National Professional Advisory Board Members

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, SLP

Center for Social Thinking

Michelle is a speech language pathologist and specialist for persons with social cognitive deficits. She is internationally recognized as an innovative therapist, energetic and enthusiastic workshop presenter and author based in San Jose, Ca. where she runs her private practice, The Center for Social Thinking.

Michelle and her team specialize in developing further understanding and educational strategies for helping persons with social thinking/social communicative deficits, including those with High Functioning Autism (HFA), Asperger Syndrome (AS), Pervasive Developmental Disability Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities (NLD). Michelle's therapists have at least a master's level education in a related field (e.g. speech language pathology, education, psychology).

Michelle has developed the I LAUGH Model of social cognition to help explain the complex difficulties our students experience socially and academically. She has written two books: "Inside Out: What Makes The Person With Social Cognitive Deficits Tick?" (2001) and "Thinking About You Thinking About Me" (2002) which she self-publishes in North America. She has released a training video/DVD, produced through The Gray Center, entitled “Social Thinking Across The School And Home Day” (2003).

All of Michelle’s work is very practical. She has a knack for taking abstract concepts and explaining them in concrete ways to the benefit of educators and students alike.

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