​Herb will be at FITS Clinic to share strategies he has developed as part of his Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program, getting individuals getting individuals to develop the understanding and skill to guide their own thoughts and actions "in the moment",  engage in self-control, and  analyze social situations to make the best choices for themselves and their Home, Friendship, and Classroom Teams.

​Through his work with students with ASD, emotional challenges and social language deficits, Herb Hein, of Hein Speech-Language Pathology, Inc, has found that introducing the Team concept and 

In just four months, this nine-year-old named Frank has transformed from acting impulsively, to being able maintain self-control and think about what his best action would be when interacting with others on his Home, Classroom, Friendship and Sports Teams.   In this blog, Frank's mother shares her gratitude about the positive transformation her son has made since being involved in the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program.  Therapeutic approaches allowing for that transformation are also explained.  The program has taught Frank to Think First before acting so he can think about 1) the Team he is with at the moment, 2) what goals he and the Team might want to accomplish, and 3) what mutually beneficial choices of words and actions he might make.   His mother just gave him a "G.R.E.E.N. Action Report" to reinforce him for staying calm and using his words after having to wait for an hour in a doctor's office!  
We initially contacted Hein SLP regarding their new social communication skills intervention, “The Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Program,” hoping it would help our son Francisco with his social skills challenges. ​

Listen to Herb Hein talk about his experience and advice regarding speech-language-cognitive treatment for traumatic brain injury, in his interview with Dan Gardner, M.D.

Club Xcite provides quality, innovative educational services for schools and families in San Diego County seeking personalized academic, social, emotional and behavioral solutions. Club Xcite loves our newly published social skills curriculum!  They will be integrating the key concepts, worksheets and lessons from the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program to use with all students in their Mindful Adventures Summer Camp.  This specialized camp provides opportunities to learn and apply new social and emotional skills in fun and engaging outings with experienced social and executive functioning coaches.  Read more…  
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A unique, powerful component of the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program is that it explicitly provides powerful words that are thoughts we find in our brain to help us make the best choices for ourselves and the other people in our lives.  Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts are integrated throughout the program's lessons and multisensory activities.  We learn to survey the scene to see who else is on our Home, Classroom, Friendship or Work Teams and consider our Common Team Goals.  We then can read the printed Guided G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts to use "in the moment", reminding us to choose our best words and actions to make positive connection with others.  

One of the most useful strategies of the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program is to develop mutually beneficial Common Team Goals with the people with whom we interact.  We consider that the other people around us are part of our Team, whether it is our Home Team, Classroom Team, Friendship Team, Work Team or even Community Team.  With the others on our Teams, we decide what the Common Team Goals might be and write these down so they can be referred to as often as needed so that our individual actions help to achieve them.   

​Through explicit lessons, visual strategies,  personally relevant role-playing and goal self-assessment, Max learns he is part of a Team and learns to monitor his attitude and his language  to interact in a easygoing, positive manner.   In just five months, he progresses from acting in an impulsive, negative manner to controlling himself  to  think first and choose positive words for interacting with his Team. 
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This year, I have been providing 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 are involved in vocational training and learning independent living skills. ​I used 

​Just like the song says on Herb Hein's album, "Songs for Guiding G.R.E.E.N. Thoughts", it's time to "Keep the Civil in Civilization, by Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions.  We can make action choices to be our better selves in a better world! 
​What do we mean by Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions? To make our InterActions G.R.E.E.N., we guide ourselves to Think First when we are with others around us to make our best choices to act Grateful, Respectful, Empathetic, Easygoing and Navigating (G.R.E.E.N.) .

 I am pleased to say that after seven years of working on developing the Growing G.R.E.E.N. InterActions Social Literacy Program and using it in classrooms and clinical practice, the program books are printed and the hands-on items are ready for sharing with teachers, therapists, counselors and parents around the country! The program can be ordered through our on-line shop.