Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP, Chief Strategy Officer describes what should be considered to teach the Social Thinking Methodology with fidelity. To help you teach our curricula with fidelity, we’re in the process of creating fidelity checklists - one page teaching guidelines - for each Social Thinking curriculum.

Teach with Fidelity

The ILAUGH Model of Social Thinking is a core (and critical) framework created and developed by Michelle Garcia Winner to help professionals and parents understand and think about the struggles faced by those with social learning challenges. The Framework is based on an extensive literature base of both seminal and current research and represents the foundation of all Social Thinking concepts.

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Components of the Social Thinking Methodology fit within the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) framework by addressing joint attention, self-regulation, and perspective taking through stories and play.  While the motivational developmental tool used with a specific student(s) may change over the years of a child’s life due to developmental shifts, the core Social Thinking Treatment Frameworks and Strategies remain the same.

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Social thinking challenges routinely prevent individuals from accurately interpreting social information. These challenges can be said to represent a social executive function problem (sometimes called a social multitasking problem). The ability to socially process and respond to information requires more than factual knowledge of obvious social rules and unspoken rules (hidden rules of the situation). It also requires the ability to consider the perspective of the person with whom you are talking.

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Self-regulation is one of many important components within our lifelong journey of social emotional learning as we each morph and evolve with maturity, experience, changing contexts, etc. Impulsive behavior is observed as unexpected behavior and can result in challenges in both functioning as part of a group, and gaining social acceptance by one's peers, both within and outside the classroom. The lifelong journey of social emotional learning and self-regulation requires more than one treatment framework.

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The vast majority of Social Thinking strategies were developed to target social skill development. However, our lessons do not simply tell the individual which skill to use and where, but instead focus on the thinking, feelings, context, and interpretation involved with social skill understanding and production.

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If you are familiar with the Social Thinking framework, you know treatment starts at the level of the student’s social mind. We avoid assumptions of ability or challenge based on test scores and instead start by trying to understand how the client views the world. From there we teach lessons at a level the individual can understand about his or her own and others’ perspectives, mental manipulation, and social self-awareness, focusing on social attention and related social skills. We also connect social learning to social academic abilities and critical thinking, skills that are highly valued in the classroom, community, and work environments.

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The vast majority of Social Thinking strategies include an emphasis on social cognition, i.e. social attention to thinking, interpretation, and application based on others and the context. Most lessons related to components of the Social Thinking Methodology have an underlying emphasis on the thinking and feeling components involved in the dynamic social interpretation that is at the heart of social skill understanding and production.

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The Social Thinking Methodology provides a cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) approach focused on fostering social learning due to weak social cognition or compelling social anxiety. Most strategies and lessons provide the foundation for teaching using CBT principles.

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Social Thinking strategies and lessons provide a foundation for teaching Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RTI) by addressing social self-awareness, self-regulation and perspective taking. Most schools using PBIS and RTI to promote a climate of compassion and respect have adopted lessons within the Social Thinking Methodology for all students, both in general education and special education classrooms.

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