Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings- Social Thinking®

Educational standards highlight the importance of classroom listening and collaboration, which are hallmarks of developmental learning in preschool and early elementary years. Thoughts and feelings are the foundations for social learning. The ability to think about others, play collaboratively and establish friendships involves thoughts; knowing our own, sharing them with others and taking others’ thoughts into account as we act and react. Many individuals with social-emotional learning challenges demonstrate difficulty understanding and interpreting their own and others' thoughts and feelings. Social Thinking® is a social-emotional cognitive based methodology used to guide children’s early social learning and play experiences in order to strengthen social competencies and classroom learning. We introduce the concepts of thoughts and feeling first because all subsequent concepts and vocabulary lessons such as group plan, thinking with your eyes, etc., are tied back to thoughts (What are you thinking? What do you think I am thinking? What is the group thinking about?). We make the connection to feelings because what we think and what we feel are inseparable. The purpose of this short talk is to introduce the first core social thinking concept of thoughts and feelings along with practical strategies to teach these concepts through storybooks in Hebrew, structured activities, and play during face to face and distance learning. This core vocabulary will prepare young learners to learn in a group, think about others, use their whole body to listen, etc., as they learn about the social world and consequently, how to navigate to regulate within it.