​A key concept of my Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program is that we have the human power to Think First, reaching for thoughts that can guide us to make our best action choices for ourselves and those with whom we live, learn, play and work: our Teams.  By being guided to use these Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts® to choose our best prosocial words and actions, we get to experience positive feelings from interacting calmly, respectfully and cooperatively with others.  The positive reinforcement and positive consequences we get from acting in this positive way makes it more likely that we will act this way the next time the situation arises.  This is a cognitive behavioral therapy approach in that our newly practiced positive thoughts allow for creating positive feelings, which can result in our displaying positive behavior.  We can be guided to think positive thoughts and practice acting in related positive ways, leading to more positive G.R.E.E.N. interactions.  I have been encouraging others to read and use the 36 Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts that are in the Box of Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts. These thoughts are discussed and practiced in the scripts within various chapters of the InterActive Lesson Book.  I have also encouraged participants to write down their own guiding thoughts that are specific to their own Teams and situations.  I encourage anyone to use these guiding thoughts because I find that they have worked to improve the lives of my clients and my own life as well.    

ere are four printed Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts that are powerful and personally relevant for me to think about and use:  
I use feedback from my body to tell me to get calmer so I can Think First.  – If I ever feel myself starting to feel upset because I think I have been misunderstood by someone, I stop to Think instead, to share more information and/or seek more information in a calm, polite manner.  
I ask for help when I need it, especially to effectively share a point of view.  I ask for more information in a calm manner to better understand someone else, or calmly ask to share more information so my point of view can be better understood by others.  I have found that calmly asking for more information or calmly providing more information can help improve a Team interaction and help a Team achieve its goal.     
I am patient and open-minded to learn what other people want or need. I keep my mind open to the possibility of things I might not have considered before.     
I take turns listening to and talking with others on my Teams in order to have cooperative conversations.  It is important for each person in a conversation to take a turn listening as well as being given a chance to speak so each person can feel heard.  When I engage in an interaction, I strive to give the other person my full attention when they are talking, and I also request that the other person takes a turn to listen to what I have to say.  The elements of calmly and respectfully telling what each person needs, respectfully and patiently listening to what each person needs, and respectfully and patiently using words to share ideas, making a plan to meet both people’s needs are the critical ingredients in cooperative conversations.  This is discussed in chapter 26 of my InterActive Lesson Book: “Sharing Points of View”.     
I have experienced the positive consequences of using these Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thought strategies to stay fully connected instead of drifting off by thinking that another person is not respecting or caring about me. or numerous other ways of thinking that can spin me out of a calm and controlled state of mind.   Reaching for Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts reminds me to be patient and give another person the benefit of the doubt that they can be trusted to interact with me in a positive way if we provide additional information to each other that can explain our points of view and any subsequent Team plan of action.  Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts can help us act G.R.E.E.N. which we then continue to do because it feels good when we take the time to think this way and act this way together.   I strive to act this way myself, and enjoy guiding others to do the same when interacting with anyone on their own Teams. 
 
Read more about Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts in Chapter 9 of the InterActive Lesson Book: “Getting Power from Guiding G.R.E.EN. Thoughts”. 
​
Read more about sharing points of view and cooperative conversations in Chapter 26 of the InterActive Lesson Book: “Sharing Points of View”.
 
Listen to my "Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thought Song" on Spotify or other digital music sites. 

Get the Box of Guiding G.R.E.EN. Thoughts with 36 universally useful printed thoughts and a set of blank Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thought stickies for your own personally relevant thoughts.  

I started working with Annette Rodriguez as she was starting the Transition Program in the Grossmont High School District.  We worked on her being better able to focus on those around her so she could work with them as a productive member of a team, whether that was the  Home Team with her mother and siblings, her Classroom Team, or any of her Work Teams in which she was involved for developing appropriate social and on-task behaviors.  Over the years working with Annette in that program, it was a pleasure working with her, watching her successfully develop her ability to be aware of what is happening around her, instead of being internally distracted.  She coined the terms of using her “outside magic” to see what is happening around her, instead of focusing only on her “inside magic”, resulting in her needing constant cues to pay attention to others around her. 
     
Annette spent her time during the pandemic period living with her father in Tijuana. I had the opportunity to continue working with her through Zoom sessions to keep up her skills in working as a productive Home Team member with her father AND to help her engage in her own productive activity that showed off her unique talents as a storyteller and artist.

​You can see from the attached videos that Annette has been able to work successfully with me to produce separate segments for the Annette’s Storytime Project, in which she dictated familiar stories to me and then followed through on adding her fantastic illustrations at other times during the week.  Annette then cooperatively engaged in the final step with me of recording her storytelling.  Annette edited her own stories, making sure she chose the best words as well as appropriate punctuation.  She displayed her increased skill in being flexible and communicating effectively as she let me know what changes she wanted me to make.  If there were any errors, she did not get overly upset about them, but instead, just moved on to making any modifications or otherwise moving forward without having to start from the beginning.  She became an incredible team player for this project. Credit also is given to her father for sending her finished work to me so it could be on the screen while Annette’s storytelling was being recorded.
 
Annette has been very supportive of me as she has seen me engage in my own productive activity of writing my Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions books and writing songs for my music albums. The picture of her below is in my InterActive Lesson Book in the chapter called “Self-Calming Strategies” as she has used my strategies to gain the self-control needed to then be able to think of making her best positive choices in her social interactions. 
 
 Annette has considered me to be “famous” since my book and music is out in the world.  Now I have the opportunity to let the world see Annette and her own talents.  I am so proud of what Annette has been able to accomplish!  Please enjoy Annette’s Storytime!
Herb Hein, MMSc, CCC-SLP
 
 Annette’s Storytime of “Three Billy Goats Gruff” on YouTube

​Marita Morones, M.A., a teacher at Mt. Helix Academy in La Mesa, California, shared this picture of the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions reinforcement tree that she put in her classroom. Marita used lessons and strategies from the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program with her class and did a beautiful job of setting up one of its reinforcement components in her classroom. 
 
I put up the Growing G.R.E.E.N. tree at the beginning of this school year because I want to create a G.R.E.E.N. atmosphere in my classroom (i.e., grateful, respectful, empathetic, easy going, navigating).  The tree is a constant reminder of what is valued in the classroom.  I refer to the tree throughout the week.  Together the kids and I marvel at how the tree is growing.  When I dispense a leaf, it is usually a public statement as to why the child is receiving a leaf (e.g., Wow! "Johnny" just stated he needed help and "Suzy" stopped her free time activity to help him!  Cool.  That's what I call being a friend!).  --Marita Morones, M.A.

​G.R.E.E.N. behavior is read about, talked about, modeled and practiced in the classroom so students know what the target behavior sounds like and looks like. Students learn how acting G.R.E.E.N. helps the class reach its Common Team Goal of everyone feeling safe and respected so they can do their best learning. An important aspect of the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program is reinforcing students for demonstrating any positive interaction behavior.

 One of the hands-on tools of the G.R.E.E.N. InterActions program is the set of G.R.E.E.N. Action Reports that are filled out when any positive social behavior is displayed so students can receive specific reinforcement and recognition for exactly what they did that was noticed as being G.R.E.E.N. action and/or the expression of G.R.E.E.N. words.  Ms. Morones has been reinforcing her students’ G.R.E.E.N. behavior by filling out a new leaf and putting it on the class’s G.R.E.E.N. tree.  Through this reinforcement, the students can feel the positive effects of their Thinking First and acting in Grateful, Respectful, Empathetic, Easygoing and Navigating ways.  This is a successful approach for guiding the growth of positive, social behavior and happens to be in alignment with the philosophy at Mt. Helix Academy. 
“We are a ‘catch ‘em being good’ school; we teach our students what to do in their classrooms and throughout the school and then we praise them for doing it.”
 
Here’s to Ms. Morones and her students thriving in their G.R.E.E.N. classroom.  The tree will be bursting with G.R.E.E.N. leaves as the students demonstrate all of their newly-learned G.R.E.E.N. behavior with each other.  May we all continue to strive to “be our better selves in a better world” now and into the future. 
-Herb Hein, MMSc, CCC-SLP

​2024 Update: The following blog is now historical as it was written at the beginning of the Covid pandemic when the question of wearing a mask became a political issue.
I continue to share this blog as it was an opportunity to show how one could engage in making a choice through the thoughtful, step-by-step process strategy I developed called the Civilized Choice Checker.  There have been so many things that have arisen in our society since 2020 that make me want to recommend ongoing use of the this Civilized Choice Checker moving forward.

Original Blog from September 22, 2020:  
In my experiences working in a variety of schools, I met students who acted like they lived on their own islands, not aware or not caring how their behavior affected anyone around them.  To achieve my goal of doing what I could to help these individuals be more aware of others around them, and care how their positive or negative actions affected them, I developed the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program.  I developed hands-on motivating materials and visual strategies (Wise Action Tools) as well as an instructor’s manual (The Guide’s Guide) and a book of lessons, worksheets, and role-playing activities to help students learn to Think First before interacting. Students experience the positive consequences of interacting in Grateful, Respectful, Empathetic, Easygoing and Navigating  (G.R.E.E.N.) ways with others on their Home, Classroom, Friendship and Work Teams.  Through presenting the program’s lessons and strategies, I had the extraordinary opportunity to witness individuals transforming from initially acting like they were on their own islands, to displaying the ability to deliberately make choices in their words and actions that not only benefited themselves, but benefited others on their Teams.             
In Chapter 2 of my InterActive Lesson Book, titled “What Makes Our Civilization Work?”, I stress the importance of making positive, civilized connections with other people so we all can move forward instead of backward.  We do this by acting in thoughtful, helpful, kind and civil ways. 

​Chapter 2 includes the lyrics to my song titled “Keep the Civil in Civilization” in which I optimistically sing that “we can learn to act together to make a better world”.  We find ourselves in a critical time period in our civilization in which it becomes urgent for all of us to act civil and work together to care about each other, protecting each other during this pandemic so its negative effects can be lessened.

​I would like to politely state my point of view for us to all to “be our better selves in a better world”. I personally want to live my life through G.R.E.E.N. thoughts/words/concepts that have guided me and others to move toward that positive goal. To provide you an opportunity to think about how it may be better for all of us to choose to wear a mask when appropriate during this pandemic, I share my own G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts on the subject:    
 
Grateful: I wear a mask when needed to show that I am Grateful to have other people remain alive and well.
Respectful:  My willingness to wear a mask shows that I respect what others may  need for their comfort level.
Empathetic:  Wearing a mask shows I am concerned about how others might be feeling during this pandemic.
Easygoing:  When I cooperate in wearing a mask when needed, I show I able to be easygoing so we can all work together to achieve the Common Team Goal of slowing the spread of this virus!
Navigating: Even though wearing a mask may be irritating and uncomfortable, and is not something I would ever want to do before this pandemic, I take a calming breath, and do it.  I provide myself with self-coaching Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts to keep coping and navigating through this challenging period. 

Now I would like to present the Civilized Choice Checker, a visual strategy (Wise Action Tool) discussed in Chapter 11, titled “Thinking First to Make the Best Choices”.  We can use this tool to determine if wearing a mask is the best choice.
 

​When using the Civilized Choice Checker, noted above, we first survey the scene to notice this virus is deadly and very easy to spread through the air! 
We then can compare Choice A-wearing a mask in public vs. Choice B- not wearing a mask in public and resisting wearing one when asked to do. We then ask which choice meets more of these criteria:
1. logical- This choice is logical, so by making this choice, things will get better and not worse.
2. safe- This is a safe choice; people are less likely to get sick.
3. good for everyone- This choice is not only good for me, it’s good for everyone; it helps us all work together for the common good.
4. uses self-control- This choice demonstrates that we can control what we do when we are with other people.
If I fill out this Civilized Choice Checker to compare Choice A and Choice B to see which one “wins”, I find that Choice A wins by getting most or all the points.  I then follow through on taking the best action choice by wearing a mask whenever I am in public or near someone I don’t live with.   
 
I hope that sharing my thoughts on why I choose to wear a mask will encourage more people to decide to do so until this pandemic is over. Using the G.R.E.E.N. words and strategies of the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program has helped me and my own clients/students to think, make our best choices, and interact successfully to make things better for ourselves and for the other people in our homes, our virtual or “live” classrooms, and in our communities.  I am truly grateful that I don’t live on an island all by myself.  It would be very lonely.  I am grateful that there are other people living and working in my community and in the rest of my country and want them to stay alive and well.  No one asked for this pandemic to occur, but it is here, and I believe we must do our best thinking and take our best actions to navigate through it to get to the other side.  Wearing a mask during this pandemic is one way we can all work together, striving to stay alive and well and “be our better selves in a better world”.
-Herb Hein, MMSc, CCC-SLP 

​Maryellen Rooney Moreau is well known by many school-based speech-language pathologists for having developed very useful methodology and materials that help students break down narratives into their component parts so they could be understood.  With Maryellen’s approaches such as the Story Grammar Marker®, students also effectively learn the language involved in summarizing these narratives.   They also learn to develop critical thinking, using tools such as the Critical Thinking Triangle® to gain more awareness about how people are feeling, what they are thinking and what they are planning.  In her recent blog, called Maryellen’s Musings, she shared how her own methodologies related to two articles and a program that she found in her research about trauma-informed programs and trauma-sensitive approaches.  I was honored to find that my Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program was the program she found to be useful as a trauma-informed program and a trauma-sensitive approach.       

Maryellen Moreau wrote, “It seems as if Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program—along with Story Grammar Marker® as support for social communication—would be a perfect fit when planning programs to assist students to grow interactive skills that incorporate the “triad of positive emotions,” supporting all children, especially those in trauma.”   She was referring to an article in the January/February 2019 issue of Communique, a publication of the National Association of School Psychologists, entitled “Measuring the Triad of Positive Emotional Strengths: Gratitude, Life Satisfaction, and Hope” by Scott Huebner.  The article called for attention to positive indicators of strengths, including emotional strengths such as gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope. Citations (Seligman, 2002) called these three constructs the “triad of positive emotions.” These constructs were cited in the Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools by M. J. Furlong, R. Gilman & E. S. Huebner (Eds).

In her research, Maryellen also came across an article entitled “Want Your Children to be Kinder? Try This Assignment” by Justin Parmenter. The author encouraged his students to be “Undercover Agents of Kindness” as they each drew the name of a classmate and planned to perform a mission of kindness: “an unexpected act of kindness for the classmate.” After doing the unexpected act of kindness, the students were asked to write a “mission report…detailing what they did and how it went.”  Maryellen wrote how her SGM® Episode Organizer could be used to write about the mission via the feelings, thoughts, plans, attempts, and consequences, as well as lessons learned by both the doer and the receiver!

Reflecting on children in trauma and on the “agent of kindness” activity reminded Maryellen of our conversation she and I had at the ASHA 2018 Convention in Boston when I first introduced her to the  Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program  She thought of how much we “need to develop and nurture the Five G.R.E.E.N. Character Traits fostered through the program”.  Maryellen was talking about the G.R.E.E.N. traits that students are guided to understand and display as they work with the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program.  Students learn to develop these G.R.E.E.N. traits: Grateful, sharing appreciation; Respectful, being well-mannered; Empathetic, caring about the feelings of others; Easygoing, being cooperative; and Navigating,  using strategies to cope with challenges.  Maryellen Moreau noted the Growing G.R.E.E.N. Interactions Program’s focus on “each of these traits creates social interaction skills and enables students to work in groups to solve problems, particularly those occurring in their lives or the lives of those around them. The manuals accompanying the [Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions] program delineate well-constructed targets for guiding students as they, themselves, build these traits over time. And I loved the musical materials..and the Interactive Toolbox contain[ing] reinforcers for use as students work to acquire the characteristics.”  She continued, “Story Grammar Marker® can be used for character development, perspective-taking, talking about feelings, and making plans, which would provide a hand[s]-on way to support this [G.R.E.E.N] program. The components of the program lend themselves to collaboration among specialists and teachers alike.”
Maryellen Moreau summarized that researching the applications of her own Story Grammar Marker® (SMG® ) methodology and materials brought her to “other effective resources such as Justin Parmenter’s “agent of kindness,” Hein’s Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program, and Heubner’s article in Communique that can dovetail with Story Grammar Marker® to help children with social communication, social-emotional learning, and social literacy.

I am grateful for Maryellen Rooney Moreau’s favorable review of my program and her awareness of its usefulness in providing students with the explicit instruction and the individualized strategies needed for developing the G.R.E.E.N. traits and skills that allow them to interact successfully with others in their homes, their schools and in their communities.    -Herb Hein

Check out Maryellen Rooney Moreau’s blogpost at: 
https://mindwingconcepts.com/blogs/maryellen-moreau-s-musings/sgm-and-g-r-e-e-n-interactions-for-social-literacy?comment=29120987219#comments

​Herb, Joanne and Janis, the G.R.E.E.N. Team of Hein SLP Inc., all took the opportunity to introduce the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) from all over the country who visited our booth at the Annual Convention in Orlando for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Herb also presented a well-attended seminar called Imagine Making the Best Behavior Choices: Teaching Language, Analysis, and Self-Monitoring Skills for Thoughtful Interactions (#1887). He presented the evidence for the different approaches that are integral to the Growing G.R.E.E.N InterActions Program and then explained these approaches for guiding individuals to be more thoughtful in their interactions.  Get the handout to this seminar through the link below.

​Thanks to Justin Goldstein, ASHA’s Associate Director for Corporate Partnerships, Hein SLP Inc. was able to be a sponsor for the convention.  As a result, Herb had the opportunity to present about the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program and sponsor a lunch for the Special Interest Group #1 Language Learning and Education.  We also had giant digital billboard displays of our 10 second videos that Adam Hein of Heinsight Inc created for us.  

​At our booth, we showed examples of the lessons in the InterActive Lesson Book, the numerous visual strategies (Wise Action Tools), the hands-on items from the InterActive Toolbox, and graphs and evaluation charts showing social behavior progress resulting from the program’s use in treatment.  Visitors to our booth were able to hear Herb’s Songs for Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts, the companion album for the program.  We met many SLPs who were very interested in what they saw and eager to integrate the program in their own schools and clinics.  We showed examples of the lessons in the InterActive Lesson Book, the numerous visual strategies (Wise Action Tools), the hands-on items from the InterActive Toolbox, and graphs and evaluation charts showing social behavior progress resulting from the program’s use in treatment.  Visitors to our booth were able to hear Herb’s Songs for Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts, the companion album for the program.  We met many SLPs who were very interested in what they saw and eager to integrate the program in their own schools and clinics. 

​The G.R.E.E.N. Team Trio enjoyed joining the rest of the convention attendees for the Closing Party at a section of Universal Studios that was open on Saturday night just for us.  E.T., Harry Potter and Homer Simpson helped us enjoy the end of  our successful experience in Orlando.   
     
      

This past year, I provided weekly treatment with a small group of students in a Transition Class in a San Diego County high school district.  These 18-19-year-old students were involved in vocational training and learning independent living skills.  I used lessons, strategies and activities from my Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program to help the class improve their social skills so they could become successful, active participants within their community.  I presented explicit instruction so they could understand that their actions affected others around them, the others they could consider being on the same Team with them.  The students were guided to generate Common Team Goals and Team Rules collaboratively so they all could feel like they had some "ownership" in the ideas the group chose.  With these Team goals and rules spelled out, it would be clear what kind of behavior was expected and what could be achieved if they all worked together, and thought about how well they were interacting. ​​

​The students were given instruction about what it meant to be thoughtful vs. being impulsive in their actions.  Thoughtful vs. impulsive behavior was acted out so they could see what these contrasting behaviors looked like and felt like.  They were also given explicit instruction regarding what it meant to act in ways that were G.R.E.E.N.: Grateful, Respectful, Empathetic, Easygoing and Navigating.  They were given strategies to navigate by staying calm, and were given scripts they could use to exhibit the other prosocial behaviors.
Ethan had been one of the students in the class.  Our time together started off with his not wanting to participate in our group discussions.  He left the room without asking for permission.  The classroom teacher and aides who joined in our lessons told me he was typically very impulsive and had difficulty staying calm when things did not go the way he expected.  This was a challenge as he was involved in a High School Transition program in which he frequently had to take public transportation and participate in activities at various work sites. Needless to say, things did not always go as he expected. 
Ethan completed a self-assessment form known as the G.R.E.E.N. Actions Evaluation Chart in November of 2018.  His teacher also filled out this form to note what he thought about Ethan's G.R.E.E.N. social skills. Ethan noted he never displayed Navigating behavior that was defined as being flexible when managing challenges to stay calm and make wise choices.  Ethan gave himself a total of 9 (out of a possible score of 20).  His teacher filled out the same form which also resulted in the same total score.  Significantly, they both noted that Ethan never displayed behavior that showed he was able to navigate through challenging situations.  His teacher noted Ethan acted easygoing, open-minded and cooperative only a little bit.  

Ethan was taught to engage in an integral self-calming strategy of the G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program.  This strategy involved stopping to take controlled breaths to then allow thinking of acting in ways that are good choice for you as well as others around you.  
Ethan was presented with a lesson about being flexible enough to accept constructive feedback from others.  He then filled out a form that asked him whether he accepted feedback in various areas.  It is interesting to note that in November of 2018 when Ethan was marking the areas in which he accepted constructive feedback and which areas he did not, he marked that he did not accept feedback for thinking before acting.  This was an area in which he changed dramatically over the next few months, frequently asking for help to determine what action he should take, especially when a Plan B was needed.  During this lesson, he wrote on the bottom of his paper:  Getting constructive feedback helps me remember how to act better.   

​Ethan was taught that it helped him and others when he was able to accept constructive feedback.  He was provided with a printed guiding thought (one of several personally-relevant Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts®) to remind himself what to possibly think "in the moment" when someone was trying to provide him with constructive feedback.  

​As he was learning to accept feedback to stay calm, Ethan was also taught that he can ask what he can do for a Plan B if it looks like the original Plan A is not possible.  It was apparent that he often could not think of an alternative plan of action, but could engage in self-calming behavior and then ask someone what action they might suggest in the situation. He was provided with another personally relevant, printed Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thought to remind him what to possibly think "in the moment" when something did not go according to his original plan.  

​Starting in January, 2019, Ethan was asked to track his progress on his goal to stay calm, have a positive attitude and think of plan B.  He initially noted he could stay calm only 5% of the time when something was upsetting him.

​Ethan started to display dramatic improvement in his self-control.  He noted on 2/25/19: I self-calm when there is not Plan B..sometimes I just have to wait it out. Then on 3/4/19 he wrote, I am doing better with change.  

​Ethan was guided to track his performance on a bar graph.  

Ethan started to show dramatic improvement in his self-control while in the community.  It was necessary for staff to accompany him safely to his work sites. At the beginning of the year, it was hard to get Ethan to stay calm if something did not go as expected for him like his having to wait for a trolley that was not arriving on time.  Eventually, he was able to accept a minimal cue to use his self-calming breathing strategy and follow "Plan B" which was to wait for the next trolley. He could even be encouraged to engage in basic conversation that he learned to pass the time in a social way while waiting.  He drew the picture below showing how he learned to use his controlled breathing strategy to help him stay calm while waiting for the trolley.   He self-generated writing the following on the bottom of his drawing:  I am staying calm while waiting for the trolley.  

​Ethan's teacher filled out G.R.E.E.N. Action Evaluation Charts again in March of 2019.  The teacher noted that Ethan progressed from never displaying navigating behavior to independently displaying it a little.  He also noted Ethan progressed from begin Respectful and Easygoing (cooperative) only a little bit in October to being Respectful and Easygoing half of the time in March.  It was also noted that Ethan progressed from acting in a Grateful way half of the time to acting in this manner most of the time.  Ethan's total increased from 9 to 13.    

​Ethan initially did not display the ability to accept feedback which limited his ability to be trusted to interact appropriately in the community.  In just a few months, Ethan learned to be much more willing to accept and even request input from others regarding what to do when a Plan B was necessary.  He even progressed to being able to stay calm and make wise choices on his own a little bit. His behavior was much more grateful, respectful and cooperative.  The improvement noted when comparing Ethan's social behavior on 3/25/19 to his initial functioning on 10/22/18 can be credited to the weekly G.R.E.E.N. InterActions lessons and multisensory activities provided by this speech-language pathologist and the follow-up provided by Ethan's teacher and his aides.  Due to the use of the program's movie-style clapboard, Ethan displayed great eagerness to act out scenes that let him practice staying calm and requesting a possible Plan B when something happened that was unexpected.  During the balance of Ethan's week in the classroom, in the community, and on job sites, the teaching staff reminded him of the thoughts and strategies that were generated and practiced during the direct lessons. Ethan benefited from the visual cues such as the personally relevant Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts that helped him "in the moment" to Think First of better choices he could make instead of acting impulsively. He also benefited from receiving G.R.E.E.N. Action Reports that reinforced him with written positive feedback when he displayed G.R.E.E.N. social behavior and movement toward achieving his Personal Goal.    In just a few short months, Ethan learned to be open to suggestions from others, solicit and accept alternate plans of action when needed, and ultimately become a more respectful, cooperative and navigating student, peer and worker.   

 ​We were pleased with the mid-summer turn-out at Herb Hein's presentation of strategies he has developed for improving social behavior. Professionals and parents learned about the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program and how it gets individuals to use language to guide their thoughts and actions, engage in self-control, methodically analyze social situations, set goals and make positive interaction choices with others on their Teams. Mark Wilson, MOT, OTR/L, and Sharon Criger, DPT of FITS (Functional Integrated Therapeutic Services) and their staff were wonderful hosts, providing refreshments and a comfortable space in one of their OT/PT gyms.   The participants appreciated the extensive handout that

explained numerous aspects of Herb's social emotional learning program and its strategies, as well as the case studies Herb shared that demonstrated how his students and clients benefited from the presented treatment approaches. The participants had the opportunity to hear some of the songs that are part of this program, including the one with beautiful instrumentation that assists with self-calming through guided breathing. Some presentation attendees were already using the program and were there to get some additional insights about its effective use from the author/developer.  Other attendees were eager to hear Herb speak and have a close-up look at the 450 page InterActive Lesson Book, The Guide's Guide (instructor's manual), the numerous visual strategies called Wise Action Tools, and the numerous multi-sensory elements that are found in the program's InterActive Toolbox.  Herb provided those in attendance with some of the program's brain-shaped printed affirmations called Guiding G.R.E.EN. Thoughts® that will help the individuals stay calm, Think First and make the best choices in their interactions with others.  Contact Herb at Herb@HeinSLPinc.com if you would like to have a handout of the presentation, would like more information about the program, and/or would like to have him present about the program for your group, clinic or school.   More information can also be found in the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions section of our website (www.HeinSLPinc.com) or at the website shop.  We are grateful to all of the people who attended the presentation.  We are excited that more and more people are learning to be guides of the Growing G.R.E.EN. InterActions Program to help us all be our better selves in a better world!