Empowering social learners to reach their social, academic, career & life goals
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!
Free Webinars—Learn Essential Social Thinking Concepts for Free
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
Books and Games for Tweens, Teens & Young Adults
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.
Learn moreFree Stuff for Home & School
- Teaching an Essential Life Skill: How to Ask for Help
- 10 Truths & Tips for Making and Keeping Friends
- Three Ways to Advocate for Students Who Appear Persistently “Checked Out”
- A Simple Strategy to Break Through Social Anxiety Barriers
- 10 Levels to Living Independently
- 14 Tips to Help All Kids Learn to Manage Anxiety
- Preparing for the Transition to Adulthood (Part 1)
- Preparing for the Transition to Adulthood (Part 2)
- Preparing for the Transition to Adulthood (Part 3)
- 10 Steps to Foster Organization: Homework and Beyond!
- Aha! Teaching Moments: Social Anxiety and Talking in Class
- Explaining “Social Thinking” to Others: Q&A in Sound Bites
- Teaching Students About Their Learning Styles
- Learned Spontaneity
- The Other Side of the Friendship Pyramid: Dealing with Dislike
- Helping Students Cope with Change and Disruption
- Respecting Neurodiversity by Helping Social Learners Meet Their Personal Goals
- Addressing Social Competencies and Social Anxiety Using the Spirals of Anxiety
- I'm Interested in You—Well, Sort Of: Social Anxiety, Face-to-Face Communication, Digital Devices, and the Art of Saying "Hi"
- Community Is About Caring: Helping Those with Social Anxiety
- Social Metacognition: Using Social Emotional Learning to Engage Hope
- Social Perspective Taking & The 5 Steps of Being with Others
Free Video Lesson
Allison King | MS, CCC-SLP
Social Thinking San Jose, Clinical Director
Everyone has thoughts! How do we know what other people are thinking? How can we let other people know what we are thinking about? How do we get thoughts from one brain to another? The only way to do it is to bridge your brains!
What is Social Thinking?
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
Thank you doesn’t seem enough for all that your teachings have done for me and my family! They have been a lifeline for me to re-connect with my 9-year-old. Everything you publish is 100% applicable. Keep up the amazing work!
Elementary School
Social Thinking has completely changed the environment of who we are as a whole. Thank you for providing us with such rich social and emotional resources. The impact that your resources make are life changing and early intervention is key. Your curriculum is truly amazing! I bought into Social Thinking about 9 years ago and will use this as long as I am in education.
Schools
I appreciate how the Social Thinking Methodology links social intent/thinking and the common core or school based standards. This connection, and the understanding that exists, is so crucial to every member of a student's school community.
Mental Health & Clinicians
The Social Thinking Methodology is the philosophy that I ascribe to professionally. It serves as my guide through assessment and intervention.
Speech Language Pathologists
I love how realistic the approach is, and doable! Based on real clinical experience adaptable to individual needs/strengths. Great that all the vocabulary is simple, easy to understand, and not full of professional shop talk.
Parents & Families
Social Thinking’s program has given me the much needed tools to communicate in a meaningful way with my 9-year-old son. Thank you. The stress level in our house has decreased along with the meltdowns. He is able to come out of the meltdowns much more readily.
Adult Clients
I am a professional, high-functioning 37 year old woman diagnosed as being on the spectrum two years ago. The Social Thinking Methodology is by far the most helpful resource I have encountered. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it changed my life. Your concrete examples are extremely helpful.