Maine Access to Inclusive Education Resources

MAIER Professional Development Workshop

Social Thinking

Speaker: Nancy Clemens

Workshop Description: This workshop is all about Social Thinking Vocabulary and concepts! Teach students to communicate through concepts such as “working as part of a group,” the “three parts of play,” “abstracting and inferencing information,” and “sharing an imagination.” This workshop will examine clinical examples that highlight how to make these abstract concepts more concrete and teachable. The Social Thinking Vocabulary is the backbone of Social Thinking teaching programs.

Participants will learn how to use Social Thinking concepts across settings, creating one or two of their lesson plans. We explore how to make lessons applicable across various environments and enable students to apply the lessons for the rest of their lives. Michelle will present some lessons from her book, Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Aged Students, which school districts use around the world.

This workshop offers an advanced exploration of Social Thinking – and is particularly suited for those who have read Social Thinking books, attended our workshops, or are otherwise familiar with Social Thinking concepts. This more advanced course is for people who have attended one or more of the following seminars: Social Thinking Across the Home and School Day:  The ILAUGH Model, The Social Thinking Informal Dynamic Assessment and Core Treatment Strategies, Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME and Have read one or more of the following books: Thinking About YOU, Thinking About ME, Inside Out: What Makes a Person With Social Cognitive Deficits Tick?, Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum

Nancy Clements is a speech-language pathologist and Executive Director of Social Thinking Boston®, the East Coast sister clinic to Social Thinking Stevens Creek and Social Thinking Santana Row. She brings her highly creative approach to her clinical practice, where she maintains a very active and varied caseload ranging from early social learners through adults. She is especially interested in bringing Social Thinking concepts to all learners and analyzing the impact of social thinking methodologies across all tiers using a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Nancy enjoys formulating programs from the ground up through creative strategies, systems of implementation, and data-driven efficacy models. Having been raised by educator parents, she brings an empathic and collaborative approach to coaching teachers, administrators, and specialists.

Before founding and opening Social Thinking Boston in 2012, Nancy was the Program Manager for Communication Services at the Stern Center for Language and Learning. She developed an in-depth Social Thinking program, including developmentally based groups, off-site coaching and consultations, and a three-credit graduate course in partnership with Saint Michaels College. In 2011 she mentored within the Colchester School District to analyze the impact of social thinking methodologies across all tiers using a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. In the Winooski and Swanton Vermont school districts, there has been duplication of similar models.

Throughout her 30+ year career, she has served as a direct service provider, consultant and has presented extensively across New England, nationally, and Canada. Her strong ties to the Vermont educational community have reemerged in the greater Boston area. Her early professional experiences included clinically based interventions through the New England Rehab Hospital and the University Hospital in Boston. These experiences provided the opportunity to work within interdisciplinary teams both in the assessment process and development of programs, including technology use. She began incorporating her knowledge of assistive/adaptive technology (AAC) into her work and introduced this concept to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center while continuing to extensively explore and build her skills with folks requiring assistive technology for communication. This expertise led her to the University of Vermont’s Department of Communication and Disorders Program to implement an extensive three-year national grant designed to teach graduate students about this technology while developing assistive/adaptive technology implementation models in rural communities. Following her passion, she became a consultant for the Prentke-Romich Company, traveling and providing extensive training about AAC. Throughout Vermont and New England, she became a leader in this field, often consulting to teams building blended programs, pulling together social communication models, sensory integration, and technology.

Upon completion of the workshop, you may access and download your contact hours certificate using the link provided. 6 Contact Hours can be earned upon completion of this workshop.

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