Sharing An Imagination: Park Adventure

Ryan Hendrix, MS, CCC-SLP, is a senior therapist at Social Thinking Stevens Creek in San Jose and a private therapist in San Francisco. Her diverse experience includes fostering social competencies in preschool-age children through young adults who haves social emotional/social communication challenges. In addition to working with individuals and groups, she actively collaborates with caregivers and professionals on ways to support their social learners beyond the clinic setting in their classrooms, communities and homes. Ryan helps supervise and mentor graduate students and clinicians within the Social Thinking Stevens Creek clinic. She meets with professionals from all over the world to talk about Social Thinking for Early Learn­ers as part of the Social Thinking clinical training program and is part of the clinic’s ongoing Parent Education Series. She is also a member of the Social Thinking Training and Speakers Collaborative, taking the powerful frameworks, concepts, and strategies of Social Thinking to communities and schools across the country. Ryan is a coauthor of a journal article documenting the effective­ness of using the Social Thinking Vocabulary published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 

Kari Zweber Palmer, MA, CCC-SLP, first became interested in Social Thinking as a graduate student when she conducted research on Michelle’s informal assessment procedure, the Double Interview. She started her career as a speech-language pathologist in the public schools in Minnetonka, MN, working in early childhood and at the elementary level. She then worked as a social cognitive specialist at Michelle Garcia Winner’s Center for Social Thinking in San Jose, CA. Currently Kari owns a private practice, Changing Perspectives.  Her diverse caseload includes preschool-aged children to young adults, all with varying levels of social cognitive challenges. Kari is a peer reviewer for ASHA’s continuing education programs. She is also a Social Thinking consultant in multiple school districts around the country. She enjoys collaborating with dedicated educators (early childhood through high school) on implementing social cognitive teaching into the school day. Kari is an active presenter as part of the Social Thinking Training and Speakers Collaborative and enjoys sharing the power of Social Thinking with international audiences.

Nancy Tarshis, MA, MS, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and special educator who is deeply experienced in a wide variety of treatment methodologies, including Social Thinking. She is the Director of Early Elementary Programming at The QUAD Preparatory School, which is dedicated to twice exceptional children, grades K-12. For 27 years, she was a member of the professional team at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, serving as Supervisor of Speech and Language Services for 21 of them. As a member of the Social Thinking Training and Speakers Collaborative, Nancy speaks frequently across the U.S. on Social Thinking concepts and strategies and about the development and importance of play. She is a regular consultant to several New York City schools. Her independent clinical work includes Altogether Social, a Social Thinking-based practice she co-founded that serves clients age 14 months through 22 years. Altogether Social pro­vides individual and group sessions, consultations to public and private schools, and trainings for parents and professionals.

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP, is the founder and CEO of Social Thinking and a globally recognized thought leader, author, speaker, and social-cognitive therapist. She is dedicated to helping people of all ages develop social emotional learning, including those with social learning differences. Across her 30-year career she has created numerous evidence-based strategies, treatment frameworks, and curricula to help interventionists develop social competencies in those they support. Michelle's work also teaches how social competencies impact people's broader lives, including their ability to foster relationships and their academic and career performance. She and her team continually update the Social Thinking® Methodology based on the latest research and insights they learn from their clients.