The Social Thinking Methodology
A guiding resource for people worldwide for 25+ years
Social, Emotional & Academic Learning for a Lifetime of Well-Being
The teachings of the Social Thinking Methodology help people understand themselves and others to better navigate the social world, foster relationship development, and improve their performance at school, at home, and at work. Our unique tools break down complex social executive functioning concepts (like perspective taking) into understandable and doable parts that can be applied in any setting. For more than 25 years, our experts have been a guiding resource for schools, clinics, individuals, and families around the world, and our teachings continually evolve based on the latest research, clinical insights, and input from our neurodivergent community. Whether you're helping individuals with a diagnosis of ADHD, social communication differences, social anxiety, autism levels 1 and 2, other social, emotional, and cognitive learning differences (with diagnoses or without), or an entire classroom of neurotypically developing students—our strategies can help you help them.
The Social Thinking Methodology addresses the questions: How does the social world work, and how can we help our students better navigate to regulate within it? How do our social and emotional learners function within the social world? Our methodology fosters the development of social competencies so foundational that our work applies across cultures, ages, races, religions, mental health diagnoses, etc., and has been adopted within communities around the world. We stand committed to providing quality, practical information that is rooted in research, built upon real-world experiences, and is responsive to the needs of the people for whom it is designed to support. We are constantly learning and gaining inspiration from our clients and others we meet, so our work is ever-evolving yet remains grounded in its adherence to rigorous standards of quality.
Social Thinking publishes its own educational products, gives conferences around the world, offers online training courses, and provides a large library of free articles and webinars on our website, all devoted to helping individuals gain stronger social awareness and social functioning skills through using the Social Thinking Methodology. Our curricula have been implemented in specialized and mainstream classrooms, schoolwide, in homes, clinics, and districts around the world. Currently, the value of these teachings is recognized on a wider scale and our work is being adopted as part of social, emotional, and academic learning programs for all students.
What is Social Thinking?
Develop Social Competencies
The Social Thinking Methodology provides evidence-based strategies to help people ages four through adult develop their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving to meet their own social goals and improve:
- Conversation & social connection
- Executive functioning
- Friendship & relationship development
- Perspective taking
- Self-regulation
- Social Thinking Vocabulary
Who We Help
The Social Thinking Methodology is designed for individuals ages four through adult with solid language, cognitive, and learning abilities. Our work is for individuals with social emotional learning differences and/or challenges, whether neurotypical or neurodivergent (ADHD, social communication learning differences, social anxiety, twice exceptional, autism levels 1 and 2). Our work has been adopted into mainstream classrooms and districts around the world to improve social, emotional, and academic learning for all.
Our strategies are taught by a wide variety of people, including educators, clinicians, families, caregivers, college students, etc. Professionals who use our work include speech-language pathologists, special and general education teachers, social workers, counselors, clinical and school psychologists, occupational therapists, behavior specialists, school administrators, paraprofessionals, marriage and family therapists, and medical professionals, to name a few.
The Concept of Social Thinking: It’s Tied to Social Skills and Academics
Academics Are Rooted in Social Thinking
How is the Social Thinking Methodology different from every other social and emotional learning program?
Lessons, strategies, curricula, and tools can cross all 3 tiers of support
It is designed to complement and embed into academic lessons
It is accessible to general education and special education
It uses visual supports and consistent vocabulary to make abstract social ideas clear and concrete
It avoids assumptions that all learners will learn in the same way
Social thinking is our meaning maker
Social thinking is the process by which we interpret the thoughts, beliefs, intentions, emotions, knowledge, and actions of another person along with the context of the situation to understand that person’s experience. If we are engaging or sharing space with another person, we use this information to determine how to respond to affect the thoughts that person has about us to achieve our social goals (such as being friendly to maintain a friendship, acting generous to impress a date, and seeming unfriendly to deflect attention when walking alone late at night, etc.). Social thinking is our meaning maker—it allows us to interpret the deeper meaning behind what others do in the world, and (if the situation calls for it) prompts us with how to respond. A person’s social thinking strength has a considerable effect on their relationships and success in school and at work. It affects the person’s social skills, perspective taking, self-awareness, self-regulation, critical thinking, social problem solving, play skills, reading comprehension, written expression, ability to learn and work in a group, organizational skills, etc.
The Social Thinking®–Social Competency Model (ST-SCM)Is at the Core of the Social Thinking Methodology
The goal of the Social Thinking® Methodology is to take complicated social, emotional, and academic learning processes and teach them explicitly in a way that social learners of all ages—and interventionists—can understand. Over the several decades since the Social Thinking Methodology was introduced in the mid-1990s, our work has been and continues to be, informed by many bodies of research and theory. These include, but are not limited to, social learning theory, social information processing, perspective taking, self-regulation, executive functioning, communication, autism, ADHD, sensory processing, reading comprehension, written expression, managing complex behavior, etc.
Ultimately, it became clear that the focus of our work is to teach students social competencies, which are much more than social skills or teaching students to “behave!” Through this process of integrating well-established research studies, including research on social information processing (Crick and Dodge, 1994; Beauchamp and Anderson, 2010) and thought into our methodology, we were inspired to develop the Social Thinking®–Social Competency Model (ST–SCM).
Developers of the Social Thinking Methodology
Michelle Garcia Winner & Dr. Pamela Crooke
Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP, is the founder and CEO of Social Thinking and a globally recognized thought leader, author, speaker, and social-cognitive therapist. Over her 30-year career, she has developed the Social Thinking Methodology, along with Dr. Pamela Crooke, which provides evidence-based strategies and curricula to help individuals of all ages develop social competencies by deeply connecting social, emotional, and cognitive development. Michelle's work emphasizes the impact of social competencies on relationships, academic performance, and career success.
Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP, is Chief Curriculum Officer and Director of Research at Social Thinking. With extensive experience as a speech-language pathologist in the Arizona public schools and as a clinical faculty member of three universities, Pam is a renowned speaker, who has co-authored multiple award-winning books on Social Thinking with Michelle Garcia Winner in addition to co-developing the Social Thinking Methodology.
Michelle Garcia Winner and Dr. Pamela Crooke continuously update the Social Thinking Methodology based on the latest research, input from the community, and insights and evidence from clinical practice.
Social Thinking’s Three-Part Process & Social Emotional Chain Reaction
Three-Part Process
1. Social thinking is our meaning maker. We observe and listen to interpret the perspectives of others. The first step to improving social thinking is to keenly observe the social world that surrounds us.
A client of Michelle Garcia Winner, a 43-year-old engineer, found this step particularly valuable. He spent time learning how to observe people to be more aware of the social situations in which he was expected to socially relate to others. He had this to say about the experience: “Observing the social interactions of others is very helpful to me as I formulate how to interact myself. I’ve learned not everyone walks with their head down avoiding eye contact all the time. I’ve learned when and how to smile. I’ve studied what makes a stranger seem approachable. In short, you have to know the rules of the game in order to play the game.”
2. When seeking to engage or simply share space with others, we use social thinking to adapt our social behaviors (social skills) effectively as a means to meet our social goals. To do this, we must learn strong self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-control. We must learn how to adapt our physical posture depending on the context, how we use our eyes to better understand others and communicate, and tools for conversational language to relate to others.
3. Our social thinking and social skills directly impact how others feel about us. This impacts how we are treated, how we feel about others, and ultimately, how we feel about ourselves! At the end of the day, our social experience is an emotional experience. The purpose of social thinking is to produce social behavior that gives others the emotional experience you intend to give. The Social Thinking Methodology teaches people to be more aware of their feelings and emotions and better predict and relate to the emotions of others.
The Social Emotional Chain Reaction
The three-part process of social thinking leads to one of the core concepts within the Social Thinking Methodology, the Social Emotional Chain Reaction—the idea that how we act affects how others feel, how we make others feel affects how they treat us, how we are treated affects how we feel about others and ultimately how we feel about ourselves. Throughout our teaching we also highlight the fundamental idea that because we have the power to affect the thoughts, feelings, and lives of others, we have a responsibility to treat others, who pose no harm or threat to us, with kindness and respect. We are affected by others, and others are affected by us! Therefore, we must treat others well to benefit from the same treatment.
The Social Emotional Chain Reaction is at the foundation of social interaction and is at the heart of what we teach through the Social Thinking Methodology. Social Thinking (our company) teaches the Social Emotional Chain Reaction in different ways to different ages through our wide array of products—and to professionals, family members, and students, through our free library of articles and our 40 courses. One of our core treatment frameworks that teaches this concept is Social Situation Mapping, which can be used with all ages.
Social Thinking Deeply Connects Social, Emotional & Academic Learning
The Social Thinking Methodology has been a guiding resource for schools, clinics, individuals & families around the world for more than 25 years. Our resources are developed by experts in speech and language (SLPs) specializing in social cognition and dedicated to helping people of all ages reach their social goals. Instead of focusing on mastering social skills, we teach social competencies for lifelong learning, so individuals can make progress toward their self-determined goals.
Teachers, speech-language pathologists, counselors, parents, and therapists just like you have used our evidence-based lessons & strategies to teach people how to improve their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving through: conversation & social connection, executive functioning, friendship & relationship development, perspective taking, self-regulation, and Social Thinking Vocabulary.
Social Thinking resources deeply connect social, emotional & academic learning for a lifetime of well-being. Our materials are helpful for students in mainstream and specialized education—they can be used in schools as part of Tiers 1, 2, and 3 support. Explore our broad range of resources by developmental age below.
Award-Winning Resources by Developmental Age
