Interviews with Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke of Social Thinking® for the upcoming film, A Sound Paradigm By Keri Bowers “Based on how we process the world ~ is how we relate to the world,” Michelle Garcia Winner Last May during our Art of Autism Hearts & Arts journey up the California coast, Debra Muzikar and I rediscovered the value of long road trips. Hours on the road are full of exciting surprises and present opportunities to bond with the people we care about. Road trips are a time to connect – or re-reconnect – with our fellow travelers, and to meet amazing people we otherwise would never see and meet beyond phone calls, emails and social media. For me, the driving part of such trips are generally as much a part of the journey as are the destinations. This proved true this past week when Bob DeMarco and Steve McDonald of Ability Productions and I set out on a road trip up the coast to San Jose to interview Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke of Social Thinking for Ability Productions’ new film, A Sound Paradigm. This trip offered much illumination. Instead of busying (or burying as it were), our heads in social media, answering emails or talking on cell phones, the three of us spoke with one another for hours upon hours in what was thought-provoking conversation. Intimate conversation in the car set us up for a deeper connection to one another as business collaborators, and for the opportunity to explore a significant part of the “heart” of the film. For two days, it was satisfying to (mostly) put electronics away and converse in a way that social media cannot provide; inter-personally. And so it is too, that in addition to the practical strategies developed by Winner and Crooke, Social Thinking processes are also significantly rooted in “real time” conversations with one another. That is, face-to-face, sans technology. Communication is more than soundbites, posts and tweets. Communication – especially in autism, is best when it connects people at a deeper and more human level with more conscious awareness of personal needs, feelings, values, growth, goals and outcomes. Meaningful face-to-face conversations are one way to deepen relationships with others, yet the Social Thinking model developed by Winner and Crooke encompasses so much more. What is Social Thinking? “Social Thinking is what we do when we share space with…
Read More