Speakers and Sessions

 

NOTE: Due to high demand, additional attendees will view Friday's keynotes in the overflow room. Please call 781-449-4010 x 101 if you have any questions.


TEACHING SOCIAL SKILLS IN A DIGITAL AGE

Children today spend more time using digital devices than ever before, but it has come with a loss of face-to-face interaction and social skills. A 2018 Pew Research Center study found that with 95 percent of U.S. teens now having access to a smartphone, 45 percent feel overwhelmed by social media drama, 48 percent feel they don't fit in with peers, and 36 percent feel they have too little face-to-face time with friends. However, brain and psychological research has shown that having face-to-face interactions and developing social skills are essential for learning, making lasting friendships, and for academic and career success. Join us in New York to explore how our brains are wired for face-to-face social interactions, how digital devices are affecting social skills development and addiction, and how social groups, and using classroom collaborations improve learning. Discover ways to help all students, including the socially awkward and those with autism, feel accepted, make friends, and develop the social and emotional skills needed for school and life success.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

You will gain knowledge about:
  • The science of the social brain, networks, and interactions
  • Ways to teach social competence and social-emotional learning
  • Strategies and interventions for autistic and socially awkward kids
  • Why social skills are important for academic, college, and career success
  • The negative effects of digital technology on brains, addiction, and skills
  • Improving learning, equity, and teaching through intergroup collaboration
  • How face-to-face interaction synchronizes brainwaves and boosts learning
  • Using social curricula, VR, and theater for autism, ADHD, and anxiety
  • Understanding and appreciating nerds, geeks, and different minds
  • Ways to use technology to encourage interaction and collaboration
  • The science of making friends and teacher-child relationships
  • The power of group reading, talking, and conversations

Featured Speakers

Conference Chair / Co-Sponsor

Vanessa Rodriguez, EdD

Conference Chair / Co-Sponsor

Mariale M. Hardiman, EdD

Co-Founder and Director, Neuro-Education Initiative (NEI); Professor, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University; Author, The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools (2012) and Connecting Brain Research With Effective Teaching: The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model (2003); Co-Author “The Effects of Arts-Integrated Instruction on Memory for Science Content.” (2019, Trends in Neuroscience and Education)

Educating Students Who Have Different Kinds of Thinking Minds

Temple Grandin, PhD

IRRESISTIBLE: The Rise of Addictive Technology on Children

Adam Alter, PhD

Face-to-Face Communication Even With a Digital Device in Hand: How Do We Manage It?

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP

The Disordered Mind and Memory

Eric R. Kandel, MD

Social-Emotional Learning: Its Importance for Promoting Mental Health and Nurturing Success in School and Life

Mark T. Greenberg, PhD

Autism: A Uniquely Human Experience

Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP

Creating a Social, Emotion Revolution in our Nation's Schools and Workplaces

Marc A. Brackett, PhD

The Science of Making Friends: Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults

Elizabeth A. Laugeson, PsyD

1) SOCIAL BRAINS: PROMOTING SOCIAL SKILLS, COMPETENCE, & CONNECTIONS IN A DIGITAL AGE

The Disordered Mind and Memory

Eric R. Kandel, MD

Promoting Social Skills for Kids Through Play, Games, and Activities (K-5)

Janine Halloran, MA, LMHC

The Science of Making Friends: Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults

Elizabeth A. Laugeson, PsyD

Promoting a Positive Emotional Climate for Learning: From Research to Practice

Mariale M. Hardiman, EdD

Co-Founder and Director, Neuro-Education Initiative (NEI); Professor, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University; Author, The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools (2012) and Connecting Brain Research With Effective Teaching: The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model (2003); Co-Author “The Effects of Arts-Integrated Instruction on Memory for Science Content.” (2019, Trends in Neuroscience and Education)

The Significance of Friendship and Peer Relationships for the Quiet, Socially Anxious Child: A Developmental Perspective

Kenneth H. Rubin, PhD

Simultaneous Interventions: Tips for Teaching Social Competencies With Strategies for Anxiety Management

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP

Using Improv and Sketch Comedy to Practice "Real Time" Social Skills and Collaborative Skills

Shawn Amador, LCSW

Social Networks in the Brain: From Agents, to Actions, to Interactions

Julia Sliwa, PhD

Developing Social Competence for Students with Social Deficits: From Curricula, to Group-Based Interventions, to Collaborative VR Environments

Janine P. Stichter, PhD

2) COLLABORATIVE MINDS: IMPROVING GROUP LEARNING, EQUITY, AND INTERGROUP RELATIONSHIPS IN SCHOOLS & STEM CLASSROOMS

Co-Teaching and Collaboration: Learning to Work Together to Reach All Students

Kathleen M. Kryza, MA

Master Teacher; CIO, Infinite Horizons; Co-Author, Transformative Teaching: Changing Today's Classrooms Culturally, Academically, and Emotionally (2015), Developing Growth Mindsets in the Inspiring Classroom (2011), Inspiring Elementary Learners (2008), Inspiring Middle and Secondary Learners (2007), and Differentiation for Real Classrooms (2009)

Social Group Influences on STEM Motivation in Young Children

Allison L. Master, PhD

Working Together: Intergroup Relationships, Equity, and Problem Solving

Christina Rucinski, MA

Supporting Student Success: Integrating Social-Emotional Learning in Flexible Classroom Environments

Kathy Perez, EdD

The Neuroscience of Social Learning: Brain-To-Brain Synchrony and Group Interaction

Ido Davidesco, PhD

Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences; Principal Investigator, Brain Healthy Project, NEAG School of Education, University of Connecticut; Brain Researcher who studies how students learn in real classrooms using portable Electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking technologies; Co-Author, "Neuroscience Research in the Classroom: Portable Brain Technologies in Education Research" (2021, Educational Researcher); "Making BrainWaves: Portable Brain Technology in Biology Education" (2021, bioRxiv), "Morning Brain: Real-World Neural Evidence that High School Class Times Matter" (2020, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience), and "Measuring Brain Waves in the Classroom" (2020, Frontiers for Young Minds)

Jay J. Van Bavel, PhD

Director, Social Identity and Morality Lab; Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, Department of Psychology, New York University; Co-Author, “Out-Group Animosity Drives Engagement on Social Media” (2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony (2021), and “The Social Neuroscience of Cooperation” (2020, The Cognitive Neurosciences)

3) SOCIAL MEDIA MINDS: MANAGING SCREEN TIME & ITS IMPACT ON SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

IRRESISTIBLE: The Rise of Addictive Technology on Children

Adam Alter, PhD

Face-to-Face Communication Even With a Digital Device in Hand: How Do We Manage It?

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP

The Overstimulated Child: Physiology, Symptoms, and Reversal of Screen Time Impacts on Mental Health

Victoria L. Dunckley, MD

Child Development in the Digital Age: Impacts of Prolonged Screen Times on Children and Teens

Sarah E. Domoff, PhD

Growing Up Social: Raising Children in a Screen-Driven World

Arlene Pellicane, MA

The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Aggression

Jillian K. Peterson, PhD

Friendships in the Digital Age

Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD

Teaching Cyber Civics: Helping Kids Build Healthy Relationships in a Digital World

Diana Graber, MA

4) SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL MINDS: PROMOTING SEL, SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, & TEACHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Teachers as Learners: Developing the Social-Emotional Learning of Teachers

Vanessa Rodriguez, EdD

Social-Emotional Learning: Its Importance for Promoting Mental Health and Nurturing Success in School and Life

Mark T. Greenberg, PhD

Promoting Teachers’ Social-Emotional Competence and Teacher-Child Relationships

Joshua L. Brown, PhD

Creating a Social, Emotion Revolution in our Nation's Schools and Workplaces

Marc A. Brackett, PhD

Mindful Classrooms: Progress, Problems, and Promise

Joshua M. Aronson, PhD

Understanding Social Learning, Social Networks, and Social Regulation of Emotions

Kevin N. Ochsner, PhD

Artificial Intelligence and Real Intelligence: Can We Tell the Difference?

Kenneth S. Kosik, MD

The New Childhood and Empathy in a Digitally Connected World

Jordan Shapiro, PhD

Creating Flexible SEL Classrooms

Amber Chandler, MA

5) DIFFERENT MINDS, PEERS, & POPULARITY: APPRECIATING SOCIALLY-CHALLENGED CHILDREN & TEENS

Educating Students Who Have Different Kinds of Thinking Minds

Temple Grandin, PhD

The Science of Why We Are Socially Awkward and Why It Is Awesome to be Awkward

Ty Tashiro, PhD

Pathologizing Precision: “Nerdy” Kids in Elementary School Settings

David Anderegg, PhD

Autism: A Uniquely Human Experience

Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP

Adolescent Brain Development: Implications for Social Development, Peer Relationships, and Peer Pressure

Laurence D. Steinberg, PhD

POPULAR: Finding Happiness and Success in a World That Cares Too Much About the Wrong Types of Relationships

Mitch Prinstein, PhD, ABPP

Outsiders and the Popularity Myth: Why Being Excluded in School Doesn't Mean Anything is Wrong with You

Alexandra Robbins, BA

Different Minds: The Superpowers of Autism

Stephen M. Shore, EdD

Want to Work on Social Communication with Neurodiverse Thinkers? Try Being Less Neurotypical About It!

Susan E. Brennan, CCC-SLP

6) CONVERSATIONAL MINDS: THE POWER OF TALKING & SOCIAL GROUPS IN READING AND WRITING

Brain Research, Literacy, and Some Impacts on Curriculum and Instruction

Marie H. Alcock, PhD

Improving Reading Comprehension, Groups, and Differentiation

Jennifer Serravallo, MA

What We Say and How We Say It Matters

Mike Anderson, MS

The Power of We: Getting Started With Face-to-Face Academic Conversations

Ronald J. Nash, MA

Build Social Awareness and Peer Relationships Through Your Writing Instruction

Leslie E. Laud, EdD