Summer Session 09

Hi Parents,

No, you didn't miss a previous blog, I'm just a little behind in trying to catch up. This recounts what we did on Wednesday, when we had a great time on a community outing. We took the bus to Sherman Oaks and spent time at Ultra Zone, where the kids played two games of laser tag. Because our scheduled time wasn't until noon, we had an early lunch at In and Out Burger. All of the kids found something he, with one essentially having the burger equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich. A couple of kids had wanted to find "healthier alternatives," and we offered to take them to a nearby minimart. But, when he came down to it they opted for burgers as well.

One of the reasons for taking your kids to laser tag is because there will be many birthday party opportunities coming up that will likely involve this particular activity. Additionally, it provides us with an opportunity to help your children work on behavioral and emotional control in a situation that, for some is overstimulating, and for others is unpleasant. One child in particular, "J," was terrified of going in. This is always a tough clinical decision for me because I never want to force a child to do something but, at the same time, I also don't want to miss an opportunity to help them cope more effectively with phobic-level fears. In the case of J, I made a decision that I would require him to go in for just a few minutes. Easier said than done. He screamed, he protested, you would have thought that I was torturing him. This behavior lasted approximately 3 minutes. Then he calmed down, began to search for other kids to shoot with his laser (by the way they are not lasers and the lights cannot harm the children; they are infrared beams which is the same kind used on remote control devices). J stayed near me, which was just fine. By the second game, he began to separate from me and was playing on his own with other kids. This is an example of one of the positive benefits of using the controlled environment setting we have within the LUNCH Groups program.

The rest of the kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly, except for one girl "E," who was having a very hard time. She misperceived other children pointing their lasers at her and became angry when this occurred. I had assigned one of the counselors to remain close to her and she and the counselor stayed together throughout the laser tag experience. During the first game we asked her to wear a vest, in the hopes that she would desensitize. However, when it became apparent that that was not a good strategy, during the second game we just asked her to walk around, not wearing a vest. This worked better.

The bus ride to and from was uneventful and your kids were well behaved, in fact the bus driver spontaneously commented how much better behaved they were than most of the riders he encountered.

All in all, a long, tiring, and fun time for all.

Bruce