This document provides an introduction to a social skills resource guide. It includes sections on social skills apps, programs and strategies for teaching social skills, resources for anxiety, videos for teaching social skills, book lists, and acknowledgements. The guide was created based on discussion by members of the AllSpecialED learning community to share ideas and tips for supporting social skills development. It includes summaries of various programs and strategies as well as links to additional resources.

1. 1

2. Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Acknowledgements 4
Disclaimer 5
Social Skills Apps
6
Social Emotional Programs and Related Strategies
● Self­Regulation Scale 8
● Big Problem/Little Problem
Social Skills Programs and Related Strategies 13
● Playing Board Games
● Asking Questions
● Thought Bubbles
Anxiety Resources and Related Strategies 20
● Coping Cards
● Step­Ladders
Videos for Teaching Social Skills 22
Social and Emotional Books Lists 25
Dedication 26
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3. Introduction
The ability to adapt to and negotiate our social environment is more important to
one’s success than any subject we learn about in school. Having the skills as
therapist, educator, or parent to teach and expand our children’s knowledge of the
social world opens a world of opportunity for kids of all ages. To support this
vision January’s discussion topic was aimed to increase our understanding of social
skills, strategies, programs, and technology.
Thanks to your ideas and tips we were able to create The Social Skills Resource
Guide. We hope the pages in this book help you pilot new techniques so you can
begin to break social barriers. Together we are a powerful learning community,
and we can’t wait for our next discussion!
Sincerely Yours,
Joy & Colleen
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4. A Special Thanks
A very special thanks to Nancy Clements and Jill Day for opening up the Social
Thinking Boston Clinic to the AllSpecialED community for such an amazing learning
experience. Their passion and knowledge regarding treatment and educational
practices for students with social communication disorders inspired us all to dig a
little deeper and provide better intervention.
Thank you to all of the AllSpecialED members who are contributing authors to this
eBook:
Ruth Morgan chapel hill snippets
Elyse
Megan g
jfrancese
Denise
Ltbaggwrinkle
Thankyou to everyone who came our social thinking event and participated in our
discussion:
Anthony, Amy, Denise, Elyse, Jackie, Jenn, Jill, Karen H., Karen R., Kathy, Laura,
Lois, Marie, MaryAnne, Meghan, Nancy
Your contributions made this event a fantastic exchange of ideas and we all learned
so much from each other.
To read more about the event, please click HERE
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5. Disclaimer
This e­book is intended for educational purposes only. AllSpecialED does not
receive any monetary gain from the distribution of this e­book. The ideas and
materials presented in this e­book originate from members of the AllSpecialED
community. AllSpecialED is not responsible for copyright infringements. By
contributing to this e­book, members have verified one the following:
● The ideas and materials are original work,
● The original author has provided written consent to share materials,
● Members have provided appropriate citations for adapted content.
You may download the content for scientific or educational uses. You may not sell,
reproduce, transmit, distribute, perform or display such content for any commercial
purpose without the express consent of AllSpecialED.
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6. Social Skills Apps
The Bag Game App­ For Early Language and Social/Pragmatics Skills
Conversation Builder­ Elementary Edition
Social Adventures App­ Pragmatics app
Middle School Confidential App Series: For Teaching Social and Emotional Skills
The Social Express App Reviews­ Pragmatics/ Social Skills
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7. Hidden Curriculum On the Go App Reviews
Comic Life
Jessica Chase SLP, from Consonantly Speaking created the most amazing Social Skills and
Autism Spectrum Disorder Related App List! It has 82 pages full of suggestions. I am super
impressed.
Thanks Amy for all your hard work!
Click here to access the list: http://consonantlyspeaking.com/posts...rders­app­list
To view other apps listed on ASE click HERE!
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8. Social and Emotional Programs and Related Strategies
The Alert Program
Zones of Regulation
Kimochis
The Zones of Regulation: An Adaptation of the Emotion Check In
For those of you who don't know, the Zones of Regulation is a fantastic curriculum
designed to help students learn emotional regulation and control, developed by
Leah M. Kuypers MA, OT, Autism Specialist. Part of the program encourages
children to "check in" to evaluate their emotional state and build awareness. After
working with students and evaluating the curriculum I decided to adapt the provided
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9. "check in" visual to allow my kids to expand their emotional evaluation.
Leah provides blank faces in handouts. I added those faces to the “check in” so kids
could draw their feelings along with picking their zone. Many of my kids are at the
point where they can begin explaining “why” they feel they are in a zone. Thus, I
added the phrase "because" to help these students learn and explain the causes of
their emotions. "Because..." is on Velcro so can easily be removed if it is too
advanced for a particular student.
Angry Birds Calming Strategy: For Social Skills
Here is an example of a Power Card Strategy to help reinforce a calming strategy
for a student with a special interest in angry birds. By using her special interest, she
will hopefully be more motivated to use this strategy when she feels upset.
Here is the link on Boardmaker Share:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activ...lming­Strategy
The Zones of Regulation: Simplified Bingo: For Learning Emotions
This school year I am using the Zones of Regulation curriculum with many of my
students. So far, I really like the program. Several teachers and our social worker
have enjoyed learning and participating in lessons. In the beginning there are a lot of
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10. emotions that students have to learn... it can feel overwhelming. So, I condensed the
emotions I feel are most relevant to my students onto one sheet. Once they have
built their awareness and are proficient with these, I will then expand to other
vocabulary, and of course teach as moments present themselves. Below is the link
on Boardmaker Share for the adapted Zones Bingo game cards, lesson 2
(simplified). Enjoy!
Self­Regulation Scale
Click on this link to read about and download a free self­regulation scale useful for
children with autism. A therapist and teacher can use this scale to first teach
emotions, strategies, and self­reflection, and then teach the child to apply these in
the classroom.
http://chapelhillsnippets.blogspot.c...ion­scale.html
Print it here in PDF or here in Boardmaker
I simplified this scale by shortening the levels and included visual strategies for a
student who is having difficulty self­regulating her emotions and completing tasks. I
used the term "think green" to help her remember to stay calm. I also incorporated a
toolbox with strategy cards that attach to the toolbox with Velcro. When she
escalates to yellow or orange she is directed to her toolbox strategies to help her
calm down, and hopefully return to green. It is a work in progress (as always), but
she LOVES her toolbox, especially the Flip It! strategy with Cozmo (her favorite
cartoon character). She has really taken to the term "think green" and refers to it
when she has had a good part of the day ("Mrs. A, I stayed on green!"). Thank you
Ruth for sharing this wonderful scale with me!
Here are new visuals adapted from Ruth's original scale:
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11. Big Problem Little Problem
A few years ago I worked with a student who immediately broke down in tears when
she became frustrated with an assignment or couldn’t solve a social problem. After
spending time teaching big problem/little problem from Michelle Garcia Winner’s
Think Social Curriculum using emotion ratings from Kari Dunn’s and Mitzi Curtis’s
5­point scale, I created this worksheet to help with carryover into the classroom. Her
teachers were wonderful and completely on board with using this tool in class. Over
time with consistent use, it helped to increase her emotional awareness and
problem solving abilities. It also gave me opportunities to process events later in the
day or week, and to develop meaningful lessons that mattered to her. “Problems”
and “Emotional Reactions” can certainly be altered as well as supplemented with
visuals from Boardmaker. I hope you find this helpful and can use it with some of
your students.
Here's another visual to go with this same idea:
http://chapelhillsnippets.blogspot.c...­improved.html
I love the problem meter, another great visual to teach problem solving. Here is an
additional way to reinforce size of the problem with a small, portable key chain. You
can move the paper clips to determine if the size of problem and the reaction match.
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12. Here is a copy of the link to the images on Boardmaker Share:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activ...f­The­Problem#
Here are some basic visuals for talking about the size of problem using different
concepts for varied age levels and interest (i.e. glitch/big problem, ant/elephant,
drizzle/storm).
The link on Boardmaker Share:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activ...roblem­Visuals
Social Skills Programs and Related Strategies
Flummox and Friends
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13. The Circles VideoModeling® Curriculum
Playtime with Zeebu
You Are a Social Detective: Interactive CD
Superflex and other Social Thinking ® Curriculums
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14. Model Me Kids
Wonkidos: Animated Social Skills for Kids
Teachers Pay Teachers
I have recently purchased several downloads from Teachers Pay Teachers. This is
a cheap but excellent way to get and share materials.
My recent purchase created by Thedabblingspeechie.com is called "Help I Need a
Social skills Packet. The packet contains pictures and ideas for Perspective
Taking, Tone of Voice, Friend Files /Having a Conversation, and using Detective
Skills to figure out what is missing. Another section on "Making an Impression"
focuses on having the student remember that we make “good” impressions by what
we say, how we look and what we do. The last section is all about Expected and
Unexpected Behaviors. The entire packet is a great to use with elementary aged
students.
Here's an example of what the Tone of Voice section includes:
Directions: Practice using different tones of voice when saying phrases you use at
school. Pick an emotion card from the pile and try to use a tone of voice that
matches the emotion while saying your phrase. Discuss as a group whether or not
that is the expected tone of voice for that sentence phrase.
The tone of voice section contains the following: Poster Visual/explanation of what
‘tone of voice’ means; Emotion word cards; Blank set for other emotions;
School­themed sentence phrases to practice saying different tones of voice such as
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15. “Can I borrow your pencil?”
The What's missing section posts the following directions: Use your detective skills
to listen for clues to figure out what each person is missing in the social situation.
(Things that could be missing: Eye contact, kind words tone of voice body language
body position expected behaviors or actions facial expressions providing all the
details personal space expected voice volume excessive or unexpected details)
Check out Teachers pay Teachers. Lots of free or very inexpensive materials.
Here is the link to her blog: thedabblingspeechie ­ Help! I Need Social Skills Pack &
Resources
You can access the packet from Teachers Pay Teachers Here: HELP! I Need
Social Skills Pack ­ thedabblingspeechie ­ TeachersPayTeachers.com
Social Thinking Worksheet for IEP Meetings
While preparing for an IEP meeting this weekend I was thinking about how to best
communicate the results of a social cognitive evaluation to parents and IEP team
members. I love the ILAUGH model from Michelle Garcia winner, but felt it was a
little overwhelming to use in the meeting. As a result, I created this diagram that
boils down the information into four main sections that are hopefully simple and easy
to understand. During my presentation to the TEAM I was able to incorporate
elements of the ILAUGH model into each bubble. The team really liked the visual
and asked for copies as a reference. If you decide to use this diagram please let
me know what you think, or if you make changes post it here. I would love to see the
variations.
If someone has another approach for relaying social cognitive results during team
IEP meetings I would love to learn what you have done.
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16. Check out this visual on the "Steps to Play a Board Game"
It was co­created by myself and a colleague of mine. Review it before playing a
game. The sequence incorporates some self­awareness checks and strategy use
(i.e. toolbox strategies) when students become frustrated. You might target
Unthinkables D.O.F and Glassman during these types of games.
Here is the link on Boardmaker Share:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activ...y­a­Board­Game
Thought this post from Karen (all4mychild) who is blogging at Special_Ism might be
helpful to go with your great posts on Board Games
Board Games Really Can Be Fun
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17. Conversation Board: For Asking New Topic and Follow Up Questions
I use this board for three things:
● To support the concept of Friend Files as developed by Michelle Garcia
Winner.
● Question formulation.
● Producing supporting comments.
(It should be noted that students have previously been introduced to Friend Files,
New Topic Questions, Follow Up Questions, and Supporting Comment Lessons.
Please see Think Social, A Social Thinking (R) Curriculum for School Age Students
by Michelle Garcia Winner for more information on how to teach these concepts).
So…I start by asking students to formulate a new topic question to begin a
conversation (or use topic cards), and write that question on top of the board. They
then are encouraged to ask 2­3 follow up questions. If their follow up questions
make sense with reference to the conversation then I circle the smiley face to right of
the question. If the question doesn't make sense then I circle the confused face to
show the child that their question was out of reference (and briefly explain why). They
are encouraged (with prompting) to restate the question so it makes sense. As their
conversation partner is talking I also prompt the student to make verbal supporting
comments by pointing to the comment boxes and circle them as they are
mentioned. This visual feedback is a great way for kids to track their progress and
become aware of their performance. I have also made a smaller, portable version
on a key chain for use during lunch or in the classroom. Enjoy!
Here is the link on Boardmaker share:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activ...ersation­Board
I happened to get a calendar from MacNeil Glass in Natick today and it has a
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18. Norman Rockwell illustration from the Saturday Evening Post for each month. I
realized that these were great for social thinking. The faces in these illustrations are
so expressive and the scenes provide a great backdrop for discussion. I will surely
use them with my sticky note thought bubbles and speech bubbles. Just thought I
would add this new find to my post.
And in response to Joy's question, I have no favorite Big Bang Theory
episodes...but glad you agree these are great for social thinking!
For those of you interested in using this awesome idea of talking bubbles in your
classroom and therapy sessions, here is the link to Amazon (to the cheaper of the
two options) Elyse described in her post:
Talking Bubble Sticky Notes @ Amazon
Social Skills and Role Play
The right back corner of the image is a clapperboard from Disney's Charades
game. I found it at my local dump and my kids love to use it for role­play when acting
out social situations. Just another way to make your lessons fun and interactive
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19. Anxiety Resources and Related Strategies
Helping Your Anxious Child Second Edition
Step Ladder Technique: a way to break down skills and help children with anxiety
Here is an adaption of the stepladder approach (gradual exposure) to break down a
social initiation skill. I read about this technique in Helping Your Anxious Child 2nd
Edition. It is typically used to help children with anxiety face and conquer their fears.
By breaking down a skill or an anxiety­provoking situation it allows the child to meet
with small successes at first, and slowly move up the ladder to reach their final goal.
It is important while using this approach that rewards and praise are paired and
consistently provided each time a step is successfully accomplished. The teacher
talked with this child about things he would like to earn, which made him feel more
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20. invested in participating. Rewards incentivize children and motivate them to
continue to work toward their goal. This child really liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so I
used a picture from the book to make this activity more appealing.
Coping Cards­for managing anxiety and unpredictable change
I had the opportunity before the end of the school year to attend a wonderful
cognitive behavioral therapy workshop by Carol M. Singer, Ed.D. One strategy she
briefly described was the concept of Coping Cards to help children or adolescents
manage their anxiety. When a child is feeling anxious about something they are
encouraged to read a Coping Card to help ease their feelings and change their
"worried" thoughts. For example, if a child is worried about making mistakes and
feels like a failure, a Coping Card they might read would say: I'm not bad when I
make a mistake. I'm just normal. Or, I am not a failure if I make a mistake. I adapted
this concept for a child with ASD who was struggling with lots of change and new
activities occurring at the end of the school year. He tended to verbally perseverate
on events and asked reoccurring questions, particularly at home. So, I made him
Coping Cards he could read quietly if he wanted to know about an upcoming event
instead of verbally engaging in repeated conversation. Since facts were important
to him, the cards cover dates, main events of the activity, proposed feelings on that
day, and solutions for how to manage emotions. His mom reported that they were
very helpful at home. Attached are examples of some of the cards:
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21. Videos for Teaching Social Skills
Social Skills and Sticky Notes
Using sticky notes speech bubbles and thought bubbles with students helps them
create a variety of possible comments or thoughts related to characters in a book, a
photo, a video, comic strip or an app. Use them on the pages or the computer
screen. I like to use them with wordless picture books for youngsters or on the iPad
screen while using different apps. I also like to use videos, i.e., Mr. Bean, The
Amanda Show­Meet the Literals, Big Bang Theory to examine social skills,
language, sarcasm, as illustrations of social behavior.
I would love to hear of other appropriate sources for good videos, books, etc. that
people enjoy using.
I purchase the sticky notes on Amazon.com. They are from Kikkerland or
Puremodern.
The Amanda Show­Meet the Literals
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22. I use episodes of Drake and Josh, a Nick show for teaching social skills. Another
great video for size of the problem, Glassman, or D.O.F. (Destroyer of Fun) is
You're a Good Sport Charlie Brown. Wallace and Grommit are wonderful to teach
the concept "thinking with your eyes" and for perspective taking. I also use a few
scenes from the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. I love the Big Bang Theory, especially the
episode with the friendship algorithm
The Big Bang Theory: Friendship Algorithm
I like using clips from old Charlie Chaplin movies. There are some free sights online
and you can also find good clips on YouTube. I just caution that you screen all clips
first. Sometimes there are inappropriate topic or items (pistols). Many of my
students really like watching them and often ask to watch him as part of there free
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23. choice/break time.
Some of my favorites, that haven't been mentioned, yet are the Pixar shorts.
Partly Cloudy
For the Birds.
Red thoughts (uncomfortable, frustrated, annoyed, etc) and green thoughts (happy)?
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24. Social and Emotional Books Lists
Books That Focus on Emotions
Books That Focus On Social Skills
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25. DEDICATION
A Special Congratulations!
Congratulations to Lois Aginsky, Joy’s mother and ASE member, who has recently
been awarded:
Teacher of Year in the Bridgeport, CT PSD
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26. Within a large urban district where resources can be scarce and students with
needs are plentiful, Lois inspires us with her dedication, drive, and her ability to
execute best practices. We are so proud of you and so thankful for your unwavering
support of us as we have developed the AllSpecialED community!
Thank you and congratulations on this amazing honor!
You deserve it!
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