You may have heard about Social Detective, Superflex, and the cast of colorful characters that help kids work on self-regulation. Kids around the world are having so much fun learning strategies and practicing new skills to boost their “Superflex powers,” they don’t realize they’re improving their self-regulation and flexible thinking abilities! (New to Superflex? See what it’s all about in this short article.)

Get started teaching students to observe what’s happening in the social world and empower their own Superflex with this Get Started Bundle. It’s composed of the foundational products in our Superflex series, the new Superflex Super Sticker Collection: Thinkables & Unthinkables* (we are officially changing Unthinkables to UnthinkaBots over the course of 2021-22), plus the Superflex: My Hero Inside music CD is included for free! Looking for the complete collection of Superflex products? Check out the Superflex All-In-One Bundle.

These products are designed to be used in a specific order to foster children’s learning and growth. Though we as interventionists often want kids to simply “control their behavior,” the act of doing so is surprisingly complicated. For kids to learn to self-regulate, they must first develop solid social awareness which includes an understanding of the social norms for a particular context and the self-awareness and perspective taking to adapt their behavior to fit social norms. Since self-regulation requires an array of social competencies, it’s important to support children in developing these before we can expect them to self-regulate. Begin with the award-winning book, You are a Social Detective! It introduces our unique Social Thinking Vocabulary to help kids learn more about social norms, perspective taking, and how our actions impact others. (If you’re working with kids between the ages of 4-7, consider also teaching the We Thinkers! Series to give further instruction on foundational social concepts. Then, move on to the Superflex Curriculum.) See the products included in this bundle and the order in which to teach them below.

Bundle Products: Use in This Sequence

Start Here:

1. You are a Social Detective! (A 2021 multi-award winner!)

Though Superflex does not appear in this book, it introduces the foundational concepts required for social self-regulation—earning its spot as the first book of the Superflex series. The award-winning 2^nd edition of You are a Social Detective! encourages kids to become “social detectives” to observe the social world and learn unique Social Thinking Vocabulary to help them figure out what the social expectations are in different contexts. This revised and expanded book also helps kids work on perspective taking, as they learn that everyone has thoughts and feelings about each other (including about them!) and that their words and actions impact others. Only when students develop a working knowledge of the expectations they have for others in the social world and understand that the world has expectations for them as well are they ready to learn how to self-regulate using their inner Superflex to meet those greater expectations. You are a Social Detective! is an award-winning storybook that should be taught over an extended period of time and revisited often to encourage social learning in all contexts. For interventionists, a few lesson ideas are included to guide further teaching of these concepts. Buy the book as part of the bundle, or separately at full price. Digital version must be purchased separately—only on Apple Books and Google Play with an audio feature for accessibility.

2. Superflex… A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum Package (two-book set)

Once you’ve finished teaching You Area a Social Detective!, it’s time to move on to the Superflex Curriculum Package. For the past 10+ years, kids around the world have been having fun developing their social self-regulation with these characters. In this two-book set, get to know Superflex, a self-regulation superhero, and the 14 original Unthinkables—quirky, engaging characters who represent common unexpected behaviors. Through the Superflex Curriculum, kids will enjoy learning about flexible thinking, gaining strategies to defeat Unthinkables, and practicing pro-social behaviors on their journeys toward social self-regulation. The charming storybook introduces kids to the pretend realm of Social Town, Superflex, and the Unthinkables. The curriculum includes lessons, handouts, and visual tools to transform your classroom, clinic, or home into a Superflex Academy. Teach students to access their superflexible thinking and to foster social self-regulation. Mainstream kids love Superflex too! Buy the curriculum package as part of the bundle, or separately for full price.

Use to Support the Superflex Curriculum (in Any Order):

Superflex Bingo

Superflex Bingo is a flexible, fun, and educational game that helps kids solidify Social Thinking Vocabulary from You are a Social Detective! and the Superflex Curriculum, while studying the powers of the Unthinkables. Use it alongside or after the Superflex Curriculum to help kids familiarize themselves with the concepts and characters to use in their self-regulation journeys. Students listen to a situation read aloud and figure out a Social Thinking concept or Superflex character that fits the situation, placing a game piece on the square that matches their thinking. The game is designed so that all players “win” by getting bingos during the session, alleviating the behavior dysregulation that can often occur in competitive games. Buy the game as part of the bundle, or separately for full price.

Superflex Super Sticker Collection: Thinkables & Unthinkables

Over 500 fun and colorful stickers showcase our team of Unthinkables, our team of Thinkables, and the idea that “Superflex is Me!” Perfect for use at home, at school, in the clinic, or on the go, these stickers complement Superflex®… A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum as a great way to support the lessons that Superflex and the Team of Thinkables are within each of us providing metacognitive strategies to figure out how to self-regulate in different social contexts. The stickers should be used to encourage a metacognitive focus and promote self-awareness of kids’ own Thinkable powers, as well as the powers of their Unthinkables. (Read more in our free article.) Buy the stickers as part of the bundle, or separately for full price.

Included Free! Superflex: My Hero Inside (Music CD)

Sing away the pesky Unthinkables with 13 adorable Superflex songs that support self-regulation! Kids light up listening to fun, catchy songs with educational lyrics about training at the Superflex Academy, being a Social Detective, living in Social Town, overcoming the Destroyer of Fun, discovering their “hero inside” and much more. Once students are introduced to the world of Superflex, the songs can be used at any time to promote ongoing social learning. Preview the music and download the lyrics. The CD is included free in the bundle!

*Name Change from the Team of Unthinkables to the Team of UnthinkaBots

We have officially changed the name of the Team of Unthinkables to the Team of UnthinkaBots. The Superflex curriculum was born in 2008, and over its lifetime we have relied on input and ideas from clients, students, families, teachers, and therapists in both the neurodivergent and neurotypical worlds. Using their feedback and our own clinical experience, we have refined the curriculum series to include Thinkables, expand the characters in Social Town, and add the You Are a Social Detective, 2nd edition, storybook as a way to welcome social learners into the Superflex Universe. Recently, while meeting with neurodivergent adults, we discovered that the concept behind the creation of the Unthinkables was misunderstood and, at times, misused in classrooms and clinics by having certain Unthinkables represent children or people, rather than specific thoughts or actions.

To encourage interventionists to use these concepts in the manner intended, we are changing the name of Unthinkables to UnthinkaBots. With this new name, social learners can now imagine the Bots that try to control some of our thoughts and actions. For example, Was Funny Once releases SillyBots to get us to use humor at unexpected times and in unexpected situations. We all can learn to tackle the SillyBots with strategies and tools from the Social Thinking® Methodology. We hope you will enjoy imagining new ways to think about the UnthinkaBot characters in classrooms, small groups, and at home! One more thing. We replaced 4 of the 14 “first generation” characters with new names: Mean Bean (previously Mean Gene/Jean), Me-Gull (formerly One-sided Sid), Body Drifter (formerly Body Snatcher), and Blurt Out Blue (formerly Grump Grumpaniny).

We will be updating our products with these changes over the course of 2021 and 2022. It makes sense that we’re teaching students to be superflexible, since we, as publishers, also flex a lot as we learn. We hope you enjoy incorporating these important updates.