(WC 94364 GARCIA WINNER 2025) Thinking Socially: A Framework for Friendship-Building

Course overview

From an early age, students are expected to work in groups and navigate peer relationships-even with those they wouldn't naturally choose as friends. As social expectations grow more complex, many students struggle due to factors such as increased screen time, social anxiety, and reduced in-person interaction. The Social Thinking Methodology offers practical strategies and metacognitive tools to help students better understand and engage with the social world. This session will include clinical stories that highlight how and why these frameworks were developed-and how they support lasting change. Attendees will receive Thinksheets to help explore each concept in a practical, ready-to-use format for students or clients. They'll also have time to reflect on how these tools apply not only to those they support-but their own social experiences as well. (Originally developed for individuals with social learning differences, these frameworks have since been embraced in mainstream settings for their effectiveness in making the implicit rules of the social world more explicit and accessible.)