When they are playing with blocks we ask ‘What are you building?’ The expectation is that they will use their imagination to envision the blocks as something other than squares of wood. A farm. A garage. A hospital.  Many of the children we see don’t know how to ‘make-believe’.

Pretending is important. It means that you’re thinking about someone else, taking their view of the world and empathizing with them. Practice pretending with your child. Lead them through different scenarios. Act it out with them. Don’t take it for granted that they know how to play pretend. Don’t take it for granted that they know what to say or do. Pretend with them. Talk about what you are doing. Give them the script for how to pretend. At s2s we have the students role play and act out the skills we are teaching.  Actions speak louder than words.

Talk to your children about their expectations for the first day of school. Who’s going to be in their class this year? Who do they already have a connection with? Give them the tools to initiate and maintain a conversation. Use their friendship files to help them to recall what they know about their friends so they have something ready to talk about. Go over some questions they can ask their classmates about summer vacation. Reminisce about your family’s summer – where you went, what you did, whom you did it with so they have something to discuss.

Remind them that looking friendly – smiling and saying hi, nodding and waving – helps other people to feel comfortable and to feel that they want to be around us.

Talk about being part of a classroom. Fitting in means that sometimes we need to do what the people around us are doing.  Tell them to be a private detective – to be observant and on-the-lookout. Make smart guesses by watching what the teacher and the students are doing. Pick up clues and figure out what they are thinking about by noticing what they are looking at. Do what the group is doing.

We get our children ready for the new school year with new clothes and new school supplies. Help them to get ready for the start of school by helping them to be ‘social thinkers’. Help them get ready to socialize!

To help explain what was happening we drew 2 figures having a conversation on the board. We drew a ‘think bubble’

And a ‘talk bubble’ for one of the figures.

We explained that although the student had a whole thought in his brain only one word came out of his mouth.

We further explained that when he said ‘Virus!’ some of us were thinking, “What’s he talking about? Is he sick?” We put that in a ‘think bubble’.

We asked the group what they could have said when their classmate said ‘Virus’.  They suggested

and

Using the bubbles is a great way to demonstrate that others don’t know what we’re thinking in our head. Instead of saying one word, we need to say the thought out loud and explain what we mean.