FIT (Flexible Interactive Thinking)
social cognition therapy ©

Services

FIT (Flexible Interactive Thinking) group provides both individual and group therapy.  Therapy is scheduled in 60 minute sessions with the last ten minutes reserved for parent talk time (where appropriate).  This time is reserved to review the child’s progress in the session and to allow carryover of learned skills into the home.  The needs of the client, the impact on social and educational performance and the families’ specific situation will all impact the schedule options.

 Who is best suited for FIT social thinking groups?

Social Thinking intervention best meets the needs of students with near average to above average verbal intelligence with varying degrees of Social Cognitive challenges:

* High Functioning Autism (HFA)

* Asperger Syndrome (AS)

* Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)

* Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NLD)

* Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without hyperactivity (ADD, ADHD)

*Persons without any diagnostic label who are experiencing difficulty with fluid social interaction and socially themed academic work.

What are some of the characteristics a person with social thinking deficits might have?

*Few friends/appears to be a loner

*Social anxiety

*Socially awkward

*Does not get the big picture or “gist” of the conversation or overall theme of movies or literature

*Is unable to “read” and act on non-verbal cues (i.e. body language, facial expressions, context, etc)

*Lack of comprehension the main topic and difficulty summarizing literature

*Difficulty with time management

*Difficulty initiating, planning, and organizing school assignments as well as social outings

*Difficulty taking notes in class

*Difficulty with cooperation and negotiation

*Difficulty with figurative language including multiple meaning words and indirect requests

*Difficulty using language to initiate and maintain social relationships

*Difficulty taking perspective and showing empathy.

*Difficulty with quantity, quality, relevance, and clarity of discourse.

*difficulty finding and keeping a job, due to subtle social challenges

Why participate in “social thinking” therapy and not a traditional social skills group?

In traditional social skill groups you are missing the social thought process taking place between the communicative partners (i.e.  What kind of thought does a peer have about you when you hold the door open for them vs. when you do not).  Teaching the thought process behind the social skill enhances carryover of the social skill into a novel context or new environment.  Social Thinking therapy also offers specific vocabulary to assist families in incorporating Social Thinking concepts into their day to day lives (i.e. keeping your body/brain the group, whole body listening, expected behavior vs. unexpected behavior, smart guess/wacky guess) to name a few. Traditional social skills training are based on behavioral principles such as repetition and reinforcement.  While this method of therapy has proven to be beneficial for young children and more cognitively challenged individuals, these skills are hard to generalize beyond immediate therapeutic environment and does not provide the “why should I bother” explanation.  Social Thinking provides the “why” social interaction, and benefits individuals through intrinsic motivation because they understand that their behavior impacts others. Providing “good” or “friendly” thoughts to another feels good to do and good things happen to them when others are thinking positively about them!

How do we group our students?

Students are grouped with peers of approximate age and similar social cognitive strengths and weaknesses.  Cognition, perspective taking abilities, social language, language processing, and challenging behaviors are all considerations with group placement.  When possible, we also group according to shared interests.

What do we teach?

Lessons are dependent on the needs of individual students.  The following is a sample of the concepts that are explored and not meant to represent a comprehensive list.

Preschool and Primary School

*Focus heavily on social interaction

*purposeful play programs

*Non-verbal play (focus on group regulation)

*observation (Social detective)

*Role play

*Learn to make “smart guesses” about the social intents of people around them.  i.e.; “if he is looking at a picture of me and my dog, he is thinking about this picture…maybe he likes my dog (smart guess), I could ask if he likes it.”

*Familiarity of social expectations across environments and context

Intermediate School (3rd grade and up)

*Social relatedness

Conversational skills

*Organizational skills

*Visual organizational systems to help conceptualize both social interactions and academic work.

*Learn to make smart guesses about the social motivation of adults, family, friends and peers around them (social detective)

*Familiarity of social expectations across environments and context

Middle School

*self esteem

*Organization

*Non-verbal/body language skills

*Expected behaviors for middle school

*Hidden Curriculum (“rules”) of middle school

High School and beyond

*All of the above concepts related to High school

*Self advocacy

*Social networking

*Acquaintances vs. friends

*Social fake (we all learn how to “appear interested”)

*When to use our “brain filter” and not blurt out all that comes to mind

*How to “read” a situation by determining relevant information from irrelevant Information accurately, interpreting its meaning, and understanding how to react appropriately to the social situation

*Using contextual clues to figure out what people “mean” beyond what they say

*Appropriate discourse including quantity, quality, relevance, and clarity

And much more depending on what the group wants to work on!

What is new?

• Summer Camps 2010