Hi, Parents:
Well, we are getting down to the wire, and I can feel it. . Tonight, we did an activity that made me realize how far some of your kids have come. It showed up in how they thought and what they had to say.
We began the group with 15 teens, and Sophie came tonight. She was a hit, as usual. And, in fact, I showed them a 3 minutes video that I had made with her starring." They are encouraging me to put on YouTube. We will see...
Anyway, they were engaged in their typical magazine reading at first, which gave way to conversations and more conversations. Really, that was the theme of the entire evening. Five of them had LUNCH Points and participated in a somewhat unusual LUNCH Points raffle. I started off by picking a number and then having them add the first two letters of their first name together to form a number. So, if somebody’s name was “Abe,” the A and the B would form the number 3. One student won that way. Then, for the second raffle, I had them listen to one of my favorite musicians and guess the person’s first name. Whoever came closest also won. Doing things in this manner forces them to attend and maintain cognitive flexibility. Since most, but not all win, it gives them yet another chance to handle disappointment without losing control or making it too much of a "big deal."
After the raffle, we headed out for Uncle Chen’s for Chinese food. Many of your kids tried new items. Some wanted Hero Tickets, and some got Hero Tickets. It was particularly impressive to watch EF try chicken with lemon on it. Her conclusion was that it was the lemon part that was unhealthy, but the fried chicken part was okay.
Other group members showed thoughtfulness and consideration as they passed things to one another. We did our usual working on manners, as well as just general social behavior, and not letting the volume get too loud during mealtime. Having said that, it really never got too loud; they were just enjoying themselves. None of them were raucous, but rather they were just teenagers having a good time. A group of women (it always seems to be a group of women.) were seated outside of our room. They asked what the special event was, and looked a little puzzled when I said it was just a group of teenagers getting together for dinner.
The kids ate and ate, but they didn’t stuff themselves. They had wor won ton soup, spare ribs, shrimp in lobster sauce, beef with noodles, chicken with noodles, tangerine chicken, egg rolls, and, of course, fortune cookies. Believe it or not, despite the number of dishes on the table, there wasn’t much left when they finished.
During this time I asked your kids what they liked or didn't like about the group. The majority of teens who had have been attending group for a longer period of time expressed themselves in a thoughtful manner and seemed more mature in how they responded.
We finished up and headed back with a couple of kids picking up their backpacks on the way. We also voted on what we wanted to do for our final outing, which will occur the third week in May. After choosing between the mall, which a few wanted, a picnic, (Only CP wanted that one, but he really wanted it.), laser tag, and miniature golf plus arcade, it came down to between laser tag and miniature golf/arcade. We did a runoff vote, and, by a verdict of three to two, they decided on going to miniature golf/arcade. So, we have a new activity to plan which will be at Castle Park.
So, that’s about it for now. We are in a winding down process. And thanks so much for having such great kids. See you next time.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
School Year Teens 09-10 - Session 11
Hi, Parents:
Tonight went quite smoothly. First of all, we had a new group member, (IL) and I am pleased to say that he fit into group quite easily. No matter when I looked, other members were engaging with him, and vice versa. In fact, the majority of the group members were engaged with one another tonight, and that was simply just very nice to see.
The evening began by me talking to them and laying out what we were going to do tonight, which involved an outdoor activity, involving games of either Bananagrams or Guess Who. In addition to that, many of the teens who had previously done the video had an opportunity to improve their performance, and about five of them took me up on that offer. I am pleased to say that all five of them were able to look at little bits of what they did before and improve their performance.
I previously told you that I don’t show the group members elements of their negative behaviors, and I want to make a distinction. I wasn’t showing them negative behaviors, but rather a specific behavior that I wanted them to improve, and I tried to only show them enough of it so they could just see what the specific behavior was. For example, one student, CE, did a wonderful job but didn’t end his sentences by lowering his voice. This made it appear as though he was stopping in mid-sentence, even though he wasn’t. He had an opportunity to work on that, and it was hard for him to follow the structured format that we set up. However, he persevered and did so, and then seemed quite proud of his performance. Similarly, the other participants who did re-takes or did it for the first time also really took it seriously, and it was nice to see their outcomes. This included CP, GS and IL.
After we concluded this and the games tournament, we all went to Baja Fresh for dinner, where they naturally congregated in groups of threes and fours. Ordering went smoothly, and no problems occurred during group. At the end, we had a surprise LUNCH Points raffle, and there were a total of six participants. We allowed IL to earn one LUNCH Points certificate because it was his first group, as a way of not excluding him, since he had not had a prior opportunity. The group ended with dessert, where we had promised them last time, at the end of Japanese food, that they would have mochi, and they had green tea, strawberry and chocolate.
So, all in all, it was a pretty action-packed group. See you in two weeks.
Tonight went quite smoothly. First of all, we had a new group member, (IL) and I am pleased to say that he fit into group quite easily. No matter when I looked, other members were engaging with him, and vice versa. In fact, the majority of the group members were engaged with one another tonight, and that was simply just very nice to see.
The evening began by me talking to them and laying out what we were going to do tonight, which involved an outdoor activity, involving games of either Bananagrams or Guess Who. In addition to that, many of the teens who had previously done the video had an opportunity to improve their performance, and about five of them took me up on that offer. I am pleased to say that all five of them were able to look at little bits of what they did before and improve their performance.
I previously told you that I don’t show the group members elements of their negative behaviors, and I want to make a distinction. I wasn’t showing them negative behaviors, but rather a specific behavior that I wanted them to improve, and I tried to only show them enough of it so they could just see what the specific behavior was. For example, one student, CE, did a wonderful job but didn’t end his sentences by lowering his voice. This made it appear as though he was stopping in mid-sentence, even though he wasn’t. He had an opportunity to work on that, and it was hard for him to follow the structured format that we set up. However, he persevered and did so, and then seemed quite proud of his performance. Similarly, the other participants who did re-takes or did it for the first time also really took it seriously, and it was nice to see their outcomes. This included CP, GS and IL.
After we concluded this and the games tournament, we all went to Baja Fresh for dinner, where they naturally congregated in groups of threes and fours. Ordering went smoothly, and no problems occurred during group. At the end, we had a surprise LUNCH Points raffle, and there were a total of six participants. We allowed IL to earn one LUNCH Points certificate because it was his first group, as a way of not excluding him, since he had not had a prior opportunity. The group ended with dessert, where we had promised them last time, at the end of Japanese food, that they would have mochi, and they had green tea, strawberry and chocolate.
So, all in all, it was a pretty action-packed group. See you in two weeks.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
School Year Teens 09-10 - Parent Dinner
Hi, Parents:
Tonight was the parent dinner for both groups, and it was reasonably well-attended. We had four parents from the kids’ group and five parents from the teenage group. During the evening, I showed videos of both the kids’ group and the teenage group as to what has been happening throughout the year, and also shared a project that I have been working on with the kids that involves “the best thing that happened to me in the past year was …” We talked about language and how we work in the group with kids on the effectiveness of their verbal communications, and being able to use language as a socialization mechanism.
Additionally, we talked about the role of executive functioning. Parents heard how many of their kids kind of got the instructions wrong, and sometimes had difficulty making their point clearly and succinctly. I reviewed how I work with the kids to have their conversations with a proper amount of detail, rather than excessive degrees that act like a prepositional phrase that goes on and on. Parents remained interested. Their were quite a few questions in general about overall diagnoses, and we talked about those in terms of the functional behaviors that they represent.
Parents asked about the summer group program, and we will be doing our end-of-group surveys in April, with a follow up to occur in June. Overall, as the parent meetings go, it went smoothly. Perhaps the only exception was that, in the buzz of conversation, we sort of forgot to order dinner, and the server didn’t take our orders until 6:45 p.m. The meeting broke up a little bit after 7:30, and parents could still be seen engaged in conversation fifteen minutes later in the parking lot.
We have group later this month, and then our last parent meeting, in the office, come this May.
Tonight was the parent dinner for both groups, and it was reasonably well-attended. We had four parents from the kids’ group and five parents from the teenage group. During the evening, I showed videos of both the kids’ group and the teenage group as to what has been happening throughout the year, and also shared a project that I have been working on with the kids that involves “the best thing that happened to me in the past year was …” We talked about language and how we work in the group with kids on the effectiveness of their verbal communications, and being able to use language as a socialization mechanism.
Additionally, we talked about the role of executive functioning. Parents heard how many of their kids kind of got the instructions wrong, and sometimes had difficulty making their point clearly and succinctly. I reviewed how I work with the kids to have their conversations with a proper amount of detail, rather than excessive degrees that act like a prepositional phrase that goes on and on. Parents remained interested. Their were quite a few questions in general about overall diagnoses, and we talked about those in terms of the functional behaviors that they represent.
Parents asked about the summer group program, and we will be doing our end-of-group surveys in April, with a follow up to occur in June. Overall, as the parent meetings go, it went smoothly. Perhaps the only exception was that, in the buzz of conversation, we sort of forgot to order dinner, and the server didn’t take our orders until 6:45 p.m. The meeting broke up a little bit after 7:30, and parents could still be seen engaged in conversation fifteen minutes later in the parking lot.
We have group later this month, and then our last parent meeting, in the office, come this May.
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