child development
“Social Skills” and Early Childhood Development
Social skills plays a significant role in learning development and the educational experience.
One might correctly assume that Social Thinking® (Attributed to Michelle Garcia Winner as creator of the Social Thinking Methodology) is the process by which we interpret the thoughts, beliefs, intentions, emotions, knowledge and actions of another person along with the context of a situation to understand that person’s experience or perspective, and how to react accordingly. But Social Thinking® skills also play a significant role in learning development and the educational experience.
Learning instances can provide a number of potentially challenging “social” situations – group interactions, self-regulatory expectations, knowledge of body awareness, social exchanges and an understanding of listening. By using the social thinking model, we promote growth in areas that are critical for a learning foundation and are vital to successfully managing many life endeavors and day-to-day situations.
If a child is feeling socially uneasy, struggles to verbalize and identify needs, feels disconnected within a group or has trouble self-regulating, that child may find it difficult to learn and derive meaning from learning experiences. These situations arise daily for so many children, and if social skills are left un-addressed, a child can fall further and further behind socially and academically, creating loss of self-esteem and creative potential.
We expect children to enter into a multitude of situations, some new, some routine, and our goal is for them to have the skills to thrive and find themselves successful, comfortable and confident in doing so. Social thinking development provides this opportunity for success.
Child Success Center’s Friendship Club is designed for the child, ages 5-8, who is having a difficult time navigating the social landscape of the classroom or group setting and/or building friendships. The program is designed to use a multimodal approach of positive reinforcement, flexible behavior systems, floor time aspects, mindfulness practices, and the Social Thinking®curriculum, “We Thinkers – Social Explorers™” for early learners.
This program, including its teacher or leader, is not affiliated with, nor has it been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by Michelle Garcia Winner and Think Social Publishing, Inc.
Child Success Center – 10th Anniversary!
by Melissa Idelson, Director – Child Success Center
Looking back over the last 10 years, like most people say, I can’t believe it’s gone so quickly. My daughter was just 3 years old when my dream of having a center that helped children struggling with developmental and learning challenges thrive, came to life. We started off small in the back of a preschool. We turned a small group room into a gym and started to work with children in the Pacific Palisades community. It wasn’t long before we grew out of this space. Good fortune led us to a collaboration with a colleague offering social skills groups in Santa Monica. It was there that our team of occupational therapists, speech therapists and educational therapists grew and built the beginnings of the Child Success Center mission.
Two years later, prompted by the needs of families of the west side communities, Child Success Center moved into its own space on Pico Blvd. and continued to build new programs for children and support for their families. Now at our 10 year anniversary and 8 years in our beautiful 4000 square foot learning space, I feel truly blessed to work alongside a team of experienced, compassionate, dedicated and creative therapists. Every day I look forward to the challenges of the day, knowing that the CSC team will come to the center ready to work and with an inspired plan to help each child learn and grow.
We love what we do and look forward with great expectations to the next 10 years. Thank you to all the parents who have entrusted us with your precious children, and thank you to all the unique and wonderful children we have have the privilege of getting to know.
Melissa…. 
