Most of us routinely participate in the social world as naturally as we breathe. Yet we struggle to explain how we breathe in the same way we struggle to explain how we interpret and respond to social information required for relationship development, as well as how we make meaning of what’s going on around us in the social world.

This first course in this two-part series provides a fascinating exploration into what the social mind is expected to do on a daily basis to form social competencies. Attendees will receive practical information to help professionals of all types (and parents/caregivers) build their own competencies in assessing abstract social information using the concrete Social Thinking® Informal Dynamic Assessment (ST–IDA) tasks and other tips for noticing children, student or client engagement throughout the assessment process. The ST–IDA can be a useful tool for initial or three-year testing and, most importantly, provides valuable insight to all members of the educational or support team for better understanding student learning and, possibly, treatment* needs. Attendees will also learn key points to pay attention to when assessing brain-based challenges to social emotional learning across the autism spectrum and a broader range of related diagnostic labels.

Interventionists (parents and professionals) applaud the highly practical nature of this course, which includes but is not be limited to the following information:

• Explore the Social Thinking®–Social Competency Model to navigate the assessment pathway
• Examine how the social brain is supposed to zoom in on social relevance and inhibit unrelated responses in order to maintain social attention
• Consider aspects of social pragmatics that are at the heart of relationship development and how these “soft skills” can be assessed
• Learn a strategy for assessing students when they perseverate on specific topics
• Explore why standardized testing will struggle to provide relevant information to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an individual’s current development of social competencies
• Learn practical strategies to examine an individual’s ability to engage in two levels of joint attention
• Explore The Double Interview task to delve into the important differences between social responses when being interviewed versus when in the role of the interviewer and how this pattern may relate broadly across a range of social interactions

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

This two-part series focuses on practical strategies to explore ways in which we can assess social competencies, also known as “soft skills,” that are foundational to building an array of social relationships, problem solving, and teamwork. The content covered within these two courses is an expanded version of what has been presented previously in our live face-to-face conference on implementing the Social Thinking® Informal Dynamic Assessment (ST–IDA) tasks to explore a range of social competencies often lagging in development in persons with social emotional learning challenges across a range of diagnoses (e.g., autism spectrum levels 1 & 2, social communication disorder, ADHD, twice exceptional, those born to toxic stressors, language learning disorders, head injuries, etc.). This fascinating series uses client/student/patient videos to guide learning about assessment tasks and how different individuals may respond. This information is helpful to all interventionists working and living with individuals with social emotional learning challenges because it shows how to get inside their minds to better understand their learning strengths and challenges. Most of the information covered in this two-part series is described in Michelle Garcia Winner's seminal book, Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME, 2nd Edition.

Part 1: Assessing Social Competencies with Practical Assessment Tools and Tasks explores the social mind and how it functions with neurotypically developing people within the complex social world to better understand goals of assessment. Examine trends in how different types of social emotional learner’s process and respond to socially based information and processes for engaging students in Social Thinking® Informal Dynamic Assessment (ST–IDA) tasks to guide understanding of individuals’ social emotional learning strengths and weaknesses.

Part 2: Exploring Socially Based Executive Functions & Tips for Assessing Different Developmental Ages examines how executive functions are necessary for the development of social competencies. Using video case examples, two more fascinating and increasingly complex Social Thinking® Informal Dynamic Assessment tasks are reviewed to provide compelling additional information. Tips and other assessment tools are provided for assessing individuals of different developmental ages.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe how to assess thinking with your eyes and how this is different from identifying the direction of eye gaze.
2. Describe how core components of The Double Interview Task can explore spontaneous or advanced perspective taking.
3. Describe two limitations of using standardized tests to assess social pragmatics.

Agenda

• 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • Social competencies are different from social skills
  • Describing the neurotypical social mind
  • Including and beyond the autism spectrum: exploring different levels of the social mind and how these relate to different types of social competencies
• 10-minute Break
• 2 hours and 10 minutes
  • Reasons standardized testing fails to examine the social mind during everyday practical experiences
  • Informal Dynamic Assessment Task 1: Think with Your Eyes
  • Informal Dynamic Assessment Task 2: The Double Interview
  • Assessing how the individual is relating to you during the assessment process
  • Previously Recorded Q & A Session

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