We Thinkers! Social Curriculum
For preschool through second grade students, We Thinkers! is a highly beneficial introduction to executive functioning skills. The curricula incorporates storybooks, music and movement, and guided play skills to introduce social thinking concepts. Volume One, previously known as The Incredible, Flexible You, covers Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings, The Group Plan, Thinking With Your Eyes, Body in the Group, and Whole Body Listening. Volume Two contains the concepts of Expected and Unexpected, Smart Guess, Flexible vs. Stuck Thinking, Size of the Problem, and Sharing an Imagination. Before beginning this curricula, the interventionist evaluates the participating students’ capacity for successful play. This evaluation places students in levels one through five on a play scale. The curriculum guides have detailed lesson plans for all five levels of play for each of the ten storybooks, which makes this curriculum simple to use and very clear to navigate.
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Volume 1: Social Explorers
1. Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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The brain is a body part inside the head. The brain's job is to have thoughts.
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The heart is a body part inside the chest. The heart is where feelings are kept.
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Words or pictures inside your brain are called thoughts. We can use thought bubbles to show we are having a thought.
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Feelings include happy, sad, angry, and scared. We can tell how others are feeling by what they say, how they look and what they do.
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2. The Group Plan:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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When two or more people are together, it is called a group.
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A group should have a plan.
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A group of people can all think about something together.
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"The group plan" refers to books, games, activities, and thoughts that everyone has together.
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The group plan may be broken if someone tries to follow their own individual plan.
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3. Thinking with Your Eyes:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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There is a reason for observing others around you and the environment you are in.
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Eyes are used to gather information about what is happening around us, the group plan, and other people's thoughts and feelings.
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We can use our eyes to show others what we are thinking.
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There is a connection between looking and thinking about something.
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Thinking with our eyes helps us to figure out someone else's plan or what they may do next.
4. Body in the Group:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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Being in a group means you have to keep your body the right distance from the other members - not too close and not too far away.
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Keeping your body in the group tells the other members you are interested in the group plan.
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When your body is not in the group, it tells the other members that you are not interested in the group plan and may make other members uncomfortable sharing the space with you.
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Having your body in the group can look different in different environments. It may be at a table, walking in a line, or sitting on the floor.
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5. Whole Body Listening:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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Good listening involves all of your body parts, not just your ears.
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Whole body listening helps us to hear others' words while also using our own clues to figure out what is going on around us.
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Whole body listening helps us to focus on the right information without getting distracted by other things around us.
Volume 2: Social Problem Solvers
6. Hidden Rules and Expected and Unexpected Behaviors:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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There are hidden rules in every situation. These rules change depending on who you are with and what you are doing.
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Hidden rules are based on social expectations.
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We are using the expected behaviors when we follow the hidden rules. We are showing unexpected behaviors when we do not follow the hidden rules.
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Expected behaviors like waiting, being flexible, and changing plans might not always make us feel good right away, but they help us to be a part of a group.
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7. Smart Guess:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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To make a smart guess, we think with our eyes and use what information we already know to try to fill in any missing information.
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It is okay and expected to guess wrong when we do not have all of the information that we need.
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We need to make smart guesses about people's thoughts, feelings, and plans, about hidden rules, and about expected and unexpected behaviors.
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Smart guesses help us to make choices about what to do in uncertain situations.
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8. Flexible and Stuck Thinking:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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Being flexible means being able to make changes in the moment. We may need to be flexible with our plan, what we are thinking, or what we want.
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Part of being flexible is listening to understand other people's thoughts and plans.
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Stuck thinking is when you are unable to change your thoughts or plans based on the circumstances around us.
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When we get stuck, the group plan (and the fun) may have to stop. Being flexible means that the group plan can continue.
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9. Size of the Problem:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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A problem is when something does not go according to the group plan and makes the group members feel uncomfortable.
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A small problem can be solved quickly by a child or group of children. Kids can help each other solve small problems.
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A medium problem takes more time to solve. Children may need an adult to help them solve a medium problem.
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A big problem may take a lot of time to solve and will require a lot of people to solve. Grown ups may need help from other grown ups to solve big problems.
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Problems may make us feel frustrated, sad, upset, disappointed, nervous, worried, or afraid.
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Reactions are what our bodies do to show what we are feeling. Reactions come in different sizes, just like problems. The size of your reaction should match the size of the problem.
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10. Sharing an Imagination:
Social Thinking Concepts:
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Sharing an imagination is being able to imagine what another person is thinking or feeling.
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Other people cannot know what is happening in our imagination unless we tell them.
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Sharing an imagination is when everyone in a group is imagining the same thing.
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References:
Tarshis, N., Hendrix, R., Zweber Palmer, K., & Garcia Winner, M. (2016). Social Explorers Curriculum. Santa Clara: Social Thinking Publishing.
Zweber Palmer, K., Tarshis, N., Hendrix, R., & Garcia Winner, M. (2016). Social Problem Solvers Curriculum. Santa Clara: Social Thinking Publishing.