Social Thinking Methodology

The Social Thinking® Methodology is designed to teach and support individuals, ages 4 and older, how to better understand the social world, foster relationships, develop organizational skills, and build social competencies to meet their authentic social goals. The materials in the methodology are comprised of storybooks, teaching curricula, games, posters, and other products that have been developed alongside our clients and families. The strategies help to break down complex social and organizational concepts into understandable parts that can be applied across settings. We believe that social concepts like social attention, perspective taking, interpretation, and problem-solving form the foundation of academic standards. These core building blocks promote literacy, collaboration, executive functions, and provide a scaffold for interpreting abstract academic and social information.

The methodology is for any individual who has unmet social goals but is experiencing lagging social or organizational strategies to meet those goals, regardless of whether the individual has an educational or medical diagnosis. Our strategies are designed to support the learner “where they are” at that moment in time. Many individuals with social learning differences, difficulties, disabilities, or those with unmet goals have found our materials to be helpful. The methodology focuses on teaching “why” we use social competencies rather than using a behavioral approach to teach people to memorize social skills. For that reason, our materials are a better fit for those who actively think about thinking (metacognition) and have strong expressive language and cognition. And while our work is not a good match for everyone, we promote acceptance and inclusion for all.

The Social Thinking Methodology continually evolves based on the latest research, clinical insights, and input from the educational, therapeutic, and Neurodivergent community. The tools from the methodology have been a source of teaching and supports in specialized groups (Tiers 2 and 3) and mainstream classrooms (Tier 1), as well as workplace office settings. Some age-based curricula have been adopted both school-wide and district-wide.