Beverly Montgomery, MS CCC-SLPLEXCOMMUNICATE, LLC

19 Muzzey Street, Suite 202Lexington MA 02421

781-862-4500www.lexcommunicate.com

beverly@lexcommunicate.com

Lauren Weeks, Psy.DFUSE School and Program.

7 Harrington Road Lexington MA 02420

7617-251-6955www.fuseprogram.com

lauren@fuseprogram.com

Foundations Necessary for Social Collaboration

• Social Communication• Theory of Mind/Perspective Taking• Nonverbal Communication• Central Coherence• Executive Functioning• Co-regulation• Social Cognition• Cognitive Flexibility• Self-Regulation

What do we mean by social communication?

• Using language to communicate your own internal state (thoughts, feelings, needs)….

• Using language to learn information about yourself and others….

• Using language to assist in self-regulation and task completion…

• Using language to form, maintain, deepen and repair relationships with others…..

……..in a variety of environments

Theory of Mind• Think about another’s

thinking• Appreciate that others have

mental states and that these may differ from ours

• Perspective taking• Empathy• Boundaries• Joint Attention &

Referencing

Key words:

Think, Know, Believe, Feel, Wish, Hope, Want, Intend

Twachtman-Cullen, D., 2000

Observe

Infer

Predict

Adjust

Theory of Mind

Communication during play…

• Using 80% declarative and 20% imperative language to:– Increase your non-verbal

communication and use far fewer words.

–Create a “contrast effect”–Reduce the amount of initiating &

prompting you take responsibility for–Become aware of how often you ask

questions, make demands or prompt for responses.

Declaratives vs. Imperatives

• That was the best one!• We’re walking faster• I am so tired• Look, there’s a giant spider• Watch out!• Here I come• I hope it gets here soon• I just remembered

something• Uh Oh!• Yikes!• Oh No!• We can do it• I’m not having fun

• Pick that up• Which one do you want?• What did you do today?• What color is this?• What comes next?• Stop that• Get dressed right now!• Look at me• Come over here• Do you want to do RDI?• What is the right answer?• What do you call this• Say, “thank you”

The form of communication is determined by the intention of the speaker

Social Detective

Emotional referencing

• Referencing: checking with another person when you are uncertain in a situation.

“The only behavioral feature that marked both high functioning & low functioning autistic

groups was a lack of referencing. They did not look toward an adult in presence of an

ambiguous and unfamiliar stimulus.” [Bacon et al., 1998]

Central Coherence (Frith, 1989)

• Getting the big picture and making a whole out of several parts; identifying the main idea

• Seeing the whole over the parts rather than the details

• Reconciling new information + opposing viewpoints

• Making connections• Generalizing

Executive Function Skills:What are they and why do we need them?

• What is executive functioning?

Social Executive Functions (Winner, 2007)

• Planning• Monitoring the Plan• Inhibition• Behavioral Flexibility• Maintaining Set• Changing Set

The Social Executive

• To be social, we need:– Sustained attention to peer– Gathering, processing, storing and accurately

retrieving social information– Initiation– Inhibition– Making and executing a social plan– Problem solving and adapting– Self-regulation

CognitiveChallenge

Discovery &New Level

of complexity

Regulation& Mastery

Dynamic Learning Opportunities are enacted through ongoing spirals of regulation, challenge & resolution

The Spiral of Development of Play and Learning

The Spiral of Development of Play and Learning

Social Co-regulation

• Every action changes things• Ongoing variations• Ongoing change appraisal• Dividing and shifting attention• Involves productive uncertainty: you

have to feel safe doing it.

Ideas to highlight co-regulation

• Move together with a partner from one end of the hall to another

• Lock arms and kick the ball• Walk with a buddy to the playground• Have relay games but the goal is for the two

teams to stay together move together simultaneously

• Throwing the ball back and forth

Variations / Evolving Changes

Hundreds of hours of research helped explain how unexpected novelty, change,

transformations and humor, relate to a core deficit for those on the spectrum.

Berger et al, 2003, found poor cognitive shifting; and Ermich et al, 2003, found

difficulty handling surprise and coherence within humorous narratives..

Symbolic Play

• Carlson & Beck (2009)- processes that underlie pretend play and language development can help child exert executive control over impulses

• EF is required to organize and regulate for play! • There are reciprocal relationships between play,

language and executive functioning.• Mature, extended play requires working memory and

inhibition (holding roles in mind and acting on only these), adapting to twists and turns, goal directed sequenced actions and emotional regulation!

Towards Mature Play

• Change one thing at a time:– Type of props– Type of themes– Complexity of sequence– Complexity of role-playing

• Pre-planning- encourage adaptation of the plan!

Social Cognition

• The ability to think about thinking (my own and the thinking of others)

• The understanding that my behavior affects how others think about me

• Incorporates perspective taking and joint attention

-Social Thinking ® by Michelle Garcia Winner

www.socialthinking.com

Instilling Cognitive Flexibility

• Self Talk! • Same but Different• How many ways can we….? • Predict multiple outcomes• Metacognitive vocabulary-

– know, think, plan, so, because, if…then, when…then, sometimes, always, never, etc.

• Zoom website for older kids- provide goal but no solution and give both needed and unnecessary materials

FLEXIBLE THINKING

People with social challenges have a neural “under connectivity” that results in a deficit of dynamic intelligence

Static Thinking: The same input gets me the same output each and every

time

Dynamic Thinking: The same input may or may not give me

the same output but my cognitive growth is based on my ability to adapt to these changes.

Examples of Dynamic Analysis

• Determining the meaning of small changes• Perceiving conceptual differences despite

concrete similarities • Attention distribution• The degree to which information is important

based upon what has happened before• Determination of “good-enough” outcomes• “Best fit” analysis• Estimation

Key Vocabulary• Group• Looking at/Thinking about• Flexible Thinking

– Change your opinion– Change your plan– Try something new

• Think like a scientist: hypothesis/prediction, test, data

• Stuck Thinking• Group/Family/Teacher/Parent Plan• Thought, talk, heart bubble

– keepers

Keeper: Keep in your thought bubble

Self Regulation

• You need a strategy when something is pulling your thinking away from the group/your plan

• What could you do?• Declarative language: Don’t cue what to do,

cue how to know or figure out what to do• “Hmmm….”• “I notice…”• “If….then….”

Buron, K.D. & Curtis, M. "The Anxiety Curve." Retrieved 3/26/2010 from http://www.5pointscale.com/smart_ideas.html

Ages Theory of Mind Content Themes Organization(Episodic Memory)

Decontextualization

17-19 mo pretend play on self events personally experienced that happen

daily

single activities realistic props

19-22 mo pretends on doll (doll passive recipient)

caregiver activities combines 2 toys or performs actions on 2 people

2 yr talks to doll several actions on a theme (doll in tub, wash, dry)

2 ½ yr events personally experienced that happen

periodically (associated with emotion)

3 yr events child has seen or read about but not personally

experienced

short sequences of temporally-related

activities; events evolve

low representation toys; object substitutions

3-3 ½ yr gives voice to dolls/puppets

4 yr gives characters multiple roles (mother, wife,

doctor)

planned events with cause-effect sequences

language used to set scene

5-6 yr highly imaginative themes multiple planned sequences

Concise Symbolic Play Scale

“Westby, C.E. (1980). Assessment of cognitive and language abilities through play. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 11, 154-168