Thinking About You Thinking About Me: Philosophy and strategies to further develop perspective taking and communicative abilities for persons with Asperger Syndrome, High Functioning Autism, Hyperlexia, ADHD, PDD-NOS, NVLD

The Thinking about YOU Thinking about ME book explores the critical nature of perspective taking (Theory of Mind) in our day-to-day interactions and its importance in the classroom setting. It describes how the perspective taking process works and offers a myriad of therapeutic activities for teachers/therapists to utilize with children and adults. Michelle Garcia Winner explains how professionals can use informal measures (since no standardized measures are available) to assess the abstract skill and to determine which students will benefit from this type of treatment. Included are strategies that help students understand their own treatment programs (IEPs) and behavior plans. The book covers contents presented in her workshops, "Nuts and Bolts of Starting Social Thinking Programs", and " Thinking about YOU Thinking about ME".

Michelle has worked with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders for twenty-one years. Michelle is known both in the USA and internationally for her user-friendly approach and engaging speaking style. She has been an invited speaker at conferences and workshops for educational districts across America, including the national conference put on by The Gray Center, The Linguisystems National Conference, Stanley Greenspan’s ICDL conference in Virginia, and NLDA’s Annual Symposium, and many others. Michelle also puts on a few of her own workshops each year.

She received a bachelor degree in Speech Language Pathology from UC Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. She has worked as a speech language pathologist in a variety of settings including the elementary and secondary levels of public school, in neuro-cognitive rehabilitation programs for persons with head-injuries and strokes and in a clinical research program for students with autism in Bloomington, Indiana under the mentorship of Nancy Dalrymple. She entered into private practice in 1999 and now runs Michelle Garcia Winner’s Center for Social Thinking in San Jose, CA. Michelle’s center serves approximately 300 students a year in regular treatment sessions with her staff. In addition, she consults with family and school educators. Michelle continues to gain practical insights into helping our students by working in her clinic 2-3 days a week. She has also developed an assessment approach for better understanding the practical and IEP needs of her students. Michelle also consults to school district in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as across the nation. She has worked with Andrea Walker’s SUCSESS project in Orange Country for 3 years helping their staff to develop plans for helping them serve the older child.

Michelle continues to write journal and magazine articles and books with her insights on social cognition. Her greatest areas of self-study currently involve the exploration of perspective taking (Theory of Mind) and executive functions (multi-tasking) and their impact on many different aspects of functioning (social and academic). Michelle is breaking new ground in developing treatment ideas to help children and adults prepare better for the challenges of the world we live in.