Social Town Citizens Discover 82 New Unthinkables for Superflex® to Outsmart!

Description

This latest edition in the Superflex series is a compilation work that introduces 82 new Unthinkables and 14 new Thinkables submitted by Social Town citizens of all ages. Unthinkables and Thinkables are grouped by theme/category for easy reference by student or adult, and each entry includes the character’s power, related information about its characteristics, and strategies to defeat the Unthinkable or bolster a Thinkable’s help.

Superflex’s Very Cool Five-Step Power Plan

The focal point of the book is a brand new teaching strategy developed by Stephanie Madrigal and Michelle Garcia Winner called Superflex’s Very Cool Five-Step Power Plan. It provides students with even more tools to strengthen their social processing.

In the Power Plan, students learn about 5 critical powers:

• #1 Decider: the ability to stop, decide, and describe which Unthinkable(s) is trying to overpower your superflexible thinking. As Decider explained to Superflex, it doesn’t make sense to use a strategy designed to defeat Mean Jean if he was trying to defeat WasFunnyOnce!
• #2 Social Detective: the ability to stop and observe the situation and the people in it. Social Detective taught Superflex about using clues from his eyes, ears, and brain to help understand the situation and the people in the situation.
• #3 Brakester: the power to stop and think to discover the hidden rules. Brakester talked about how the hidden rules are almost like hidden treasures because they’re the secrets of the social situation and help to explain why people are expected to act in certain ways!
• #4 Flex DoBODY: the power to use flexible thinking to determine strategies to use to do what’s expected. Flex showed Superflex things he must practice each day to learn to flexibly pick the best choice to make at the right time and in the right place. Superflex understood that thinking and observing are super important but using flexible thinking, making choices, and carrying out a plan to defeat an Unthinkable are also important. This power helps Superflex finish any job he’s started!
• #5 Cranium Coach: using self-talk with help from your built-in brain coach! From Cranium Coach, Superflex learned how to use his inner brain coach to motivate himself to keep working to defeat whatever Unthinkable was near or to call on a Thinkable when necessary.

Madrigal and Winner apply the Five-Step Plan to demonstrate flexible social thinking to each of the 14 original Unthinkables. They then go on to do the same with the new Unthinkables and Thinkables. Sixty teaching examples are included overall.

Chapter Synopsis

• Chapter 1. Introduction. Includes background on Superflex, the curriculum, and the 14 Original Unthinkables; introduces and explains the new Very Cool Five-Step Power Plan, introduces the new Thinkable characters and discusses how to best use them with students.
• Chapter 2. Using this Information with Your Students. Discusses how the book is organized, reviews handouts and materials printed in the book.
• Chapter 3 shows how Superflex is using the Very Cool Five-Step Power Plan to help defeat each of the 14 original Unthinkables.
• Chapters 4 and 5 present the new Unthinkables and Thinkables contributed by Social Town citizens. For each category, we’ve demonstrated how to apply the new Five-Step Power Plan teaching approach.
• The remaining pages in the book offer additional content and materials that include: Expanded Power Plans, Images, Glossary, About the Contributors, and a Bibliography

Using This Information with Your Students

Once students learn the steps to the Power Plan, they can explore any of the characters in any order to help them learn more about themselves and the social thinking and behavioural regulation challenges they face. It is not expected that students or educators, counselors and parents become familiar with all 96 new characters.

In expanding our approach to teach students how Superflex became so superflexible, we are teaching a more complicated thinking process to children. We are now conservatively recommending that this revised Superflex material is best used with 3rd to 5th graders. We realize people are using Superflex with younger students and that the concepts are very well received with neurotypical learners. However, our young students with social thinking challenges often find the processing demands of the Superflex curriculum to be overwhelming, leading to a system shut-down. For this reason we are encouraging educators, counselors and parents to be very cautious about who they use these new materials with if the student is younger than a 3rd grade classroom placement or is in a self-contained classroom. We never want any of our lessons to set a child up for further social regulation failure!

Learn How to Teach Superflex

Michelle Garcia Winner, Superflex co-author and the founder of Social Thinking, shares tips for teaching ages 8-11 with Social Thinking products (including Superflex products), in this free, recorded webinar. Get the inside scoop!

What People are Saying

• Elaine Omanoff – School Psychologist

  “I work with elementary-school students who have attention and social deficits. My students have trouble sitting quietly and listening to a lesson, but when I introduced your superheroes I had them hooked! Superflex® and the Unthinkables are like comic books to them. Your characters make difficult social concepts accessible to my students. Instead of fighting for their attention, they can’t wait to hear another story. Social thinking is difficult for the best of us but your new Five-Step Power Plan is just what is needed to break down complex social behaviors into teachable components. And the new Thinkables will give our students concrete examples of the pro-social behaviors we want them to display. We can emphasize teaching the desired skill and offer alternatives to undesirable behaviors.”

• Lori Liguori – School Psychologist

  “It comes as no surprise that Michelle and Stephanie have produced yet another invaluable resource tool for those of us in the Social Thinking® trenches! My students already love Superflex® and to have more Superflex strategies and Unthinkables to defeat, created by the community, is beyond exciting! We use this program not only with our ASD kids but have also incorporated Superflex into our K–6 social skills curriculum. This new resource is an excellent extension of the Superflex family! We are forever fans!”

• Cindy Loper – SDC Teacher

  “Superflex® once again saves the day with his easy-to-implement Very Cool Five-Step Power Plan. My students benefit from the new Unthinkables and this powerful program. It’s ‘over the top’ engaging and readily useable. Even better, the new Thinkables give more support to those constantly struggling to make good choices and learning how their thinking and behavior impacts themselves and others. My goal is to infuse Superflex thinking and strategies in everyday interactions in my classroom.”

• Maria Sasaki Reilly – BCBA

  “The Five-Step Power Plan gives us a ‘social formula’ that can be applied to any situation to help defeat anyone’s Unthinkables. The new team of Thinkables brings to life all the skills needed to be social thinkers. Just like focusing on the Unthinkable that needs to be defeated, we can focus on the Thinkable that will help defeat it!”

Publishing Information

• Ages: 7-10+
• Pages: 208
• Format: Paperback
• Item: 2224
• Published: 2012