Using the 4 Steps of Communication and the Social Thinking–Social Competency Model as a backdrop, attendees will learn about the role of social attention, interpretation, problem solving, and social responses as part of navigating the social world. We explore how to teach, and learn the evidence base for, core treatment* frameworks and a handful of unique and practical strategies based on the Social Thinking Vocabulary. Attendees will learn how one’s social attention to the situation and people in the situation can encourage understanding of the expected behaviors for that social context. We also describe ways to teach interpreting and responding by making smart guesses to discover hidden social rules and the relationship to social emotional learning.

Attendees will explore specific treatment strategies for how our bodies establish physical presence in a group (body in the group) and how we think with our eyes to gain awareness of the social environment, whether interacting or simply sharing space. Throughout the course, we emphasize how to make abstract concepts more concrete through clinical examples.

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

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.

Using the 4 Steps of Communication and the Social Thinking–Social Competency Model as a backdrop, attendees will learn about the role of social attention, interpretation, problem solving, and social responses as part of navigating the social world. We explore how to teach, and learn the evidence base for, core treatment* frameworks and a handful of unique and practical strategies based on the Social Thinking Vocabulary. Attendees will learn how one’s social attention to the situation and people in the situation can encourage understanding of the expected behaviors for that social context. We also describe ways to teach interpreting and responding by making smart guesses to discover hidden social rules and the relationship to social emotional learning.

In The Social World – Part 1: Practical Vocabulary and Concepts for Teaching How It Works of this two-part series, we introduce two core treatment frameworks and a handful of concrete Social Thinking Vocabulary to use with individuals of different ages and social learning abilities. Learn practical ways to make abstract social concepts more concrete to give social learners a clear pathway to understanding social expectations. Understand the foundation of evidence underlying the tools.

In The Social World – Part 2: Practical Vocabulary and Concepts to Navigate to Regulate you will learn additional Social Thinking Vocabulary to make abstract social concepts more concrete. We describe treatment examples for guiding social learners to build social competencies in conversations, executive functions, self-awareness, self-regulation, perspective taking, and flexible thinking.

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

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Define the six layers of evidence represented in the Social Thinking Methodology’s Research to Frameworks to Practice.
2. Describe a treatment activity for teaching toward the first step of the Four Steps of Communication (e.g., thinking about others).
3. Describe the relationship between joint attention and the Social Thinking Vocabulary term think with your eyes.
4. Describe an activity to teach how to use one’s eyes to show interest or follow the group plan (e.g., thinking with eyes).

Agenda

• 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • Introduction to understanding the link from research to frameworks to practice via layers of evidence supporting the Social Thinking Methodology.
  • Explore the 5 Steps of Being Part of a Group and the Social Thinking–Social Competency Model
• 10-minute break Break
• 2 hours and 10 minutes
  • Delve into teaching components of the Four Steps of Communication and treatment strategies and activities related to thinking, physical presence, and how we use our eyes to gather social information.
  • Explore strategies and vocabulary for teaching about the social world.
  • Previously recorded Q & A session

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
• ...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