Apr 28, 2021
My guest this week is Michelle Winner, MA, CCC-SLP who specializes in the treatment of individuals with social learning challenges and is the founder and CEO of Social Thinking®, a company dedicated to helping individuals from four through adulthood develop their social competencies to meet their personal social goals. Michelle coined the term “Social Thinking” in the mid-1990s and since that time has created numerous unique treatment frameworks and curricula that help educators, clinicians, professionals of all types, and parents/family members appreciate that social capabilities are integral to a person’s success in life, socially, academically, and professionally.
In this episode, Michelle and I
discuss what social skills actually entail. Most
people, including education professionals, believe that social
skills can be taught the way other competencies are taught.
Michelle has dedicated her entire career to helping school
professionals and parents understand that social skills involve so
much more. That’s why she created “Social
Thinking” courses. Many people have the ability to hear
their own thoughts, that inner voice, and observe their thoughts
before speaking or taking action. This enables them to
engage in a conversation, join a group, meet new
people, etc. Michelle noticed early on that there are many
people in the world, even high academic achievers, who do not
possess this ability innately. So she has designed several
programs, developed research, and written many papers on
how to help people learn social thinking. Head over to
SocialThinking.com for lots of free resources on this topic.