Visual Supports for 10 Key Social Thinking Vocabulary Concepts

These visual supports encourage the active use of 10 Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts that lay the foundation for social learning, which are fundamental to the social experience and are relevant across languages, cultures, and ages (starting at age 4). While they are a small set of our broader teaching platform, they are an important place to begin an individual’s discovery into their own social-emotional learning as well as discovering the social world that surrounds them, regardless of whether the individual is typically developing or exhibits social learning challenges.

As each of these 10 concepts are introduced and utilized on an ongoing basis, hang the related colorful visual support in your classroom, clinic, or home to remind viewers to observe and use these concepts in all locations. The 11″ x 14” images are beautifully rendered, but the artistry they bring to a room is a secondary to their powerful primary function: to encourage the use of the concepts to build social awareness, self-awareness, perspective taking, flexible thinking—and ultimately—stronger social competencies.

Important note: Teach the concepts first

The visual supports are intended for use as the concepts are introduced and used on an ongoing basis to remind adults and students to keep these concepts alive across all settings. The product offers no teaching instruction; to learn how to teach each of the concepts and the sequence we suggest, check out Social Thinking’s free webinars in the series “10 Core Concepts.” Each webinar offers best practices and resources for teaching one of the 10 concepts to students in different age groups. We strongly encourage introducing one concept a month to give time for students and staff to understand the depth and complexity of the idea. These concepts get to the root of social-emotional learning for every individual, typically developing or with social learning challenges. Students with social learning challenges will need extra time and attention to learn and use these concepts.

The 10 Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts:

Thoughts and Feelings
Thinking with Your Eyes
The Group Plan
Body in the Group
Whole Body Listening
Hidden Rules & Expected—Unexpected Behaviors
Smart Guess
Flexible and Stuck Thinking
Size of the Problem
Sharing an Imagination

Social Thinking Vocabulary – concepts at the heart of Social Thinking

At the heart of the Social Thinking Methodology is our vocabulary. It’s our way of translating complex social concepts into a simpler form that can be taught and used as a common language to talk about what it means to “be social” across people, cultures, and context. Social Thinking Vocabulary encourages individuals to actively notice what’s happening around them. The language can be used whenever and wherever needed to talk about social expectations and interpretations: working as a group during a math lesson, dinnertime at home, hanging out with friends on the playground, participating as members of a team during P.E., etc. The concepts are expressed in simple language to make these abstract ideas easier to understand and motivate individuals to integrate them into their daily experiences as they participate in the social world.