Teaching Through Thought Bubbles and Speech Bubbles

Over the years, we have been surprised to hear parents or professionals report that their student is “too smart” or is too sophisticated for visual strategies! Personally, we use visual strategies to get through every single day: wall and computer calendars, Post-it® notes or appointment books, digital apps, flipcharts at meetings, whiteboard planning charts, digital mind maps, etc. These are all visual tools to help us connect ideas, see the big picture, and keep our tasks, our engagements, and ourselves organized!

Like many other professionals, we have found great benefit using comic strip conversation (Carol Gray’s Comic Strip Conversations, 1991) to draw stick figures with thought bubbles and speech bubbles to teach abstract ideas in a concrete way. Taking this concept into teaching sessions where individuals use visuals to represent their thoughts and words can be very powerful.

We have personally found that thought and speech bubbles can be critical for some learners to make the process of how we interpret what we say to each other clear. Bubbles can be used both proactively, by teaching about the future impact of their words, and reactively by teaching about what was said, why it was said, and how it was interpreted.

Thought and Speech Bubbles for Teaching Social Concepts

Thought bubbles and speech bubbles have endless uses, especially when discussing how what we do and say impacts one another in the moment. Many individuals with social learning differences and/or challenges report difficulties tracking conversations or discussions in real time. The reality is that conversations are not concrete; the words are spoken, and then poof, they’re gone! These same individuals also report needing help thinking about what others around them are thinking and feeling.

Since these tools are physical manipulatives, they can easily be used in the teaching moment without interrupting the flow by having to stop and draw out the situation (context) or the stick figures to represent the people involved. They’re already together in the situation! This means we can shift focus to how people are relating to each other based on what each is thinking and possibly saying in that situation. This is so helpful when you’re teaching a group of students or when in an individual teaching session. The bubbles are a concrete way to show what you do or say has an impact on their thoughts and feelings and vice versa. It’s an effective on-the-spot visual tool that makes intangible concepts more concrete.

We routinely use the thought bubbles to help individuals learn about thoughts; the thoughts we have about ourselves and the thoughts we may have based on what we think about others. This tool can build more self-awareness into the metacognitive process. It can also support carrying the lesson one step further: how we adapt our social skills based on our thoughts as well as the thoughts others have about what we do or say or the situation.

Speech bubbles can also be very helpful in teaching problem solving. They can be used to illustrate what someone might say in response to what you have said to them. These can also be used reactively to explore why one person became so upset with another person based on what was said.

Here are a few of the countless ways I have used thought and speech bubbles with students (and adults) beyond introducing the very basics. The first lesson is for those working on building self-awareness, and the second and third lessons are for students who already have a level of self and other awareness but may not understand how what we say and do affects one another’s thoughts and feelings.

Download the Lessons and Thought and Speech Bubbles

Involve Students in the Planning and Goal Setting!

Involving students in creating lessons can go a long way toward them learning information relevant to them! Make sure to ask about their own social goals and work to craft lessons to help them meet those goals.

Give students the chance to be the teacher. Offer the thought and speech bubbles to students and ask them to decide how to use them in the session. Have them discuss why having visuals could be helpful for students. Ask them to work together in a team to design how to teach you (now the student) about:

• Thoughts and feelings: Do they go together?
• Filtering thoughts before they become speech
• When is it a good time to keep thoughts private?
• When and which thoughts should come out?

We hope you enjoy using (and expanding and modifying) these lessons and the many more lessons you’ll create using these thought and speech bubbles to expand upon what we think and what we say in social situations. The goal of the Social Thinking Methodology is to make implicit concepts more explicit. Thought and speech bubbles are an evidence-based way to help social learners meet their social goals in a way that’s engaging, concrete, and often motivating for everyone involved across different age groups!

Teaching the Concept of Thoughts to Early Learners (Presented by Ryan Hendrix)

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