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You are a Social Detective! App Review

June 30, 2015 By

social-detectiveEvery one of us is a Social Detective! We are good social detectives when we use our eyes, ears, and brains to figure out what others are planning to do next or are presently doing and what they mean by their words and actions.

This entertaining and engaging app offers repeated practice to develop social detective skills. This interactive app teaches children ages 7-12 to become better social thinkers by putting on their detective hats and deciphering both expected and unexpected social behavior. Users will rely on their eyes, ears and brains to make smart social guesses and investigate clues to see how others’ emotions and responses are connected to their own behavior.

You are a Social Detective! App is the first level of the Social Detective CD. (This is a blessing to all of you, who are like me and haven’t owned a laptop with a CD drive for over 2 years!). I was told this app was in development back in January, when I attended a Social Thinking Conference in Long Beach. I’ve since been waiting for it to be released. It certainly did not disappoint.

The app’s creators put together a short video to explain the app, you can watch it HERE.

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The app itself is easy to use. Moving through the different steps is also intuitive. The first step involves choosing an avatar. The child can choose from the different options available by assigning his/her name.

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The app also allows the students to review their “Social Smarts.” I like to use the Social Detective Comic Book as a review before using the app. However, the quick review is handy before the students start practicing their skills on the app. (You have the option to “skip” the review if you are using the app with the same student over multiple sessions).

social-detective

For each of the three levels in the app, there is a pretest. Students must get 100% on the pretest before they can move on to the ‘test’ portion for each level.

Essentially, the goal of the app is for each player/student to become a social detective by earning:
1) A Detective Coat: To earn the detective coat, the student must be able to tell which behaviors are expected and which ones are unexpected. The app includes 3 still images (pretest) and 16 short videos. For each video the student must identify if the behavior was “expected” or “unexpected.”

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2) A Detective Hat: To earn the hat, they must show they know and understand the difference between good thoughts and uncomfortable thoughts. Students must identify verbal and nonverbal clues from the videos to show if someone was having good thoughts or uncomfortable thoughts. The app includes 3 still images (pretest), and 12 short videos. For each video the student must identify if the individual is having “good,” or “uncomfortable” thoughts.

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3) A Magnifying Glass: The students earn their magnifying glass to complete their Social Detective ensemble by using all of their skills to make smart guesses. The students are required to use their social skill “tools” (eyes, ears, brains) to predict what they think will probably happen next. The app includes 3 still images (pretest) and 24 short videos. This section is challenging because there are two answers per question and does require thought and reasoning.

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Elementary school-aged (K-5) students, and immature older middle and high school students who enjoy playing on the iPad, may benefit from this app. However, this isn’t just an app for students who have challenges relating to autism spectrum disorders. The lessons also offer a variety of engaging ways to introduce the concepts of social thinking to general education students who may have difficulties with social nuances, emotional disabilities, and younger students with challenges in higher order reasoning. This app also keeps data for the past 5 sessions per student per level.

Overall, I thought the videos used in the app were appropriate for a wide range of ages. Videos included scenes from a school, playground, lunchroom, and home. This further widens the scope of its application. I definitely think it is a handy “tool” for Social Thinking therapists and teachers. You can buy it at the app store for $24.99.

Disclaimer: The app was provided for review. However, all the opinions and content of the blog are the author’s.

Filed Under: Apps, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Social Skills, Social Thinking Tagged With: , ,

You are a Social Detective!

October 15, 2013 By

Review of “You are a Social Detective! Explaining Social Thinking to Kids” written by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke, illustrated by Kelly Knopp

You Are A Social DetectiveGetting started with the Social Thinking Curriculum by Michelle Garcia Winner is always a challenge. Most of us, Speech-Language Pathologists, fall under two distinct categories: 1) “Read first Therapists” that like to read and study a program until it we can recite it in our sleep before we will begin to implement it on our students, 2) “Try it out first Therapists” that will try to figure out the program while we implement it on our students.

I belong to the former category. I spent months after my first Social Thinking conference buying various books and studying them. After all that extensive reading, I concluded that, “You are a Social Detective!” was arguably one of the best programs to initiate the Social Thinking curriculum. This is possibly also because a majority of my caseload includes pre-school and early elementary students. It uses a comic book form and introduces many of the social thinking vocabulary in a clear and systematic way.

The first section points out how we all have school smarts, sports smarts, Lego smarts, etc. but we also have social smarts. It explains that social smarts means understanding that others have thoughts about us and we have thoughts about others. We use social smarts everywhere.

You Are A Social Detective

Some of the social thinking vocabulary that is explained using simple but age appropriate illustrations include “being a part of a group,” “thinking with our eyes,” “expected and unexpected behaviors.” The program uses the same social situation to contrast expected and unexpected behaviors, making it easier for children to grasp the concept.

You Are A Social Detective Versus You Are A Social Detective

The book introduces the concept of “having uncomfortable thoughts,” which, in my opinion is more appropriate and specific than using “feeling mad or angry,” especially for children on the spectrum. Feeling angry is so broad and vague and encompasses so many different scenarios and situations, that it makes it challenging for children on the Autism Spectrum. “Having uncomfortable thoughts” directly links the person’s thoughts to the student’s behavior.

You Are A Social DetectiveThe book also explains “being upset” in explicit physical terms (mean sounding voice, angry face, body gets tight) so children can identify their own states when they get upset.

The book then goes on to explain the process of being a social detective, i.e. using eyes and ears along with what they know in their brains. The authors talk about how we use our eyes, ears and brain to make “Smart Guesses” about how to behave. The contrast (Whacky Guess) is also illustrated.

You Are A Social DetectiveAnother challenge a lot of my little ones have is identifying and differentiating between peers who are nice and friendly and others who say or do mean things. The book has tables (page 44 and 45) to help the child identify and list characteristics of a “nice person” and a person who is “not nice to talk to.” In addition, the book also has a glossary with definitions of the Social Thinking vocabulary for quick reference. The book also includes three lesson plans at the end of the book for “Expected Vs Unexpected Behaviors,” “Social Spy,” and “Social Detective.”

Pros:

  • Illustrates in a simple and clear manner what it means to be a social detective.
  • Appropriate for early to late elementary aged students.
  • Contains three lesson plans that require little to no preparation.

Cons:

  • The illustrations may not be appropriate for older students.
  • Wish it included more lesson plans.
  • Some of the concepts may be challenging for low functioning students.

For me, “Being a Social Detective” forms the crux of the Social Thinking curriculum. Unless our students understand that their “unexpected behaviors” cause others to have “uncomfortable thoughts” about them, they are unlikely to change their behaviors. Concrete reinforcers such as prizes will only go so far.

Filed Under: Autism, Social Communication DIsorders, Social Stories, Social Thinking Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Using Children’s Literature to Build Social Thinking

July 30, 2013 By

When I read Michelle Garcia Winner’s book “Thinking About YOU, Thinking About ME,” it had what I call, “a domino effect.” It seemed like to the doors of Social Thinking had just opened for me and there was a whole new world to discover. During my discovery process I came across Audra Jensen’s book “I Get It!” The book delivers exactly what it promises. It helps both the clinicians and the students understand important Social Thinking concepts that in theory seem abstract and difficult to define, but when used in context of familiar children’s literature, suddenly make sense. I’ve always been a big proponent of using children’s literature in therapy. I use it to build receptive language, vocabulary, grammar or syntax, speech articulation skills and also as a reinforcement. So the idea of using it to teach Social Thinking concepts seemed inevitable to me. Audra Jensen’s book helped put it all together. She addresses the concepts such as “Body in the Group,” “Expected/ Unexpected Behavior,” “Flexible Brain,” “Keeping Brain in the Group,” as well as books that compliment the introduction and instruction of the Superflex curriculum. Superflex is a social skills super-hero (created by Stephanie Madrigal as a part of Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking curriculum). He battles social villains, called the Unthinkables that disrupt good social behavior. Supplementing the Superflex curriculum with children’s literature allows the child to comprehend the concepts as they relate to familiar characters.

For example, one of the books Audra Jenson recommends to teach “Expected/ Unexpected” behaviors is the very popular book, “No David!” by David Shannon. The book has excellent illustrations that make differentiating “expected” and “unexpected” behaviors easy and obvious. Audra also talks about how the book offers opportunities for children to analyze the behaviors and state why they are “unexpected” and what his mother is feeling when David engages in those behaviors.

Childrens Literature in Social Thinking Putting a lesson together to teach the concept of “expected/ unexpected behaviors” using “No David!” would be fairly easy for most experienced clinicians. However, for me, having the resource list of children’s books that teach specific Social Thinking concepts makes Audra Jensen’s book an incredibly handy tool. An additional benefit of using children’s literature as a tool is that lessons can be planned for individual (one-on-one sessions) as well as groups.

Filed Under: Social Communication DIsorders, Social Groups Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Social Thinking Curriculum for Preschool and Early Elementary Age Children

July 3, 2013 By

Social Thinking CurriculumThe area of language disorders that seemed to confound most therapists, including myself, for a long time was social skills or pragmatics. That was until I discovered Michelle Garcia Winner’s work. When I read her book “Thinking About YOU, Thinking About ME,” I finally felt relief. I started thinking about social skills in a completely different way that made sense. I realized that the reason my therapy tools didn’t seem powerful or effective was because I was focusing on teaching specific skills (e.g. How to start a conversation) in a specific situation (e.g. When you meet your neighbor), rather than teaching social thinking or social cognition. As a clinician, when you teach a specific skill in an artificial environment, the student may do well to learn the skill. But the questions “What happens when the situation changes? Can my student generalize this skill to another environment?” always haunted me. The knowledge that you can build a child’s perspective taking ability, or his ability to “listen with his whole body” to help him across situations and contexts, was my Eureka moment.

Collectively as service providers for pre-school or early elementary -aged children with social skill deficits, we seem to focus on grammar or vocabulary building. What I quickly realized was that the area of social skills seemed to persist in so many of the little ones I saw. Even when their speech is completely intelligible and the structure of their sentences and vocabulary seems appropriate, some how they continue to have difficulties interacting with peers and adults. It was clear to me that the missing piece of the puzzle was a program that worked on their social thinking skills. I am therefore very pleased and excited to offer Michelle Garcia Winner’s new program “The Incredible Flexible You,” a social thinking curriculum for preschool and early elementary years. This program uses Michelle Garcia Winner’s social thinking model adapted for ages 4- 7 years using activities and materials that engage and excite the little ones. The program uses books, music and play based activities to target core concepts of social thinking such as Thinking Thoughts, Feeling Feelings, Whole Body Listening, Thinking with Your Eyes, the Group Plan and Body in a Group.

The beauty of the program is that it is a simple, kid-friendly and systematic curriculum to teach concepts and vocabulary that are usually challenging for preschool and elementary-aged children. It teaches children to “think social” rather than specific “social skills.” It also includes letters for parents and families to keep them involved in the process to ensure carry-over.

Filed Under: Social Communication DIsorders, Social Groups Tagged With: , , , ,