Social Smarts

This is a worksheet meant for younger students.  Using ideas from Michelle Garcia Winner, it explains what "social smarts" are and when we use them.

Click on picture for printable lesson

Whole Body Listening

I am going to start teaching a Kindergartner some social thinking vocabulary.  She is a very visual learner.  I adapted some of Michelle Garcia Winner's information and picture to make up the following lesson to this student understand how she can listen with her whole body.

Click on picture for printable lesson

Conversation Train

We have been working hard on conversation skills.  This is another lesson to practice conversation skills.  We discussed and brainstormed WHY conversation skills are important.  Some ideas the students came up with include:
- Making friends
- Getting ahead in a job
- Getting along with others

I'm really proud of the students for being able to generalize this information and put it into practice.  I made up a worksheet for them to practice this new knowledge.

Click on picture for printable worksheet.

The magic of UNO cards

I've been having a hard time lately with some of the older kids I see.  They don't see the point or the importance of what we are working on.  I have been very frustrated, and our sessions have been less than productive.  In desperation, I turned to Pinterest, and came across some UNO activities.

I figured - what could it hurt?  We aren't getting anything done anyway!  Well, it was no less than MAGICAL!!!

My most difficult student didn't want to come see me, but I asked him to give me just 10 min.  We played the game, and he was happy about it.  I started to pick up the cards, and he grabbed the UNO cards and starting dealing out the cards.  We ended working for 30 minutes with smiles all around.

Below is the activity I did today.

Click on the picture for activity details.

After the session, my mind was buzzing.  Although the student did well, and shared, he didn't really listen to my comments.  So I came up with this idea.  This student needs to work on writing, so I made a handout so that he has to write down the other participant's comments.  

Click on the picture for activity details.

There is just something about UNO that everyone loves.  Here is another great idea showing how to use UNO cards in a session.  

Click on the picture for activity details.

Thank you Pinterest for such great ideas and breaking my therapy block with my older students.  I look forward to coming up with some more ideas.  I'll let you know how it goes.