The Washington Post Features Ryan Hendrix, MS, CCC-SLP
How parents can help their children cultivate healthy friendships
September 8, 2023
Ryan Hendrix, MS, CCC-SLP, Social Thinking Speaker & Author Featured in The Washington Post
As we head into a new school year, parents have a lot to consider. One thing that research shows we should put at the top of our lists: Helping our children make and maintain friends.
“Making a friend is a complex task that on the surface looks easy,” says Ryan Hendrix, a Northern California speech and language pathologist who specializes in social cognition and communication. “Friendship is a social executive function task, and there’s a lot of effort that goes into even figuring out who you might want to have a connection with.”
In times of heightened stress and uncertainty, how can we encourage kids to build genuine friendships in a new school year? Here are strategies to help.
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Books Authored by Ryan Hendrix
Award-winning We Thinkers! Series helps children ages 4–7 develop foundational social competencies & essential life skills
Free Articles, Webinar and Video Lesson from Ryan Hendrix
DO ObseRve (DOOR): A Practical Social Observation Strategy for Managing Social Transitions
Empowering Student Voices: The Transformative Impact of Student-Led Social Learning & Advocacy
How to Foster Students’ Flexible Thinking & Advocacy Skills Using Future Thinking: The Somedays Activity
Social Detective Thinking to Start the School Year
Ryan Hendrix | MS, CCC-SLP
What is Social Thinking?
Strategies to Build Social Competencies
The Social Thinking Methodology provides evidence-based strategies to help people ages four through adult develop their social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving to meet their own social goals and improve:
- Conversation & social connection
- Executive functioning
- Friendship & relationship development
- Perspective taking
- Self-regulation
- Social Thinking Vocabulary
