Last week I was sketching ideas on the back of an envelope in the middle of one of my social groups. It was a picture of a kid with a speech bubble. There were choices to decide how people would react when a statement was said. I’m finding in one particular social group I have, we really struggle to understand the impact of words on conversational partners. When they make a comment they aren’t reading the reaction of their partner and making adjustments. So I went home that night and found some positive/negative reaction pictures. After using those for a while last week I realized there were two big parts of perspective taking that my students didn’t get. They weren’t tailoring their message to their conversational partner. That is, they weren’t using what they know about that person and weren’t making inferences about new people. Typical communicators can take in the information they observe and tailor their message. The other difficulty was in thinking about how their words would impact their partner. If I reacted with a scrunched face to a comment, they would say ‘what’?, not understanding the problem. I’m guessing if you’re treating kids with Autism, ADHD, NVLD, or other social deficits you have this same issue. After several different trial and error activities I’m sharing a few that worked for us! It’s truly tested by my students. I used the Thinking About You Thinking About Me perspective taking model from Michelle Garcia Winner. Perspective Taking 
Understanding Perspective taking and Theory of Mind is a topic that is very difficulty for children with social cognitive learning delays. This speech therapy activity is meant to help children understand the 4 parts of active perspective taking essential for social interactions. (Winner, 2007) All people have thoughts about each other. Every time you interact with someone you think about them. Even if you don’t speak you are thinking about each other. Perspective taking happens when you realize that your behaviors and words affect the feelings of those with whom you interact. You modify your language and behavior during each interaction because other people react differently. This activity targets steps 1 & 3. 
4 different posters are included. These introduce perspective taking, describe the 4 step process, demonstrate how to make inferences regarding feelings, and list several emotions as a reference for your students. Activity 1: 72 photos, two different prompt cards. 
In the first activity, students will look at a photo and identify what they think/know/guess or answer structured questions to make inferences about feelings. Activity 2: 12 Photos Sheets (including 72 photos). Teacher prompt sheets for each photo sheet. 
In the second activity, student are presented with a mat. The mat has 6 different images for a the given situation (ie: playground, locker, teacher, video games). The students work on identifying and predicting how different statements might make their conversational partner feel. Read the scenario at the top of the card. Each question card has example phrases that might be uttered during a conversation. When you read a sentence the student should point to the picture that represents the most likely response. Ask the student what that person would think about that statement. I have used with activity with children on the autism spectrum from grades 2-7. This will highly depend on their cognitive ability and skill level. You can use the images and adjust them to your student’s levels. 37 pages with 72 photo images. Includes 4 easy to use posters. You can find this document for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! If you’d like to enter to win a copy, use the rafflecopter widget below! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Join the SRN newsletter!
I'm so glad you stopped by! If you'd like to keep up with the newest posts and get exclusive free downloads, please sign up for the newsletter! Your first freebie is ready as soon as you subscribe and confirm your email!
I need this for all of my students with social/pragmatic language difficulties!
This is exactly what my ID teachers are asking me to do in my speech group in their classes!
This would be perfect for my district’s social team !!
I would love this!
This is great! Thanks for the opportunity Jenna
I struggle to find things for my high schoolers this looks great
This would be great for my upper elementary students on the spectrum, as well as my high school TBI student who has a difficult time taking a step back and seeing how his actions affect others.
I work with children with psychiatric impairments and I am always on the lookout for materials targeting perspective taking. This packet fits the bill perfectly!
You hit the nail on the head: INFERENCING! I have a handful of students who struggle to use what they know in order to make inferences about social situations which would then allow them to interpret the situation and respond appropriately. What a great tool 🙂
I have so many students that have social thinking needs on my caseload! We use social thinking techniques almost daily throughout the entire school day. This would be a great therapy tool to use to reinforce some concepts that we discuss daily. Sometimes, the same information and therapy materials can get boring, so this would really help spice up our sessions. This product looks great!
This is just what I have been searching for! Thanks for creating this!
This would be so useful! Thanks!
This is amazing! Perfect for my students!
It’s like you jumped into my brain and made exactly what I was wanting before I even realized what I wanted! Thank you. 🙂
This would be perfect to use with my high school students. I have so many working on social skills, perspective taking, and indirect language!
This is great! It targets the nuances of social communication that is challenging to teach!
I could definitely use this!
This would be great for my social groups!
Looks like a very complete, fantastic resource
I would love to have for my kiddos!- Kimberly Teer
oh my goodness! This looks awesome! Very comprehensive!!!!
I have many clients that would benefit from these activities!
I have students both on the spectrum and with behavioral disorders for whom this would be extremely helpful!
Stacy Kindervater
grandedecaff@yahoo.com
I have MANY students who would benefit from the real pictures!
So many who could benefit from perspective taking!!
Awesome product as usual Jenna.
lrobideau- None of the other methods of commentt work for me! I have to use anonymous.
Love Michele Winner!!! Would love having these activities to implement with her program..
These real photographs are awesome! Looks awesome!
I run a social skills group with the school psych at my middle school and we create all our own activities…would love the chance to be able to use this with them!
This product is great. It would save me lots of time!! My students would get more out of the real photographs rather than icons or clip art. Theory of Mind is so stinkin hard to teach!
Good pics for perspective taking are so hard to find! These look great!
I love the looks of this product! Perspective taking is difficult to teach and I have so many kids on my caseload that do not have this skill. I would love this!
Great ideas. I think the pictures would be very helpful for my kiddos.
I think this can be good for some of my high schoolers too!
I have so many middle schoolers I could use this with!
I love this!!! I have a lot of kids on my caseload who would benefit from this…
I’m working with our school counselor and behavior specialist to expand the support we provide to challenging students…this would be perfect for those students with ADHD and social deficits.
I would really benefit from having this as I serve many, many ASD students and am always looking to widen my therapy materials/activities. Plus, I will be starting my CF year next year and would love to add this packet in to therapy!
Jenna, you know we talked about our Social Thinking groups at OSSPEAC. You promised to stay ahead of me so I could follow your lead and you haven’t let me down yet! You know I need this…
I need to work on this skill with several of my kiddos. Great idea!
I was just at a meeting with a team where we decided that our student needs to start working on this skill!! Your materials always seem to pop up just when I need them! Thanks!
Majority of people feel difficulty while writing any piece of paper or when they are given any assignment then they fail to meet the deadlines. Now you can get maximum marks by getting best custom writing Read More Here for more information and employ our professional writing services.
I just started working on perspective taking with my 5th grade students. We have spoken at length about social thinking and the need to think about others. They need real pictures and real situations to truly understand this skill. This would be absolutely perfect to go along with the materials I have from Michelle Garcia Winner!!
Great ideas for working with students! And I love the use of photos instead of clip art!
i have several patients that could use this to understand emotions and what others are thinking. always running out of ideas.
I use many of Garcia-Winner’s social thinking resources — this is the perfect compliment to add to the mix!
I’ve purchased several of your products and love them all. I know this would get much use!
Michelle Garcia-Winner will be speaking at a conference I will be attending in the spring. I have been anxiously awaiting this. I have several students who I know could benefit from a product like this!
This looks absolutely amazing!
I have 6 or 7 social groups! I just introduced the term “perspective taking” in my middle school group!
I work with middle schoolers. What middle schooler doesn’t need a lesson in perspective taking? I really like the user-friendly aspect of your materials. So functional and relevant!
A lot of hard work. Can’t wait to get this.
This would be a great resource to use with my social language groups!
I’m forming a group that could sooo use this right now!
I would love to use this with so many of my students!
Always looking for ways to teach perspective taking