This course will explore how to work with students, clients, and patients who struggle with self-regulation, social anxiety, and depression, who are described as Nuance-Challenged Social Communicators on our Social Thinking–Social Communication/Characteristics Summary (ST-SCS) . Individuals in this group may represent a range of diagnoses such as ADHD, Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, ODD, OCD, NVLD, social anxiety, perfectionism, twice exceptional—or may be undiagnosed. Nuance-based social learners tend to have significant issues and are the most likely to be bullied by peers and adults—we introduce the concept of the “forgiveness factor” to detail this phenomenon. (See this article for more common characteristics of people described as Nuance-Challenged Social Communicators.)

We will explore the characteristics and social-emotional learning needs of these individuals starting at four years old, across childhood, and throughout adulthood. We will investigate the different levels of interactive play and collaboration with Social Thinking’s Group Collaboration, Play and Problem Solving Scale (GPS) for use with 4- to 7-year-olds and then examine how patterns in our little ones can extend into adulthood. 

We will explore sophisticated ideas that foster the development of an individual’s perspective taking, executive functioning, and social-emotional self-management. More specifically we will examine different aspects of emotional awareness of self and others, flexible thinking, social problem solving, self-advocacy while guiding the audience through different assessment, and treatment* ideas to foster self-regulation, effective communication, and a sense of well-being. Reviewed within this day are:

• Examples of cognitive flexibility and its relationship to dysregulation
• How social problem solving and emotional expression are linked
• Strategies to promote emotional self-regulation including our emotion scale and how our emotional expression is expected to shift with age
• Learning about one’s own strengths and weaknesses
• Exploring social anxiety and some related treatment ideas
• Enhance social competencies by utilizing Social Thinking’s Friendship Pyramid to explore specific strategies to help teach more sophisticated greetings, and development of acquaintance-based relationships and situational friendships.

Many of our adult clients tell us they wished someone had “taught me this information when I was 10 years old.” Attendees report this course is beneficial for both helping school-age students and better understanding themselves!

*Treatment refers to using conceptual and strategy-based frameworks to help individuals improve their social competencies.

1. Describe three characteristics of Nuance-Challenged Social Communicators and the impact of these characteristics on mental health and executive functioning.
2. Explain how having a shared imagination is important not only for interactive play but also for collaboration and conversational skills.
3. Describe how to use a ME-Map to teach social awareness and expectations of others and situations.
4. Explain how the camera in a social learner’s cell phone can be used for teaching about the social learner’s own facial expressions.

This agenda may change without notice.

We are proud to be a continuing education provider for Speech-Language Pathologists, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, Clinical and School Psychologists, and Certified Counselors, such as Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors, and others.

We offer continuing education units/credits/clock hours through:

• ASHA: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• CES: Commonwealth Educational Seminars
• NBCC: National Board for Certified Counselors
• And more!

Click here to see more Continuing Education Information