Strategies to Help Tweens & Teens
We can help you unpack the social world and engage tweens & teens
For more than 25 years, Social Thinking® has been at the forefront of teaching developmental social competencies—helping tweens & teens unpack the social world to guide and support their social emotional and organizational learning and development.
What’s that mean? Given that social information is rarely explained directly, it can be confusing for social learners to make sense of what’s going on around them from both a social and an organizational perspective. Within the Social Thinking Methodology, we focus on teaching these concepts through the use of explicit treatment frameworks and strategies to help all people better navigate to regulate in the social world based on what they want for themselves.
We know how to unpack the social world and engage tweens & teens in developing strategies for observing and interpreting social information and then deciding how to act and react in ways that move them toward their social goals. Learning and using these social strategies helps foster development of their executive functions, self-regulation, stress & anxiety management, and other social and organizational competencies. As a trusted interventionist, you can help guide them toward reaching their social, academic, career, and life goals. We want to share much of what they've taught us as we continue on our learning journey as well!
Exploring Our Children’s Stress
Tips & Tools for Adapting Teaching to Students’ Needs
Face-to-Face communication is a thing again! Wait, how do we teach that?
How Social Emotional Learning Can Ease the Transition Back to School
Social Thinking and Me (two-book set)
Social Thinking and Me (two-book set)
Ages: 9-12
Our best-selling curriculum for children ages 9-12, The Kids’ Guidebook introduces select Social Thinking Vocabulary through colorful illustrations and easy-to-understand content. This award-winning two-book set provides the teaching tools to break down complex social concepts to make it easier for interventionists to teach and for students to learn. Thinksheets for Social Emotional Learning includes multiple mini-lessons for in-depth exploration of each chapter of The Kids’ Guidebook to help build social learners’ metacognitive awareness and develop practical strategies. Kids enjoy becoming stronger social observers and problem solvers. A natural fit for school, clinic, and home.
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$69.99
Social Fortune or Social Fate: A Social Thinking Manga-Style Map for Social Quest Seekers
Social Fortune or Social Fate: A Social Thinking Manga-Style Map for Social Quest Seekers
Ages: 10+
Award winning and kid friendly, this graphic novel-style book uses comic strip scenarios to teach about common social and emotional chain reactions. Co-developed, critiqued, and inspired by Neurodivergent tweens and teens, this book represents the 10 social scenarios they most often encountered. Readers will get to see the choices of three characters and the outcome of those choices (social fortune or social fate). Designed to show “both sides of the [choices] coin,” the book allows students to read the book forward or backwards. Readers also get to see how protagonists’ choices are tied to their own thoughts, their actions or reactions, which ultimately impact how they feel. Each scenario includes either an analysis and strategy codes to decipher the characters’ choices or an “autopsy” for a better understanding of what happened and why.
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$27.99
Tweens & Teens Bundle
Tweens & Teens Bundle
Ages: 10+
The social world is complicated—and so are tweens and teens. They typically don’t want to be told what to do, yet still struggle to solve their problems independently. As social learners, they need guidance and support in a way that feels right and makes sense to them. Save 10% with this bundle of six books, a two-set collection of 26 teaching frameworks, and card game that speak directly to a variety of social emotional learning needs of tweens and teens—frankly, sometimes with humor, but always encouraging them to learn how the social world works so they can logically learn new social competencies to help them meet their own goals. This collection provides a range of information, visual supports, scaffolded teaching frameworks, strategies, and tools to best meet their needs and developmental ages.
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$255.99
$283.92
Should I? or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think? Revised Edition for Teens
Should I? or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think? Revised Edition for Teens
Ages: 12-18+
Revised and updated, this popular social learning card game provides the all-new Social Interpretation Scale to motivate teens to explore how they perceive, interpret, and emotionally respond to others’ actions and reactions and discuss group expectations across a wide variety of social situations. The new Teaching Guide and Instructions help interventionists shift students’ focus from discussing how someone behaved to instead learning about the power of one’s own social interpretation within a fun, safe, and consequence-free setting. This revised edition extends teaching the concept of the Social Emotional Chain Reaction (SECR), a Social Thinking® Methodology framework.
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$34.99
Should I? or Shouldn't I? Teen Edition Expansion Pack
Should I? or Shouldn't I? Teen Edition Expansion Pack
Ages: 12-18
Double your teens’ fun and social learning with this expansion pack featuring 200 new prompt cards and 100 new challenge cards that extend play with fresh, age-specific social situations and topics—and are useful for play with savvy social learners who have memorized responses to the original cards in the game! This product is an add-on to the original game Should I? or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think? Revised Edition for Teens for players ages 12—18. (Game sold separately.) Social learners love playing this game so much they requested more cards—and we listened!
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$24.99
Should I? or Shouldn’t I? Teen Game + Expansion Pack Bundle
Should I? or Shouldn’t I? Teen Game + Expansion Pack Bundle
Ages: 12-18+
Save 10% with this bundle of the popular, fun social learning game Should I? or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think? Revised Edition for Teens and its add-on Expansion Pack of 300 additional cards. Revised and updated with the all-new Social Interpretation Scale, this game stimulates authentic peer-based discussions on a wide range of teen-friendly and relevant social situations that engage them in thinking and talking about social problem solving for responsible decision making. Shift students’ focus from discussing how someone behaved to instead learning about the power of their own social interpretation within a fun, safe, and consequence-free setting.
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$53.99
$59.98
Socially Curious and Curiously Social: A Social Thinking Guidebook for Bright Teens and Young Adults
Socially Curious and Curiously Social: A Social Thinking Guidebook for Bright Teens and Young Adults
Ages: 14-22
New edition! All-new language, content, and book cover design featuring artwork by a Neurodivergent artist! Teen and young adult readers give rave reviews of this award-winning “get real” guidebook with anime illustrations that helps social learners sail the stormy seas of dating, texting, lies, and everyday relationships. Targeted social emotional strategies encourage readers to better navigate their social worlds, develop stronger social competencies, and manage social anxiety. Interventionists (parents, caregivers, and professionals) appreciate how it better equips them to explain the Social Thinking® process, helping young adults learn to use metacognitive strategies to navigate to self-regulate within social situations. Use the free Socially Curious Thinking and Reading Guide with the book to enrich the social learning and conversation.
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$29.99
Social Situation Mapping: Making Sense of the Social World
Social Situation Mapping: Making Sense of the Social World
Ages: 8+
What’s going on around us influences our thoughts, feelings, and choices. Social Situation Mapping (formerly Social Behavior Mapping) teaches learners how to use social observation to figure out what to do or say (or not do and say) based on the situation. Revised, updated, and retitled, this hands-on book includes 80+ completed Social Situation Maps to explore 40+ common situations at school, home, and in the community. The maps outline the Social Emotional Chain Reaction, which shows how we all impact one another when sharing space, and provide multiple options for choices and their consequences through the learner’s perspective.
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$25.99
Social Behavior Mapping + 10 Steps Poster (dry-erase)
Social Behavior Mapping + 10 Steps Poster (dry-erase)
Ages: 8+
Use this updated dry-erase poster (18” x 24”) as you teach social learners ages 8+ Social Situation Mapping (also referred to as Social Behavior Mapping), a powerful, versatile tool for fostering social awareness and self-regulation in diverse social situations throughout the day. The poster outlines the 10-step teaching sequence to deepen social emotional learning and ensure fidelity. It also features a new “People” field to identify who is involved in the practice situation, a handy “Tip” section to inspire ideas when brainstorming expected and unexpected behaviors, and a “Sum It Up” prompt as the final step to drive home the social concepts.
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$16.99
Social Thinking® Thinksheets for Tweens and Teens: Learning to Read in Between the Social Lines, Revised Edition
Social Thinking® Thinksheets for Tweens and Teens: Learning to Read in Between the Social Lines, Revised Edition
Ages: 11-18
New updated content and language! Find 130+ pages of practical, kid-friendly ideas and tools for the direct instruction of tweens and teens as they learn to navigate the complex social world. The printable, shareable thinksheets are mini-lessons that progress from basic to advanced social emotional concepts, such as considering others’ perspectives, reading hidden social expectations and body language, dealing with bullies, understanding friendship, and many more. Thinksheets extends the teaching of our books for teens, including award-winning Social Fortune or Social Fate and Socially Curious and Curiously Social. Whether for individual or group instruction, interventionists (professionals and parents) can adapt lessons to benefit virtually all social learners.
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$44.99
Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students
Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students
Ages: 4+
Think Social! is a comprehensive curriculum that includes over 69 Social Thinking® evidenced-informed concepts, frameworks, and strategies. A valuable resource for any professional or parent teaching social emotional concepts to school-age students—including both neurotypicals and Neurodivergents with social learning differences and/or challenges. The curriculum has basic suggestions for linking lessons to academic standards.
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$91.99
Navigating The Zones & Advanced Pack Game Bundle
Navigating The Zones & Advanced Pack Game Bundle
Ages: 10 to young adult
Using The Zones of Regulation curriculum? Try this game and its Advanced Pack to help tweens (10+), teens, and young adults develop social emotional awareness, regulation, and problem solving skills. Plus—save $10 when you purchase the bundle. Navigating The Zones is a cooperative game that expands The Zones of Regulation curriculum. It introduces the concept of “The Zones Pathway” via an interactive board and a variety of card decks to explore social situations, emotions, and related regulation tools. The Advanced Pack offers 495 additional cards to enable older, more sophisticated social learners to continue building their regulation skills through increasingly complex competitive play.
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$85.99
$94.98
Tools to Try Cards for Tweens & Teens: Regulation Strategies to Focus, Calm, Think, Move, Breathe, and Connect | The Zones of Regulation Series
Tools to Try Cards for Tweens & Teens: Regulation Strategies to Focus, Calm, Think, Move, Breathe, and Connect | The Zones of Regulation Series
Ages: 11+
The award-winning Tools to Try Cards for Tweens & Teens is a multisensory strategy card deck that helps students explore, choose, and practice 50 regulation tools at home, in school, or in therapeutic and community settings. The 2-sided cards are divided into 5 categories that describe strategies to focus, calm, think, move, breathe, and connect. This hands-on metacognitive supplement to The Zones of Regulation curriculum pairs well with Navigating The Zones game and its supplemental Advanced Pack for additional levels of play.
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$24.99
Social Thinking® Frameworks Collection | Practical Treatment Frameworks Set 2
Social Thinking® Frameworks Collection | Practical Treatment Frameworks Set 2
Ages: 4 - adult
With Set 2 of this collection, help students build social competencies with 13 more of our most popular and important teaching frameworks to promote social emotional learning and self-regulation at home, in clinic and school settings, and during individual or group teaching. Each teaching framework presents a specific, visually scaffolded graphic to introduce core social thinking concepts.
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$24.99
Movie Time Social Learning
Movie Time Social Learning
Ages: 4-18
Watch movies and YouTube video clips as a strategy to explore and teach complex social interactions, the range and depth of emotions, and social communication. This innovative guide shows educators and clinicians how to scaffold three levels of teaching for three types of social learning styles. Each lesson plan identifies the video clips to use and then presents ideas and tips for teaching and tailoring Spy Eye (context, feelings, thoughts, and plan), Detective Head (perspective taking), and Me Too! (personal connections) tasks to each of the learner categories. Lesson plans and ready-to-print instruction materials available via a download link included in the book.
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$31.99
How Rude! The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior and Not Grossing People Out (revised and updated)
How Rude! The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior and Not Grossing People Out (revised and updated)
Ages: 13+
Dr. Alex Packer blends outrageous humor with an encyclopedia of serious, sound advice to guide teens in understanding why polite social behavior is important, makes them feel good about themselves, and generally makes life easier, not harder. This updated edition provides hundreds of questions and answers that cover everything from dating to breaking up, thank-you notes to table manners, ethnic jokes to social cliques, and more. Full of practical tips for handling social situations at home, in school, online, and in the world, this is a book teens love to read on their own about issues that matter most to them!
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$29.99
Slaying Digital Dragons: Tips and Tools for Protecting Your Body, Brain, Psyche, and Thumbs from the Digital Dark Side
Slaying Digital Dragons: Tips and Tools for Protecting Your Body, Brain, Psyche, and Thumbs from the Digital Dark Side
Ages: 13+
With respect, empathy, and wacky humor, Slaying Digital Dragons empowers teens to explore their screen scene; join the resistance against Big Tech’s manipulations and addictive algorithms; protect their body, brain, psyche, reputation, and relationships from the Digital Dark Side; and conduct a self-intervention (called an “App-endectomy”) to reset and optimize their digital lives.
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$24.99
A 5 Is Against the Law: Social Boundaries: Straight Up! Revised
A 5 Is Against the Law: Social Boundaries: Straight Up! Revised
Ages: 12-17
Building on the popular The Incredible 5-Point Scale, this book focuses on how to help adolescents and young adults with social emotional learning differences and/or challenges develop awareness of their role in society and functional self-regulation strategies. Using many examples and hands-on activities, individuals can learn about developing better social boundaries, the transition to adulthood, how to cope with anxiety before it escalates, and more—because social expectations become less forgiving with age!
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$18.99
YouCue Feelings: Using Online Videos for Social Learning
YouCue Feelings: Using Online Videos for Social Learning
Ages: 4-14
Use YouTube videos to make learning about feelings and relationships easy and fun! YouCue Feelings offers video recommendations and provides 50 practical activities to guide students ages 4–14 in building their social emotional vocabulary, tracking changes in feelings over time, and increasing their ability to reflect on their own emotional experiences. By incorporating brief, diverse video clips with targeted exercises, YouCue Feelings helps get young students thinking about, talking about, and ultimately, practicing important social emotional learning ideas in their everyday lives.
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$18
Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens
Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens
Ages: 13-18
Confidence is a magnet that attracts others and helps people achieve their goals. In this accessible, confidence-coaching handbook, two leaders in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) show teenagers and young adults how to build and tap into their self-esteem so they can learn to be themselves no matter how awkward or scary it may seem at first. Fun exercises and tips guide readers through feelings of self-doubt and encourage them to believe in themselves, strengthen their friendships, and meet every challenge head-on. For additional skill-building exercises see The Think Confident, Be Confident Workbook for Teens.
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$21.95
The Think Confident, Be Confident Workbook for Teens
The Think Confident, Be Confident Workbook for Teens
Ages: 13-18
Two leaders in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) present the wisdom and guidance of their book Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens in a fun, teen-friendly workbook format. Filled with easy CBT-based activities and tips, this workbook guides students through a process of self-study, encouraging them to explore alternative pathways when faced with self-doubt and inner criticism. The exercises foster skills that help empower teens to replace self-doubt with self-confidence, leading them become the people they want to be.
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$19.95
The Social Media Workbook for Teens: Skills to Help You Balance Screen Time, Manage Stress, and Take Charge of Your Life
The Social Media Workbook for Teens: Skills to Help You Balance Screen Time, Manage Stress, and Take Charge of Your Life
Ages: 13+
Social media has drastically changed how we communicate with one another. In many ways this is a good thing. For example, it’s easier than ever to stay connected to family and friends who live far away. But social media can also become addictive, stressful, and even alienating. If you’re like many teens, you probably check your smartphone several times throughout the day to stay up to date on the news from friends.
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$21.95
Starving the Anger Gremlin
Starving the Anger Gremlin
Ages: 12+
Meet the anger gremlin—a troublesome pest whose favorite meal is your anger, and the more he eats the angrier you get! There's only one way to stop him: starve him of angry feelings and behaviors. This imaginative workbook teaches children ages 10+ how to manage angry thoughts and behaviors. The tried-and-tested program, based on effective cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) principles, can be implemented by students themselves or with a practitioner or parent. Fun and simple activities help kids understand why they get angry, how their anger affects them and others, and how they can develop strategies to self-regulate.
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$21.95
Starving the Anxiety Gremlin
Starving the Anxiety Gremlin
Ages: 12+
This must-have anxiety management workbook helps children ages 10+ understand why they get anxious and learn about the different types of anxiety. Based on the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) principle that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, this award-winning book shows how to use simple, practical techniques to manage anxiety in its many forms, including phobias, separation anxiety, panic attacks, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Kids can learn independently through the fun activities and real-life stories from others struggling with the same challenges or explore the workbook with the guidance of a parent or professional.
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$21.95
Starving the Stress Gremlin
Starving the Stress Gremlin
Ages: 12+
This hands-on workbook helps kids ages 11+ take on the “stress gremlin”—that beastie that feeds on our feelings of stress—and learn to manage their stress levels through a range of practical techniques. Based on the principles of cognitive behavior therapy, the workbook uses fun, engaging social scenarios that help children understand why they get stressed, learn the effects of stress, and how to “starve” their own stress gremlin. The real-life stories from young people resonate with young readers, revealing they aren’t alone in their struggles with stress management. Students can use the workbook independently or with adult support.
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$21.95
Strategies to Build Social Competencies
The Social Thinking Methodology provides evidence-based strategies to help people ages four through adult develop their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving to meet their own social goals and improve:
- Conversation & social connection
- Executive functioning
- Friendship & relationship development
- Perspective taking
- Self-regulation
- Social Thinking Vocabulary
What People Are Saying About Social Thinking
Parents & Families
Elementary School
Schools
Mental Health & Clinicians
Speech Language Pathologists
Parents & Families
Adult Clients
