We Thinkers (Previously the Incredible Flexible You)

We Thinkers® (previously The Incredible Flexible You)

A Social Thinking curriculum developed for early learners. This program utilizes user-friendly vocabulary to explicitly teach social expectations using different story books (one for each concept) and activities. It is created by Michelle Garcia Winner and her team.
Typically used when working with 4-7 year olds
It consists of 2 volumes which each have 5 concepts within them:

-Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings

-The Group Plan

-Thinking With Your Eyes

-Body in the Group

-Whole Body Listening

-Hidden Rules and Expected/Unexpected Behaviour

-Smart Guess

-Flexible and Stuck Thinking

-Size of the Problem

-Sharing An Imagination

**The 10 concepts are important for any social interaction or situation

Key Vocabulary:

Body in the group/body out of the group –When someone’s body is turned into the group and they look like they are working as part of the group. We notice when somebody’s body is not part of the group.

Brain in the group/brain out of the group -When somebody’s brain is in the group they arepaying attention.

Think with your eyes – Use your eyes to figure out what non-verbal messages others are sending as well as what they might be thinking about. When we are aware that others have thoughts and we “think with our eyes” to watch people’s faces and eyes, we can begin to see some of the thoughts other people are having.

Thinking about what others think – Considering what others are thinking is an important way to figure out what they expect from you. Encourage students in classrooms and at home to be more actively aware of the thoughts of others.

Expected and Unexpected Behaviours – Every environment has a set of unwritten rules that people expect to be followed such as not interrupting respecting personal space, etc. When people follow these rules, some of which are not always explained to the student, then he is considered to be “doing what is expected”. Students who don’t follow the rules are doing what is unexpected and people may have “Uncomfortable thought about them”. What is expected is impacted by the context of a situation and the age of a person.

Good Thoughts and Uncomfortable Thoughts – All people have thoughts about each person around them. Most thoughts are good or normal thoughts, but each of us also may do things each day which can cause people to have “uncomfortable thoughts” about us. Creating a small degree of uncomfortable thoughts each day in other people is totally acceptable, but when we create too many uncomfortable thoughts for others, they start to think that we may not be nice or safe to be with or that we just don’t seem to care about them.

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References:

Linton, B., Attaway, R., & Winner, M. G. (2015). SuperFlex and Friends Take on Social Emotional Learning and the Common Core Standards. Retrieved from Autism Awareness Conference.

Winner, M. G. (2005). Think Social: A Social-Thinking Curriculum for School Age Students. San Jose, CA: Think Social Publishing

Compiled by: Alberta Health Services, Occupational Therapists, August 2016