Free Articles & Strategies
100+ free articles devoted to building stronger social awareness
Feeling Safer Behind Screens: Why Real-Life Interaction Feels Harder
Real-life social interaction can feel more difficult than digital communication, but practical strategies and Social Thinking Vocabulary can help build comfort and confidence in everyday, in-person interactions.
Respecting Neurodiversity by Helping Social Learners Meet Their Personal Goals
Neurodiversity should be acknowledged and celebrated, while individuals who want support in understanding and navigating the social world should have access to strategies for building social competence and reaching their self-determined social goals. Rather than aiming to “fix” or “cure,” social-emotional teaching provides a concrete way to understand how the social world works and offers all individuals the opportunity to develop social strategies if they choose.
DOs and DON'Ts for Teaching with Social Thinking Materials
While traveling, people inquire about the "DOs and DON'Ts" of Social Thinking. The response emphasizes flexibility, observation, support, and presence. It turns out that the advice given to students and clients applies to everyone.
10 DOs and DON'Ts for Teaching Superflex
Superflex® has become super-popular! We have enjoyed hearing from so many people around the world about their love of Superflex and the Team of UnthinkaBots and Thinkables and the positive effect the Superflex curriculum has on helping individuals become better social thinkers and social problem solvers!
The Social Thinking–Social Competency Model (ST-SCM)
Have you ever wondered how do we know what to do or say in a given situation? The Social Thinking-Social Competency Model breaks down this big, complex process into four foundational steps.
Screens Are Now the Guardrails of Childhood Social Experiences
Screens are part of our everyday world, but phones and tablets have quietly shrunk much of our social experience into small, focused rectangles, pulling our attention away from external social cues; learning to “think with their eyes” helps students make sense of real-world situations.
Teaching Social Thinking and Real-World Communication
Learn how online learning and products from the Social Thinking® Methodology help to make real world communication less confusing for kids (and adults!). We break down the social world into teachable parts, like understanding emotions, joining group activities, and noticing the “hidden rules” that guide everyday interactions. It’s all about helping students build the confidence and social tools they need to connect with others in meaningful, authentic ways.
Step Into My Sessions: Backed by Science: Tabletop Games as Powerful Therapy Tools
Over the past decade, research has continued to highlight the therapeutic potential of tabletop games for building language, social, and cognitive skills. Together, these findings underscore what many of us see in our sessions: tabletop games offer a research-backed, evidence-based way to target language and social learning while keeping students engaged and motivated.
Brain Hacks: 12 Tips to Activate Your Mental Superpower
Ever wish you had a superpower to handle stress, stay organized, and crush your goals? Here are 12 practical tips to help you strengthen your executive functioning, activate your mental superpower, and feel more in control of your day.
Thinking Out Loud: Sports/Social Casting
Like a sportscaster for daily life, Social Casting (or Thinking Out Loud) helps kids decode social environments, promoting awareness and empathy through guided observation while building the student’s competencies in observing, interpreting, and anticipating social outcomes.
Identifying Executive Functions to Engage Executive Functioning
Support social learners in developing executive functioning skills with a simple 4-step framework. Learn how routines, goal-setting, self-regulation, and flexible thinking build the foundation for success in school, friendships, and life.
The Direction of Reflection
A Visual Tool for Checking In on Myself
Checking in on ourselves is just part of being human. Reflecting on how we’re feeling, what we’re thinking, and what we need is often the fuel that ignites our decisions about what we do or say (or not do or say) to meet our own goals for the situation. If we are checking in on ourselves, we can figure out if we need (or want) help from others.
The Social Thinking Vocabulary
The energy of students flows from the hallway into the classroom as a new school day begins. Students put their bodies in the group, think with their eyes to make a smart guess about the group plan, and use flexible thinking and problem solving throughout the day.
Just Because Someone Says, “I Don’t Care,” Doesn’t Necessarily Mean They Don't!
The “I Don’t Care Scale” is a visual tool co-developed by teens to help educators, therapists, and caregivers better understand the perspective of the student who routinely responds with, “I don’t care.” It also acknowledges an individual’s point of view with empathy and without judgement while promoting meaningful discussions.
Is It Worth the Risk? Exploring the Value of the Social Risk Scale
Consider that everything we do or say, and possibly what we don’t do or say, is perceived and interpreted by others. The Social Risk Scale is a simple visual tool to empower people to make their own decisions related to their social goals.
The 3 Parts of Play: Teaching Planning and Executive Functions
The 3 Parts of Play/Activity is a visual framework designed to teach social learners about planning, choice making, and time management (all executive functions). It also explains that any activity, whether individual- or group-based, has at least three parts, and all parts involve time prediction.
How Can We Rally Our Motivation?
Summary:
- Finding the drive to complete hard or boring tasks is a learned skill that requires direct teaching, especially when kids or adults deal with anxiety or negative self talk.
- Simple strategies like breaking tasks into smaller chunks, setting up clear routines, and building in rewards make getting started much easier.
- Practical tools help put these concepts into action, including multiple free downloadables: Learning How to Be Comfortable with Discomfort teaching framework, 5 Steps to Getting Things Done, Asking for Help Strategy Card, How to Solve Problems Before (or After) They Become Problems, and Consider Your Social Risk Scale.
Empowering Student Voices
The Transformative Impact of Student-Led Social Learning & Advocacy
Listening to our students and trusting them as experts on their own experiences can transform the educational landscape through student-led approaches to social, emotional, and academic learning (SEAL). The powerful themes of choices and relationships highlight the essential elements needed for every student to feel a sense of belonging.
How to Foster Students’ Flexible Thinking & Advocacy Skills Using Future Thinking
The Somedays Activity
Engage your students in the Someday in School activity, a low-effort, high-impact group activity that cultivates future thinking, reasoning, and flexible thinking to develop advocacy skills, while fostering goal setting, interactions with others, and the practice of using their voice for advocacy.
DO ObseRve (DOOR)
A Practical Social Observation Strategy for Managing Social Transitions
Explore the teachable role that everyday doors play in developing social observation skills. By encouraging students, children, and clients to use the Do ObseRve strategy before entering a new space, they can gather information, make smart guesses about what to expect, and navigate social situations more effectively.