Social Cognitive Deficits Across the Home and School Day

March 22-23, 2007
With Michelle Garcia Winner, CCC-SLP

Location:

Harraseeket Inn 162 Main Street Freeport, Maine

About the Speaker: Michelle is an internationally recognized workshop presenter who provides critical information about helping our students with a user-friendly approach to understanding social cognition and related practical skills. She weaves in examples of her own experiences both as a clinician in her private practice and as an educator working in the public school setting. She has an entertaining sense of humor and practical style that receives rave reviews from conference participants.

Her workshops are geared for all persons working and living with higher level persons with social cognitive deficits (Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS, NLD, etc.).

All of Michelle's workshops are designed to provide information to parents and professionals. Most of Michelle's information is geared towards 2nd graders and above, all the way into adulthood. One of Michelle's strengths is her ability to take complex information and break it down into language and concepts that all persons can understand. Her goal is for the workshop attendees to be able to do something differently with their students or family members the very next day and for all persons to be better able to describe the needs of the students in educational planning meetings.

Michelle has written four books, "Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students" (2005), "Worksheets! for Teaching Social Thinking and Related Skills" (2005), "Thinking About You Thinking About Me" (2002) and "Inside Out: What Makes The Person With Social Cognitive Deficits Tick" (2000). Michelle has also made two DVDs of her workshop days in conjunction with The Gray Center: "Strategies for Organization: Preparing for Homework and The Real World (2003)" and "Social Thinking Across the Home and School Day (2003)". She self-publishes her books nationally, making them available at www.socialthinking.com and for sale outside of North America from Jessica Kingsley Publisher (www.jkp.com).

Michelle also consults to school district in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as across the nation. She has worked with Andrea Walker's SUCCESS project in Orange Country for 3 years helping their staff to develop plans for helping them serve the older child. Michelle continues to write journal and magazine articles with her insights on social cognition. Her greatest areas of self-study currently involve the exploration of perspective taking (Theory of Mind) and its impact on many different aspects of functioning, and the complex array of skills demanded when we request students to "get organized". Michelle is developing treatment ideas around both of these areas with a focus on how to determine what we need to help teach students in the elementary and secondary years to help them move forward to be increasingly productive and independent persons as they approach their adult years.

The title that best fits Michelle now is "Specialist for Persons With Social Cognitive Deficits". Michelle is passionate about educating all persons, parents, educators, administrators and students about the real impact of social cognitive deficits across the home, school and work day. She is convinced that we can do more to help students find increasing levels of success as adults.

This is a two day program:

Day One: March 22, 2007 - Thinking About You Thinking About Me

All participants, whether they be parents or professionals leave this workshop day with not only new insights into the treatment for their students but also with a new awareness of their own intuitive perspective taking skills. Michelle believes that when adults learn more their own social thinking skills they become better teachers to students who need coaching to develop these skills.

Persons with social cognitive deficits, which include those with diagnoses such as Asperger Syndrome, High Functioning Autism, PDD-NOS, NLD and ADHD often have difficulty efficiently considering and responding to the perspective of those around them. Perspective taking is referred to as "Theory of Mind" in the research. This workshop will explore how central the skill of "perspective taking" is to all social contact and interpretation, be it non-verbal or verbal.

This workshop day is an exploration of what it means to be able to "take perspective" and how a deficit in this area impacts students heavily in every environment in which they participate be it school, home, community, and/or work. Perspective taking as a social executive functioning skill will be discussed. Michelle will introduce a model of explaining 3 different levels of perspective taking deficits along with overall prognosis for each of these levels.

Functional educational strategies to facilitate growth in thinking about how other people think and the related social skills will be reviewed to teach to students who function higher on the autism spectrum or with related deficits. A four-step model of developing social communication skills will be introduced. The audience is encouraged to be active participants across the day. Videotape examples of treatment strategies will be heavily utilized.

Day 2: March 23, 2007 -Implementing Social Thinking Concepts and Vocabulary into our School and Home Day: A Day to Develop Team Creativity

This brand new workshop allows parents and educators to learn more about teaching social thinking and related skills to students. We will explore how social thinking concepts develop the infrastructure for students to meet the educational standards, demonstrating how key these concepts are to reading comprehension, written expression, etc.

We will define many social thinking concepts and how to apply the "social thinking vocabulary" across the school and home day. Conference participants work in teams to develop new creative social thinking lessons to fit their teaching environment. The focus of the day will be on making the teaching realizable across a variety of environments with the focus on helping students to carry the concepts out of the treatment room and into their real lives. The social thinking lessons will be taught in the order they are being introduced in Michelle's new book, "A Social Thinking Curriculum for School Aged Students" due out in November 2005. Furthermore, we will explore how to work as part of an educational team. How do we share the workload when helping these kids?

Intended population discussed in workshops:

The core focus of these presentations is on the literate child (generally 8 years old through adulthood), however information is also helpful for those living and working with younger children as well. The bulk of the strategies presented will be for school aged children and young adults.

Intended Audience: Teachers, Speech Language Pathologists, Clinical and Educational Psychologists, Administrators, MFT's, LCSW's, OT's, PT's, Nurses, Instructional Aides, and family members of students with social cognitive deficits.

Prerequisites: This workshop is intended as a more advanced course for those who have attended Michelle's previous workshops called: Social Cognitive Deficits Across the School and Home Day: The ILAUGH Model of Social Cognition; The Nuts and Bolts of Starting Social Thinking Programs: or for those who have read Michelle's books.

Registration Information:

Conference Size: This training is limited to 100 people. Please sign up early to receive a confirmation.

Payment: Pre-registration is required. Fax and credit card registrations are not accepted, however, checks and purchase orders are. If you are using a purchase order, there is an additional $10 processing fee. Please send the P.O. with your registration form. Registration is by mail only.

Confirmation: After payment has been received, you will receive a confirmation via e-mail. All registrations are nonrefundable. Should the conference be filled, your check will be returned.

Location: Harraseeket Inn, 162 Main Street, Freeport, Maine. Exit 22 off 295. Phone: 207-865-9377

Time: Registration: 8:00; Program: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Both Days.

Luncheon: Your registration fee includes a gourmet luncheon with home made deserts in the Inn's dining room from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

About CEUs: Participants will receive a certificate for 12 clock hours. This program has been approved for 1.2 credits in Education from the University of Maine. Application has been made for 12 CEs in Psychology and 12 CEUs in Speech/Language Pathology.

Registration Deadline: March 1, 2006

Questions: If you have any questions please call Barbara Freethy at 207-846-8643 or e-mail.

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