Social Media Readiness & CASEN Connect™
Learn the Skills. Practice in a Protected Environment. Prepare for the Digital World.
Children shouldn’t have to learn how to navigate social media by trial and error.
CASEN provides a guided approach that helps neurodivergent children ages 9–13 build the social, emotional, and digital skills they need before navigating mainstream social media independently.
Our approach combines two important components: the CASEN Social Media Readiness Course, where children learn essential skills, and CASEN Connect™, where they have an opportunity to practice those skills in a structured, monitored digital environment.
Think of it as social media with training wheels.
CASEN Social Media Readiness Course
Learning Before Launching
The CASEN Social Media Readiness Course is a five-week educational experience designed to help children understand the social situations, responsibilities, risks, and decisions they may encounter online.
Children learn about healthy online interactions, bullying and cyberbullying, digital citizenship, online safety, communication, decision-making, and when and how to ask a trusted adult for help.
Throughout the course, children develop skills using the CASEN Compass™:
❤️ Connection — Build healthy relationships.
🛡️ Safety — Protect yourself and others.
📣 Advocacy — Use your voice to help yourself and others.
🧭 Navigation — Make wise choices.
But learning about social media isn’t the same as actually navigating it.
That’s where CASEN Connect™ comes in.
CASEN Connect™
A Place to Practice Before Mainstream Social Media
CASEN Connect™ is an invitation-only, guided digital learning and social interaction platform where children can practice the skills taught in the CASEN Social Media Readiness Course.
Instead of simply telling children what they should do online, CASEN Connect gives them opportunities to practice communicating, responding, making decisions, and interacting with others in a protected environment.
Children can interact with trained facilitators and peers through features such as the Discussion Board and Question of the Day, giving them experience with the types of communication they may encounter on mainstream platforms.
The Question of the Day: Building Skills One Step at a Time
Not every child begins with the same level of confidence or communication ability.
That’s why CASEN Connect™ uses a five-level scaffolded Question of the Day approach that gradually increases what children are asked to contribute.
Rather than expecting a child to immediately formulate a complete online response, the questions provide increasing levels of independence and communication practice.
As children progress, they move from highly supported responses toward expressing their own thoughts in complete sentences and more independent responses.
Questions also reinforce concepts children are learning in the Social Media Readiness Course, including bullying recognition, healthy friendships, online safety, communication, and responsible decision-making.
This gives children opportunities to learn, recall, apply, and practice their skills rather than simply memorize information.
Practice With Real Interaction
Social media isn’t only about posting. It’s about navigating people.
Through guided interactions with facilitators and peers, children practice:
- responding respectfully to others
- participating in online discussions
- expressing their thoughts appropriately
- recognizing healthy and unhealthy interactions
- recalling what they have learned about bullying and cyberbullying
- deciding when something should be reported
- asking for help when they feel uncomfortable
- thinking before they post or respond
These experiences help children build confidence while adults are still available to guide, redirect, and teach.
Why CASEN Connect™ Is Different
Mainstream social media often expects children to know how to navigate complicated social situations after they arrive.
CASEN takes a different approach.
We prepare them first.
The CASEN Social Media Readiness Course provides the education.
CASEN Connect™ provides the practice environment.
The CASEN Compass™ provides the framework for making decisions.
Together, they help children develop the skills and confidence to navigate digital spaces more safely, responsibly, and independently.
Before They Scroll, Post, Comment, or Share—Help Them Prepare.
CASEN is helping children build the skills they need for the digital world before the digital world expects them to already know them.
