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About Us

Thanks to Boston Voyager for the awesome article

Nadine Briggs

CEO/Owner
Nadine Briggs, CEO of Simply Social Skills, LLC. Nadine launched Simply Social Kids, her social skills coaching program for children/teens/young adults in 2007. She is currently developing an online course to support adult friendships called Building Adult Friendships (https://buildingadultfriendships.com). Nadine is also co-author of the bestselling How to Make and Keep Friends book series.
Nadine has dual graduate certifications in Coaching Children & Teens and Coaching Children & Teens with ADHD. She has expertise and certifications in bullying and cyberbullying prevention, Foundations of Positive Psychology including learned optimism and resilience, and is a certified PEERS for Adolescents social skills program provider. Her training includes collaborative problem solving to teach children conflict resolution and training in child anxiety at the Child Anxiety Network at Boston University. She is certified in the Girl Meets World curriculum which addresses relational aggression in girls and in Cognitive Behavioral Coaching. Much of the Simply Social Kids social skills program has been created by Nadine and her team. They specialize in creating fun games and activities that entertain as well as educate group participants on social skills.
Nadine has two adult children who are the catalyst for her current career. She has a daughter with Down syndrome and a son with ADHD. She has a personal passion for helping kids find true friendships. She created Simply Social Kids in 2007 to provide a sensory-simple, safe, accepting environment for all kids. Her goal is to help kids find true friendship and connectedness.
Nadine co-authored the bestselling books: How to Make & Keep Friends: Tips for Kids to Overcome 50 Common Social Challenges, How to Make & Keep Friends: Helping Your Child Achieve Social Success, I Feel Mad! Tips for Kids on Managing Angry Feelings, I Feel Worried! Tips for Kids on Overcoming Anxiety, Tips for Teens on Life and Social Success, I Need to Win! Tips for Kids on Good Sportsmanship and Bully Busting and Managing Meanies: Tips for Kids on Managing Conflict. She is a parent/educator consultant and public speaker. Top 5 character strengths according to the VIA character strengths survey: honestly, humor, love, perspective, and social intelligence.

Meet The Staff

Amanda Siano

Social Coach
Social Coach Assistant
Amanda Siano is currently a second grade teacher for the Westford Public Schools. She has 28 years experience teaching kindergarten, first, and second grade, 19 of those years have been in Westford.
She also teaches at Camp Invention, a STEM summer camp, working with campers in grades one through grade six. Amanda has two grown children of her own. She enjoys working with children of all ages! Amanda has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s of Arts degree in Education.
Top 5 character strengths: Love, gratitude, fairness, honesty, and hope.

Bethany Knoettner

Social Coach
Social Coach Assistant
Bethany Knoettner has been a School Psychologist since June of 2000 and resides in Westford, Ma with her husband and two sons. Holding a Master’s degree in School Psychology and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from Northeastern University, Bethany’s passion lies in facilitating social skills groups, friendship counseling, and individual support for students.
Bethany’s career roles have included conducting psychoeducational evaluations, collaborating with school IEP teams, and facilitating counseling groups. She has also contributed to the development of psychological assessment tools as an assessment field tester at Pearson Assessments. Her top 5 strengths according to the VIA character strengths survey are honesty, judgement, social intelligence, teamwork and kindness.

Bette Surette

Administrative Assistant
Social Coach Assistant
Bette has both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Manufacturing/Process Engineering from University of Lowell. For fifteen years she worked in a few high tech companies traveling both domestically and international. The trip to China was amazing!
Bette has two older teenage children. Both of her children have ADHD and Anxiety while her son also has Learning Disabilities in Reading, Writing, & Math. Since having children, Bette decided to transition to part time employment so she could spend more time with her family. Some of her part time jobs include police dispatching, town election worker, Federation for Children with Special Needs, MA Department of Health, Early Intervention, and church secretary.
Bette is a trained Surrogate Special Education Parent advocating for children in DCF custody.
The top 5 character strengths according to the VIA character strengths survey: fairness, forgiveness, honesty, kindness, and hope.

Jessica
Lam

Social Media and Social Coach Assistant
Jessica Lam is a current junior at Clark University in Worcester MA, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Education. She has a main interest in child and adolescence mental health and development.
Jessica is working as a Math and Reading Tutor at Kumon Math and Reading Center, a Mentor with Big Brother Big Sister. She also is an educator and president of the Clark Educational Studies Program "SPLASH!". Jessica also served as the Equity and Inclusion Representative on the Undergraduate Student Council, where she advocates for underrepresented groups. She will be assisting with social skills groups and creating eye-catching social media posts.
Jessica's top 5 character strengths are appreciation of beauty & excellence, honesty, kindness, love of learning, and curiosity.
TESTIMONIALS

What families are saying

about Simply Social Kids

“I wanted to let you know that Harry said that was the most fun ever. Thanks so much for always making him smile, feel accepted and for making his social experience so awesome for him. You guys are so great and your program is so special.”

Lauren

New York
“Also, thanks for the amazing job you’re doing with Trey! I can already see positive changes in him and it’s only been a couple of weeks. You’re helping make our long quarantine more bearable in so many ways and I can’t thank you both and Nadine enough!!”

Wendy

North Carolina
“Simply Social Kids is a warm welcoming place for children to develop their social skills and grow. It is also a wonderful resource for families. My son loves his weekly social group with Nadine and Christie and we highly recommend SSK!”

Jaime

Massachusetts

Stay Connected

© Copyright | Simply Social Skills, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Contact

One Industrial Way Unit 4
Tyngsboro, MA 01879
Phone: 978-764-2758
Fax: 978-727-8191
or email at:
[email protected]