Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
Part I What's the Story?
1 What's the Story? 3
2 Executive Function: The Brain's Ship Captain for Social Navigation 19
3 Parenting with a Playbook: You're a Natural, Coach 37
4 The Seven Things Everyone Needs to Be Able to Do to Be Socially Successful 45
Part II The Ploy Better Plan The Coach's Playbook: Coaching Guides, Questionnaires, and Tools
5 The Eight Elements of Highly Effective Social Skills Coaching 53
6 The Processing Style Questionnaire: Assessing Your Child's Strengths, Interests, and Processing Style 64
7 The Executive Function Questionnaire: Assessing Your Child's Executive Function Social Skills 74
8 The EFQ Lesson Tracks at a Glance: Bridge to Betterment and How Will You Know? 84
9 Introducing the Play Better Plan to Your Child: The Interactive Conversation Guide 97
10 Home Advantage: In-Home Coaching and Practice Build Basic Skills 110
Part III The Play Better Executive Function Social Skills Tracks
11 The Starter Track for Everyone! 117
12 Flexible Me: Flexibility/Adaptability 143
13 Mind Your PEAS and Cues: Reading the Room 157
14 Who Is Your Audience?: Shifting Communication to Meet the Needs of the Audience 175
15 Build on That: Friendship Communication 190
16 Friendship Is a Two-Way Street: How Fast Do You Go? 206
17 Learning to Walk in Someone Else's Shoes: Taking Another Person's Point of View 226
18 Once Was Enough: Self-Regulation 238
19 Never Let Them See You Sweat: Emotional Regulation 250
Part IV The Ploy Better Plan: To Playdates and Beyond
20 The Playdate Planner: How to Line Them Up and Plan Them Well 269
21 Playdates: Coaching from the Sidelines 278
22 How'd It Go?: Debriefing and the Post-Playdate Huddle 286
23 Troubleshooting: How to Make the Most of Snags, Setbacks, and Resistance 297
24 You've Got This! 304
Acknowledgments 309
Appendix 315
Playdate Observation Log 315
Playdate Planning Checklist 317
Reward Chart 319
Social Spy Badge 321
The Play Better Pocket Coach 321
References 325
Index 343
About the Authors 355
