Executive functions are important for developing social and organizational competencies throughout our daily activities. While it may be obvious that social and organizational learning helps us to work in groups and acquire academic information, these same core competencies help us socially problem solve within and across our daily lives. Sarah Ward, an internationally recognized expert and dynamic speaker on executive functions, followed by Michelle Garcia Winner and Dr. Pamela Crooke, co-developers of the Social Thinking Methodology, present two different keynotes on this complex topic. Social and organizational awareness, prioritizing, and goal setting to then develop and carry out realistic action plans are some of the many concepts we expect students to acquire without direct instruction. In this course, you’ll learn how to use specific language, tech tools & strategies to foster development of situational awareness, mental time travel, self-awareness, and self-evaluation—all of which contribute to personal self-regulation.

Students often find technology and games of all sorts to be motivating and fun. Our goal as interventionists is to use these engaging tools to foster their metacognitive awareness of group think. Sean Sweeney, returns to the Providers’ Conference to kick off Day 2 where you’ll discover specific digital tools to motivate and support your students/clients’ social learning of key concepts to enhance their perspective taking, working together in groups, and forming stronger social connections. In the second keynote, Allison King leads her team of expert practitioners in unpacking innovative best practices for selecting and implementing games to better support students’ quest to learn strategies toward accomplishing their self-identified goals.

The same abilities to think socially that are required to relate effectively to others are also essential for success in academics. Dynamic practitioners and award-winning coauthors, Kari Zweber Palmer and Ryan Hendrix team up again to explore the use of concepts within the Social Thinking Methodology that can be used from the start of a new school year or any time in between. This course explains how to set up for social connection and academic success in schools. Review core strategies and tools to support students in learning more about the social world around them and navigating to regulate to meet their own needs and social goals. We’ll focus on practical strategies and ideas for use in classrooms, as well as schoolwide implementation, building a bridge between environments and people to support the social mind and learning across a student’s day.