficulty developing organized thinking and related organizational skills to help them manage the increasingly complex expectations of school work, homework, and life throughout their school career and into their adult years. Our organizational abilities emerge from our executive functioning skills that are expected to develop with minimal direct instruction, as there are no educational standards with developmental learning objectives to guide this teaching, except for the development of written language. This four-part series of modules serves to bridge this gap to guide parents and professionals toward a variety of strategies as we teach a systems approach of teaching organized thinking and related organizational skills to help individuals, with or without learning challenges, improve their executive functioning related to homework assignments and school work.

*Treatment refers to using conceptual and strategy-based frameworks to help individuals improve their social thinking, skills, and competencies.

Key concepts explored in this series: Superflex curriculum, You Are a Social Detective, PBIS & RTI, self-regulation, social awareness.

This series is all about ensuring fidelity when using two of our key teaching materials, the award-winning You Are a Social Detective! and Superflex: A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum. The purpose of You Are a Social Detective! is to foster social pragmatic understanding using Social Thinking Vocabulary as kids learn to be social observers, or “social detectives.” The purpose of the Superflex curriculum (featuring our superhero, Superflex) is to help students develop their social thinking to improve self-awareness, self-monitoring and, ultimately, self-regulation. Though presented in a kid-friendly format, the teaching behind the playfulness has a scope and sequence that require time and thought on the part of the professional.

We will also share tips on how to adapt these teaching materials for early learners as well as for tweens and teens who have outgrown the cartoon hero teaching approach. Additionally, we’ll explore how all this information dovetails with educational standards, social-emotional learning, Response to Intervention (RTI), and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

Why We Created This Series:
We created this series because we realized some professionals were not recognizing the depth, complexity, and developmental appropriateness embedded in some of our teaching materials, particularly Social Detective and Superflex. The result was that some students were becoming more dysregulated rather than learning self-regulation!

Each module in this series encourages awareness of a student’s developmental level while sharing best teaching practices for You Are a Social Detective!, Superflex: A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum, and other related Social Thinking products. We describe how to teach these materials and elements of the broader Social Thinking Methodology with fidelity based on common questions we receive and our observations of where more clarity is needed.

Content Disclosure: This series does not teach about any other methodologies or programs aside from the Social Thinking Methodology.

*Treatment refers to using conceptual and strategy-based frameworks to help individuals improve their social thinking, skills, and competencies.