PACES social groups at Pilgrim Collaborative

Why is Social Thinking™ an important life skill?

A common misconception regarding Social Thinking™ is that it is a social skills curriculum aimed only to support a student’s ability to make friends and engage appropriately with peers. While this is a component of the curriculum, it is also important to point out that if a student presents with a social learning challenges it impacts almost every area of their life.  In fact, students who present with a social cognitive delay have lifelong struggles that impact their lives socially, emotionally, behaviorally, vocationally, and recreationally making it difficult to function independently or successfully as adults.   Developing social cognition skills is one of the strongest predictors for success in adult life.

Who will benefit from Social Thinking™ services?

Our Social Thinking™ programs are designed for individuals with near to above average cognition who struggle with understanding and processing the social world. Students who benefit from our services may:

• Have trouble fitting in with their peers
• Make social errors
• Have difficulty reading social scenarios
• Experience social anxiety
• Be rigid thinkers
• Struggle with written expression and reading comprehension
• Need support with time management and organization
• Not work well in groups
• Need support to regulate their emotions/behavior
• Have low self esteem

Who Are We? Teach Social! PAC is a program of the Pilgrim Area Collaborative Extended Services (PACES).  Teach Social! PAC was developed to specifically serve individuals with social learning challenges in the South Shore area through direct teaching based on the conceptual model and practices of Social Thinking™ developed by Michelle Garcia Winner. 

All programs are developed and overseen by Master’s Level Educators with extensive training in the principles of Social Thinking™, including clinical mentorship training at Michelle Garcia Winner’s clinic in San Jose, California. In addition each instructor has expertise in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Applied Behavior Analysis and empirically validated and developmentally appropriate treatment and intervention methodologies.

Services offered:
Direct Instruction to student/small group
Parent Workshops
Social Thinking™ Assessment

If you have any questions about our programs or are interested in hosting one of the listed workshops at one of your SEPAC meetings please feel free to contact either Deb Booth @ dbooth@pilgrimac.org or Joanna Silverman

@ jsilverman@pilgrimac.org.