Once upon a time, there were autistic, ADHD, and anxious students who didn't know that there are stages or levels between strangers and friends.

Sometimes these students treat people they kind of knew like they were strangers, not acknowledging them when they saw them.

Sometimes they didn't know how to engage in small talk with people they kind of knew, so interactions were pretty awkward.

And some students thought everyone they knew was their friend, which meant they were often too friendly or too personal with people they only kind of knew. And the reality is that most people in our lives are people we only kind of know.

I created the lesson I'm sharing on this week's podcast for all of these students.

In this lesson, I teach students that an acquaintance is someone we recognize from somewhere or something. We usually know their name, but not always. This can include students in our class or our group, neighbors, teachers, and friends of our parents. We also talk about what the social expectations are when we are around acquaintances, like small talk and introductions to other people.

Once upon a time, there were autistic, ADHD, and anxious students who struggled to notice the interests of others and to use that information to help them form connections.

Some students weren't able to identify anything that anyone close to them liked or was interested in.

There were students who had a reputation for being selfish because they only talked about things that they were interested in, even though they knew what their family and friends liked.

And then there were students who did a great job paying attention to the interests of people around them, but they didn't know how to use that information to build connections.

I created the lesson we're talking about this week for all of these students.

In this lesson, students practice listening to others while they share about their interests, and we also practice asking others questions about their interests and making related comments.

Once upon a time, there were students who struggled to create a reputation for being friendly.

Some students didn't notice when other people wanted or needed something, while other students always offered their help, even when it wasn't wanted or needed.

Sometimes students didn't ever talk about their thoughts or opinions, while sometimes they only talked about their thoughts or opinions.

And some students didn't ever say friendly things to others, while other students said friendly things so often that they came across as fake.

I created the lesson we're talking about on this episode for all of these students.

In this lesson, students learn about the just right zone, which is actually quite large, and how they can increase their self-awareness to create a reputation for being friendly.