Hooray for Summertime and a BIG Thank You!

Hooray for Summer Time!

I'm so proud of all the progress the students in the Baldwin SCORES program have made this year. Each student has done a fantastic job working toward achieving their individual goals. I couldn't be prouder. 

I have to extend a HUGE thank you to each of you who made a donation to our DonorsChoose.org project this spring. Wow! What an amazing response. Your generosity purchased an iPad mini for use by SCORES students. I appreciate your support so very much!

As we wind up this school year and look ahead to the 2014-15 school year, I'd like to share a few resources as well as suggestions to help prevent loss of learning over the summer. Yes, I definitely want your child to relax and play. After all, playing is the best way to learn, but also finding some fun ways to slide in practice/review opportunities will also help them be ready for the first day of school.

Once those 100 degree temps hit, it can be really tempting to resort to TV and video games, but please do what you can to limit the screen time and mix in some different play activities. Here are a few links to fun activities (with a little hidden learning mixed in!).

Click here to download your own summer fun checklist!

Click here for details about the Austin Public Library Summer Reading Program

If your child needs a little extra practice on math facts, please use Xtramath.org. It is an easy-to-use site that is automatically time limited to about 5 minutes. So, no need for timers or negotiation. Why not make it a routine to do a quick round of Xtramath before logging onto Minecraft? I promise it will pay off for your child next year!

Click here to visit Xtramath.org

If your child does his best writing on the computer, consider having him spend a little time on keyboarding practice games this summer. It is very difficult to find time during the school day for keyboarding practice! Practicing at home is the key to using technology effectively at school. The faster he can find the correct keys, the less frustrating writing will be and the more time we can spend improving composition. Click here to view a list of good keyboarding game sites. 

Look for authentic ways to encourage writing. Have your child help jot his favorite items on the grocery list, or send an email to a relative, or write a vacation postcard to a friend. If he doesn't have anyone to email, send it to me. I promise to write back! 

Finally, I apologize for being a broken record (because I know I bring up this issue at every break!), but  please remember that just because the kids are excited to have summer break doesn't mean that anxiety isn't present. Often, having a less structured schedule takes a toll on our kiddos. The use of a basic schedule can greatly reduce this stress. Here's a link to a previous post on how to use a basic, quick, easy-to-apply schedule to decrease anxiety and prevent behavioral issues. Click here for the post.

As always, please know that I check my email a few times a week over the summer, so if you have questions or changes happen over the summer that will affect your child's transition back to school in August, please let me know.  I will be spending plenty of time hanging with Jackson & Jacob, reading tons and tons of great books and diving into new writing projects. So, if you see me in my "office" (aka: corner table at Starbucks buried in my laptop), please say hi! My husband, boys, and I are also planning a trip to Europe in August, so I may come back jet-lagged, but will have great stories to share with the kids. I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing summer and enjoy time with your children!

DonorsChoose.org Project Information

Dear Parents,
Thanks so much for supporting the SCORES project on the DonorsChoose.org website. We are working to raise $351 to purchase an iPad Mini and protective case to use with children who benefit from assistive technology for writing needs as well as to support social communication goals. If you are interested in supporting this project, please visit this link.

The great thing is that if you donate by April 10, you donation will be matched dollar for dollar by DonorsChoose (up to $100). Please feel free to share this information with friends or family who would be interested in supporting this goal.

Click here to visit the DonorsChoose.org Project Link

Thanks for considering this request. I really appreciate your support!
Kelley Hively

Social Thinking Group Updates ~ 3rd Nine Weeks

We've had a great time in Social Thinking groups over the past 9 weeks. Here are updates about the topics that we've tackled...

• Kindergarten/1st grade group: We've been learning the basics of Whole Body Listening and have read the book Whole Body Listening Larry at School. We've practiced "looking like Larry" as we attend with our whole body to the group. We've continued to work on being able to accurately identify feelings in static examples and beginning to attach the "why" of thoughts to the feelings. We've worked on basic play skills including sharing, taking turns, participating in a game even when it is not our preferred activity, and handling winning and losing. Finally, we've begun to work on basic social problem solving in book format by reading a story with a problem and then rewinding back to the beginning to find another way to approach the issue that will result in a more positive solution. These boys are working hard!

• 1st grade group: We began this 9 weeks by studying the Social Detective. The Social Detective is a super smart dude who uses three tools to help him make good social guesses. The tools in the social detective's toolbag are his EYES, EARS, and BRAIN. He takes the information he sees and hears and runs it through his brain computer to be able to make a smart social guess about what is expected and what might happen next.
  
  We practiced first with static images and then moved onto short dynamic video clips where the boys had to identify what in the video was expected/unexpected and make a prediction about what might happen next. This is TOUGH, but they became successful Social Detectives!
  
  Next, we moved on to beginning to learn about Superflex. Superflex is a super hero who uses his flexible brain power to help him defeat a team of Unthinkables. Unthinkables are not "bad guys", but instead are troublemakers who bother all of us at different times. So far, we've learned about defeating Rockbrain (his power is making you get stuck on your own ideas and not flexing to work with the group) and Crankenstein (who makes you fuss and say or do mean things when you don't get your way). When the boys demonstrated that they knew basic facts about Superflex and were ready to take on the challenge of growing their Superflexible powers, they were awarded with a Superflex cape. They have since earned their first "power badge" for demonstrating the power to defeat Rockbrain. They are currently working on earning their second "power badge" for defeating Crankenstein.
   
  One of the ways that we've practiced defeating Rockbrain was by running obstacle courses on the playground. But there was a catch! At any time in the routine, we would call "freeze" and change the plan. The kids had to be able to switch their activity to match the new direction. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  2nd grade: We have learned about applying our Superflex knowledge to solve social problems using the 5 Step Power Plan.
  
   click to download
  
  
  We have also engaged in a long unit on building conversation skills. The students have learned the parts of a conversation and that to maintain a conversation we have to keep the ball bouncing back and forth between participants. We can keep the ball bouncing by asking a follow-up question or comment. At home, you can practice this by encouraging your child to keep the ball bouncing back and forth between conversation partners during family time at dinner or even in the car as you run errands.
  
   click here to download
  
  
  Feel free to download either of the above visuals to help reinforce these concepts at home by clicking on the link below each image.
  
  
  3rd grade: During this 3rd nine weeks, we had a great time applying the social thinking concepts that the boys have been working to develop over the past couple of years in a cooperative movie project. The boys were divided into teams and assigned at least two Unthinkables to target. They had to work together to develop a story with a beginning, middle, and end that stayed on-topic. They created storyboards to tell the story, wrote scripts, designed sets from Legos, and then took about a bazillion photographs with digital cameras. I then helped them construct a stop-action movie on the computer where we applied sound effects and the boys recorded their dialogue. 
  
  
  The boys had to use many skills that targeted executive functioning including setting a goal, planning, negotiation and compromise, time management, writing skills, and their individual targeted language/articulation goals.
  
  
  Our movie premiere was quite the event and a visiting celebrity (Dr. Pena!) attended. The boys were super proud of themselves! And I was so impressed by the high level the boys applied all the social learning that they've done. This is a super group of young people!
  
  
  Check out their fantastic movie creations here...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We also finally harvested our garden. All groups were able to harvest a little bit, but unfortunately I only had my camera with me during one of the groups. :( So, here are a few shots of the great carrot/broccoli/cauliflower harvest. 
  
  
  The kids (and I!) definitely have great appreciation for anyone who lives off the land. :)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Considerations When Teaching Social Thinking

An article was published recently by Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP and Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP of Social Thinking Center in a recent addition of Attention Magazine by CHADD that examined the Cascade of Social Thinking. This is a great way to explain how I assess and plan for individual student Social Thinking instruction. I'd like to share a few excerpts from the article to better share the thought process that goes into analyzing each student's social functioning and making critical decisions about this instruction.

When analyzing student social functioning, I look for many elements in both static and dynamic situations. Students must be able to accurately demonstrate various thought processes and actions in structured, static situations before being asked to generalize to more dynamic, changing situations. Often, this is why there is a difference between the experience that a parent may have with a particular social skill at home compared to what we see at school. At school, we practice the skill with the appropriate amount of scaffolding that the student requires at that time. Imagine this support as a highly involved scaffold at a construction site and over time the scaffolding is decreased. When a student requires a high level of prompting or cueing and a more structured/static situation to practice, the scaffolding level is high. Over time, we will move the skill to less prompting/cueing while keeping the practice opportunities structured and static. When the student can handle that level, we pull back the prompting or cueing and/or expand the people and environments in which they practice the skill. Eventually (hopefully!) the student can generalize the skill to many people and environments with minimal to no cueing.

As you can imagine, based upon the social complexity of the skill, this can take a good long while to achieve. The other issue is buy-in. The student needs to see the benefit to themselves of engaging in the hard work of practicing this new skill. Just like working out, developing social thinking skills takes a lot of stamina!

Take a look below at the Cascade of Social Thinking. This clearly explains the various levels that students travel as they develop their Social Thinking skills.
excerpted from Social Learning and Social Functioning by Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP and Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP. Published in Attention Magazine by CHADD, October 2013 www.CHADD.org

Things are never quite as simple as they seem and this is most certainly the case with social learning. As

children, most of us followed a similar developmental journey when acquiring social skills but rarely do we

now give thought to which skills allow us to function across different people and places each day. In fact, it is

likely that we have no idea when we acquired the ability to take multiple perspectives, initiate

communication at the right time and place, enter in and out of groups, play cooperatively or collaboratively

exist with one another - it just happened.We certainly didn't place a milestone on when we began to

understand context-specific concepts and the relationship to how people think, act and behave in that

situation. And yet, development marched on and we emerged with these concepts and skills. Our innate

ability to engage our social awareness and attention to self and others paved the way.

Now imagine the effects on social learning when an individual's innate driver of his or her own social

attention and awareness is delayed or driven by a brain seeking the details that may or may not be a critical

part of the social situation. The result is a Pandora's box filled with social challenges that foster more

struggles and social issues and so on. So, the question becomes, Can we address the individual needs of

different types of social learners in one size fits all social skills program?

We've developed a framework that has 6 critical synergistic concepts related to social abilities. We refer to this as the Cascade of Social Functioning. Each element in the cascade is based on current research and the 

relationships between the concepts are drawn from our clinical experience. Consider how information in

one part of the cascade impacts how a student functions in another part of the cascade and each

subsequent concept. In other words, each concept flows into one another highlighting the social executive

functioning involved in social interactions.

Awareness to the situation: Ultimately, we are expected to adapt our social behavior to the situation, but

we must first be able to take note or be aware of the situation or context.

  ~Attention to social expectations within the situation requires one to consider the different

  perspectives of others sharing space within the situation in order to figure out the related

  expectations. The expectations are often unstated social rules, which are also referred to as the

  “hidden rules” or “hidden curriculum”.

        ~Social self-awareness to figure out how one is perceived as meeting or failing to meet the

        hidden rules. This requires us to consider other’s perspectives in order to determine if we need

        to further adapt our behavior to do what is expected in the situation. A student who struggles

        to attend to the first 2 steps in the cascade is usually observed as being “aloof” and lacks the

        social self-awareness to self-monitor their behaviors.

               ~Literal vs. abstract interpretation of communication within the situation: A weaker ability

               to understand another’s perspectives for social attention and self-monitoring results in

               difficulty trying to interpret what others mean by what they say. For this reason, those who

              have limited social self-awareness tend to interpret verbal and non-verbal language in a

              more literal manner. Those who have more awareness of how their ideas and behaviors

              may be interpreted in multiple ways by others are most likely to have the ability to

              understand and express their ideas with abstract language.

                  ~Concept verses detailed interpretation within the situation: Those with a more literal

                           manner of interpretation are more likely to see the concrete details of the situation

                           rather than the concept. It can logically be argued that when a person is so detailedfocused

                           that she cannot take note of the situation or how people are governed by the

                           situation, she would consequently struggle to gain a “main idea” or concept. Our highly

                           literal thinkers tend to also be very detail focused in how they see and interpret the

                           world. Those with stronger conceptual awareness tend to have stronger perspective

                           taking skills and be more successful at interpreting and responding to information as long

                           as they can organize their response in a timely manner using their executive functioning

                           skills.

                                 ~General verses social anxiety. Those who lack social self-awareness are typically very

                                   literal and detail oriented leading them to experience anxiety dealing with transition

                                   and change. This world-based anxiety appears in our students who envision their world

                                   as maintaining sameness and cannot anticipate change (nor learn from past

                                   experiences as how to cope with change) due to inflexibility in how they interpret and

                                   respond to information. On the other hand, those with a great social attention, 

                                   self-awareness and interpretation are more likely to develop social anxiety in adolescent

                                          years as they understand more clearly how they are perceived by others -even if unsure

                                  as to what part of the social skills creates that perception.

Differentiating instruction based on social learning abilities rather than a diagnostic label: 

As we study each of our students’ social behavior based on the 6 areas addressed in the cascade, our

understanding of his/her level of the social mind should become more clear and a pathway to developing a

treatment trajectory more relevant. At this point we begin to differentiate what types of lessons will benefit

the individual. For example, a student with weak perspective taking, poor self-awareness, highly literal,

detail focused with world based anxiety will need a treatment program that builds upon very basic Social

Thinking concepts along with other resources. We would start teaching from a perspective of what the

student currently understands about the social world...

However, for an individual with solid awareness of other’s perspectives, a good understanding of what the

expected behavior is in a particular situation (even with difficulty self-monitoring in the moment), the ability

to abstract information, and characteristics similar to neurotypical peers, a more nuanced Social Thinking

approach is critical. In stark contrast to the treatment approach for the literal learner describe previously,

this nuanced learner would require a deeper level of discussion about social expectations, how to consider

and manage different perspectives/emotions, and how to translate that knowledge into social behavioral

responses (social skills).

Other core Social Thinking treatment strategies provide information to help students improve the ability to

share space with others (e.g., working side by side others in a classroom), develop relationships with

different types of people (peers, teachers, coaches) for different types of reasons (friendship, team

collaboration, cooperation, hidden rules, etc.) However, it is important to note that most social concepts

across a school day expand beyond interpersonal relationships into interpreting and responding to the

academic classroom curriculum. With the Common Core or State Standards, all students - no matter the

age- are expected to participate in lessons that encourage them to consider another’s points of view in

written material, movies/videos, and classmates. Students are also expected to efficiently sort out the

difference between a concept and related details in order to participate in social conversations, classroom

discussions or expressing one’s ideas through written expression. The analysis of information that relates to

understanding others perspectives requires Social Thinking; the expression of those thoughts requires not

only Social Thinking but also social skills.

Copyright 2014 Think Social Publishing, Inc

The article in its entirety can be viewed by visiting this link What is Social Thinking article