Social Emotional Learning with Social Thinking Featured in Edutopia

Establishing a Culture of Mindfulness in Elementary School

Providing opportunities for students and staff to participate in wellness practices can start with one dedicated day each week.

Edutopia | July 12, 2022

Learn how a school counselor uses Social Thinking's Size of My Problem framework in her school's Wellness Wednesday initiative, which establishes weekly goals for taking a breath, finding moments of mindfulness, slowing down, resetting, and recharging.

Social Thinking has developed social emotional learning strategies for 25+ years. Our teachings help engage people in social learning not only about themselves but about others. Social Thinking does this by developing evidence-based strategies that help people age 4 through adult improve their social competencies, including: self-regulation, executive functioning, perspective taking, and social problem solving. While our deeper work is for individuals with social learning differences (ADHD, twice exceptional, social communication disorders, autism spectrum levels 1 and 2, etc. or no diagnosis,) a subset of our work has been adopted into mainstream classrooms and workplaces around the world to improve social emotional learning for all.

Establishing a Culture of Mindfulness in Elementary School

Edutopia's Story

Each follow-up activity for the monthly topic lasted 8 to 10 minutes. Many of the extension activities were created by adapting information learned from social and emotional learning (SEL) sites or were sparked through creative counseling techniques. For example, after reading The Boy With the Big, Big Feelings, students practiced the Social Thinking skill of identifying the size of the problem. Using a chart, students used sticky notes to write a problem and placed them on the chart of reactions that matched the size of the problem. Based on their responses, mindfulness practices were offered to support emotional regulation for students to use.

Students Learning to Measure the Size of a Problem

Edutopia | April 10, 2020

Social Thinking is honored to be part of this informative story from Edutopia about teaching critical social emotional learning skills using our lessons and frameworks from The Zones of Regulation, The Incredible 5-Point Scale, and Size of My Problem.

For additional social emotional learning, self-regulation and problem-solving resources, check out You Are a Social Detective, Superflex, and We Thinkers. We hope you find all our products helpful—we are honored to be a resource for you.

Edutopia's Story

Social Emotional Learning with The Zones of Regulation, The Incredible 5-Point Scale, and Social Thinking

When elementary students compare the relative importance of a range of problems, they learn to take charge of their reactions.

Teachers at Lister Elementary School help students compare and contrast the sizes of problems by having them fill out a Size of the Problem worksheet with actual examples. Help students compare and contrast the sizes of problems so they learn to take charge of their reactions.

Social Emotional Learning Tools Highlighted in Edutopia's Story

The Incredible 5-Point Scale 2nd Edition – Revised

The Incredible 5-Point Scale 2nd Edition – Revised Ages: 7+ New revised edition! This must-have resource teaches social learners about emotional self-regulation using easy-to-read scales and charts, refined through 20 years of implementation within homes, clinics, and classrooms around the world. The cognitive behavioral 5-point scale provides a visual reference for helping students better understand how they are feeling and their subsequent emotional reactions to develop better emotional control and problem-solving strategies. This revised edition includes a list of goals and objectives related to incorporating scales in students' IEPs, plus a link to free downloadable, printable blank scales, small portable scales, and worksheets. The 5-point scale dovetails effectively with many Social Thinking® concepts, such as Social Situation Mapping. Learn more

$24.99

The Zones of Regulation: A Curriculum Designed to Foster Self-Regulation and Emotional Control

The Zones of Regulation: A Curriculum Designed to Foster Self-Regulation and Emotional Control Ages: 4+ New updated emotions illustrations! This popular, easy-to-use framework and award-winning curriculum teaches strategies for managing emotions and sensory needs to individuals ages 4+. Rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy, the framework uses four colors to help individuals identify how they are feeling in the moment given their energy, emotions, and level of alertness, creating a colored system to guide them to metacognitive strategies and tools to support regulation. Help students learn how to understand and regulate their emotions, manage their sensory needs, and become more self-aware and skillful problem solvers. Learn more

$59.99

Social Emotional Learning with Social Thinking Featured in Edutopia

Establishing a Culture of Mindfulness in Elementary School

Edutopia's Story

Students Learning to Measure the Size of a Problem

Edutopia's Story

Social Emotional Learning Tools Highlighted in Edutopia's Story

What is Social Thinking?

We’ve been developing deep executive functioning, self-regulation, and social emotional learning strategies for 25 years! Our teachings help engage people in social emotional learning not only about themselves but about others.