This two-part series introduces interventionists (professionals and parents) to the many important facets of development that underlie social emotional learning in preschool- and early elementary-age students, clients, and patients. What looks like pure fun to us has important social learning consequences for the developing mind. The ability to participate in collaborative play and learn as part of a group depends upon flexible thinking, competent language ability, self-regulation, and solid social emotional development, as well as the executive functioning skills to manage all of these simultaneously. Educational standards highlight the importance of classroom listening and collaboration, which are hallmarks of developmental learning in preschool and early elementary years. In this this series, Teaching Social Thinking to Early Learners through Stories and Play-Based Activities, we share key information and innovative practices for helping early learners with average to strong language and learning abilities develop critical social competencies, including:

• A research perspective on social emotional learning and executive functioning/self-regulation—and their interactive impact on socio-communicative abilities—and how to put the research and best practices of teaching social information into action
• Five Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts that have been adapted for children ages 4-7: thoughts and feelings, the group plan, thinking with your eyes, body in the group, and whole body listening
• Methods to teach these concepts through storybooks, music, structured activities, and play
• A variety of strategies to use in the classroom, online learning environment, home, or clinic.

Part 2: Building on Foundations—Thinking with Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening expands on the foundations and key researched components of social-cognitive development introduced in Part 1 as they connect to the core Social Thinking® concepts taught through our curriculum. In this course, we focus on the concepts thinking with your eyes, body in the group, and whole body listening. These core concepts support the ability to gather information about what is happening in your environment, what others are thinking and how they are feeling (perspective taking), and what the plan of the group might be. We break down the steps to thinking with your eyes, exploring physical presence, and helping your brain to be available to information around you through active listening. This all sets the stage for successful communication and interaction. This course puts the research into practice to support learning about the social world and how we work within it. And we answer some frequently asked questions about how to expand the teaching to your own bookshelf and materials, as well as how we take data to measure learning outcomes.

NOTE: Treatment refers to using conceptual and strategy-based frameworks to help individuals improve their social competencies.

If you began your learning about this topic and series with this course, please watch Part 1: Foundations for Early Learners—Thoughts, Feelings, and the Group Plan of the series to learn background information and sequential lessons that must be taught prior to jumping to the lessons in Part 2.

Who Should Attend

The Social Thinking Methodology is used by a wide variety of professionals; including speech-language pathologists, special and general education teachers, social workers, counselors, clinical and school psychologists, occupational therapists, behavior specialists, and school administrators to name a few. It’s also used by family members and caregivers across settings.

This two-part series teaches parents and professionals to implement with fidelity our award-winning curriculum, storybooks, and music collection: We Thinkers! Volume 1: Social Explorers (formerly The Incredible Flexible You!). The vocabulary and strategies are adaptable for use with other activities and age-appropriate literature. The series includes two courses:

Part 1: Foundations for Early Learners—Thoughts, Feelings, and the Group Plan

Part 2: Building on Foundations—Thinking with Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening

Throughout this series, you will learn not just the “why” behind the concepts we teach but the “how” with practical strategies and examples that you can start infusing into the things you already do and say.

Series Content Disclosure: While this series includes information about other products and the work of other authors, it primarily focuses on the content included in the We Thinkers! Volume 1 Social Explorers curriculum guide and storybooks to teach this information with fidelity.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify key milestones that support social attention and observation.
2. Describe two ways to structure learning experiences in preschool and early elementary settings to promote social emotional learning.
3. Describe at least three ways to teach Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts thinking with your eyes, body in the group, and whole body listening to students ages 4–7.
4. Explain the role of descriptive praise in supporting resilience.

Agenda

This agenda may change without notice.

• 9:00-10:20
  • Social Thinking Vocabulary: thinking with your eyes, body in the group and whole body listening
  • Practical strategies for teaching these social concepts through storybooks, music, structured activities, and play
• 10:20–10:30 Break
• 10:30–12:40
  • Continue to explore core social concepts
  • Explore frequently asked questions about implementing the Social Thinking Methodology for early learners
  • Bringing it all together: using Social Thinking Vocabulary as a means of giving effective feedback
  • Q & A

Earn Continuing Education Credit

Click here to see detailed Continuing Education Information by Profession and by State

When you register as a Professional for a livestream or recorded event sponsored by Social Thinking (i.e., the conference has a dedicated page on our website) you gain access to CE credit at no additional cost. Find your profession below to learn about your CE options. Each course provides 3.5 hours of instruction and each attendee will be given a certificate of attendance and a course agenda as proof of participation. For information about CE credit offered by livestream or recorded events NOT sponsored by Social Thinking, please contact the sponsoring organization.

We are proud to provide access to continuing education credit for:

• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Educators
• Social Workers (Approval Pending)
• Counselors
• Clinical and School Psychologists (Approval Pending)
• ...and others!

Livestream Events Accessing Certificates of Attendance and/or CE certificate(s)
Immediately following the livestream course, an email will be sent with a questionnaire to verify your attendance. If you did, you will be asked to fill out the course evaluation. Upon submitting that back to our office, we will send a follow-up email providing you with further links to access Certificate of Attendance and CE certificates or forms. You will receive a separate email for each course day you registered to attend. An online form will be available to SLPs at that time to submit their ASHA info to claim ASHA CEUs.

Recorded Livestream Events Accessing Certificates of Attendance and/or CE certificate(s)
Following the expiration of the recording, we will send an email with a questionnaire. If you watched the recorded content, please fill out the questionnaire and survey. We will then send the follow-up email with the Certificate of Attendance. An online form will be available to SLPs at that time to submit their ASHA info to claim ASHA CEUs.

Remember, mental health professionals can only receive CE credit if they watched the live version of the courses (approval is pending). The recorded copy is not eligible for mental health CE credit.

Contact your licensing and/or certification organization
We are approved to offer access to CE credit in many instances. Because state requirements can change without notice, we recommend contacting your regulatory board or licensing organization to verify course approval to be 100% confident you can earn CE credit for our courses. Please note that licensing and/or certification organizations have varying requirements that must be fulfilled to earn CE credit for attending a continuing education event.

If your profession is not listed, we recommend you contact your licensing organization to determine whether they will approve our courses. All attendees will receive a certificate of attendance and agenda for each course as proof of participation.

Click here to see detailed Continuing Education Information by Profession and by State