Kid blog entry-Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Today was a community outing day. We started off in the office for about an hour and worked on creating PowerPoint type animation (actually Keynote) by adding pictures drawn by one of the group members combined with jokes told by pairs of group members. The kids also had a chance to play the Wii (about seven of them) and we held two raffles. The first was a Hero Ticket raffle and we gave away eight prizes. Aside from the fact that the raffle is an enjoyable opportunity to win prizes, it also allows us to work on feelings of disappointment and monitoring, when there is no motivation. What I mean by the last part is that the the kids are expected to continue monitoring their tickets and numbers to see if they won, even after they may have won a prize. This helps the raffle process move along smoothly.
Around 10:35 AM we went out to catch a bus and headed off for an early lunch, arriving around 11:10 AM. Today we ate at Hamburger Hamlet and nearly all of the kids ordered lunches, mostly their mini burgers. There's quite a bit of socializing which is always nice to see. I made a special point of talking to the kids about eating more slowly because some of them have a tendency to consume their meals fairly quickly. Afterwards we headed off to Ultrasound for two games of laser tag. All of the kids commented that they had been looking forward to this and seemed to enjoy themselves. We came back on 1:45 PM bus arriving back to the office at approximately 2:05 PM. This allow just enough time for the kids to collect their items and also for us to have two lunch points raffles.
There were very few behavior problems occurring today. One child, "J," became fearful at the start of laser tag as he had when we went previously. He did not become upset initially, but rather after he asked me to "stay right by my side," and I reminded him that I promised that I would keep them safe while he was in there. It was at this point that he became upset in insisting that someone had to be right next to him. I felt that reinforcing that behavior, especially when he had enjoyed himself immensely the previous time after he had come down from becoming upset, would be taking a step backwards. He then approached another staff and made the same request. It was interesting to watch that after he entered the room, within one minute he was off running around playing laser tag with other kids and had completely lost interest in me. (Clearly, my presence wasn't as important as it initially indicated). I think it's important to recognize that many times kids become fearful and while it is important to provide reassurance, is also helpful to recognize that this can be a learning opportunity to teach them what is safe versus unsafe. A child who is acting as though an environment is unsafe is likely to maintain dependency upon others and, left unchecked, these behaviors can easily carry into adolescence or even adulthood.
The second problem involves one of the children, "J," who had forgotten to bring a replacement plan for the one that he had broken purposely on Monday. I asked him to describe to the group what the problem was asked for their input. Several members felt that he should not be able to participate in any activities today, clearly a much harsher consequence than I would have ever considered. We decided then he would have an opportunity to participate in the raffle today, provided he agreed to bring in to replacement pens on Friday. He was reminded that this was his responsibility, not his parents and the pens did not have to be new, just in working order. Later in the day, as we were waiting for the bus return home, another child picked up a penny that had been lying in the dirt, mixed in with trash. I instructed that child to put it back down. Moments later, "J" took the opportunity to pick up the penny that that child had put back. I informed him that the penny had now become his reward rather than the opportunity to participate in the final LUNCH Points raffle today. Situations like that are difficult, because when you have a child who is seeking negative attention, as "J" did at different points throughout the day, consequences are rarely an effective solution. Rather, prosocial teaching opportunities are preferred. Since however, we were at the end of the day, and "J" has also encountered trouble at lunchtime purposely burping and earlier purposely making "farting sounds," it seemed appropriate to use at least some kind of limited consequence. This also brings up one of the potential disadvantages of a short-term program. Since "J" has only recently escalated his frequency of these negative attention-getting behaviors, there is an insufficient amount of time left in the program to work on that more effectively. It generally makes sense not to make too big a deal or focus too much on negative behaviors especially at the end of the group program, but rather to leave it for another opportunity, whether it is through our program or elsewhere.
In general the group appeared positive and enthusiastic and several of the kids continue to ask what we would be doing Friday which we told them we would explain on Friday. That's it for today.
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