As we transitioned from flip-flops to boots, the Social Thinking groups at Skill Builders celebrated the change in seasons by participating in a pumpkin decorating contest. Each group worked together to create a group plan for how they wanted to decorate their group’s pumpkin. They used social thinking concepts, such as “Thinking with your Eyes” and “Brain in the Group” to follow the group plan and create a uniquely decorate pumpkin as a team! The pumpkins were displayed in our waiting rooms and all were welcome to vote for their favorite pumpkin.
There are many moving parts when working on a project like this one. Decorating a pumpkin requires planning, negotiation, compromise, communication and problem-solving. To accomplish our group goal, we needed to self-regulate our emotions and behaviors.
Self-regulation is “A process (meaning it spans time) through which we learn to control our emotions, thoughts, physical sensations and ultimately our behavior (including social language, facial expressions, gestures, etc.) to meet whatever goal is put in front of us, whether it’s our own (individual goal) or a collective goal of others’ choosing.” Michelle Garcia Winner
All of our social thinking groups did a fantastic job working together to create a spook-tacular pumpkin! Check out winner of our Annandale office was “Pumpkin #6” and “Spooklywise” was our winner for the McLean office.
Thank you to all of our extraordinary children for doing a great job working together! Thank you to our parents for cheering us on, and thank you to all of the families who voted!
Winner, Michelle Garcia. Social Emotional Self-Regulation: Why It Doesn’t Involve a Behavior Plan. October 14, 2019; https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=social-emotional-self-regulation
Magdalena Brier & Elizabeth McKenzie
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