Social cognition is the ability to perceive and process the many different forms of communication that are used in everyday life. Communication is more than just language. Our tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, and a host of other nonverbal cues are exchanged in every conversation that we have. Many of us comprehend these cues with very little conscious thoughts. For others, these forms of communication are as alien as a foreign language. In order to live and thrive within society, it is necessary to be able to correctly identify these cues, assign the appropriate meaning and context, and reciprocate useful communication in turn—this is no small feat.
Social cognition encompasses the skills necessary to participate in a conversation, receive love and support, and develop meaningful relationships. Our therapists work with your child to develop these critically important abilities through an integrated developmental approach.

Social Thinking Skills
• Recognize clues our bodies give in addition to situational clues, and use them to identify own emotions.
• Develop the ability to predict what another person’s emotion is based on facial expression and situational clues.
• Consider own knowledge of other’s thoughts and experience in order to make logical predictions/inferences.
• Explore coping and calming-down strategies that inhibit impulsive behavior to achieve emotional regulation.
• Learn to tolerate and modulate the intensity and duration of intense emotions without losing control, and also transition smoothly from one emotional state to another.
• Promoting the development of altruism (the innate desire to be kind) and empathy toward others (seeing multiple perspectives and being sensitive to others’ feelings).
• Identify and evaluate problem-solving strategies to resolve conflicts. The child will be able to participate in adult-facilitated or independent problem-solving by following specific problem-solving steps to arrive at an agreeable solution.

          Cognitive Skills

• Develop the ability to approach a task in a goal-oriented way.
• Develop the ability to establish a goal and devise a strategy to reach it.
• Develop the ability to think through the problem systematically.
• Develop the ability to delay a response until all information has been systematically processed.
• Develop the ability to link new information to knowledge previously acquired in order to solve a problem.
• Develop the ability to accurately perceive and locate relationship between objects and people.
• Develop the ability to understand the sequence and order of events.
• Develop the ability to see similarities despite some differences.
• Develop the ability to use language as a tool to move from concrete examples to an abstract understanding.
• Develop the ability to mentally manipulate visual detail.
• Develop the ability to take responsibility and monitor own behavior.
• Develop adequate knowledge of social rules, roles, and routines.
• Learn to communicate intentions effectively.
• Learn to correctly perceive and interpret the social behavior of others.
• Learn to initiate and maintain interaction with others.
• Develop the ability to communicate in an empathic and flexible way.
• Develop adequate awareness of one’s interactive strengths and weaknesses.
• Learn to flexibly change communication styles to meet changing social demands