Think Social

Think Social by Michelle Garcia Winner. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780970132048.

This book builds on the basic philosophy offered in THINKING ABOUT YOU THINKING ABOUT ME. Created at the request of educators, therapists and parents to learn more about how to teach students with weak social cognition and related social skills (Asperger’s Syndrome, PDD-NOS, High Functioning Autism, ADHD, NLD, Hyperlexia) and those with murky social abilities. Many of the lessons Michelle weaves into her workshops are written in detail in this book, and there are many more the audiences have never heard! This comprehensive curriculum, breaks detailed lessons into eight chapters demonstrating how lessons evolve from working as a member of a group and observing others, through behavioral self-monitoring, interpreting and producing non-verbal/verbal responses and cues, while also providing hands on strategies for learning about many other areas of social complexity. Each practical lesson builds on the next, across the months and years. IEP goals, tied to Educational Standards, follow each chapter to help parents and professionals connect social goals relate to core academic success. The Curriculum also encourages student self-monitoring with the use of video feedback. The focus of each chapter is to teach a set of “social thinking vocabulary” to be carried out of the therapy room and used across the student’s entire day; both at the school and home. A handout defining these social thinking concepts is provided for parents and professionals working with these students to encourage the carry over of these key concepts. This curriculum is helpful to any parent or professional trying to understand the depth and complexity of teaching social thinking and related social skills to children who are weak in developing these areas. The publication certainly teaches all of us that we cannot take social development for granted.