Hi, Parents:
Tonight, the kids did a couple of things. Well, they did more than a couple of things. They came into the waiting room, and, rather than them using magazines, I asked everyone to put magazines down, and everybody but two children (KK and SB) complied. We talked about things that they had been doing as they came over from Gelson’s market, and what they had been doing there in the room. Most of the kids received blue tickets for either walking over in a relaxed way, talking with others, talking with staff, listening while others were talking, and other socially appropriate behaviors. Similarly, they earned tickets for having conversations or paying attention while they were in the office. One of the things that happened tonight was that there was simply a lot of laughing and good-natured interaction going on.
We transitioned from the waiting room to the training room, and all of the kids participated in continuing our movie-making exercise. (You may remember that we shot video of several kids describing the best thing they had done during the past year.) Now, those kids who did not participate had an opportunity either to make sound effects, applaud, or otherwise show their appreciation. I also showed them a little bit about video editing and “snipping off” parts of a video that you don’t want to include. The parallel to this, by the way, is to snip out or edit parts of conversation that you would rather not occur.
So, then it was off to our Japanese restaurant, Octopus, where the kids took about ten minutes to get there. One child, JH, arrived at group late and was not in a good mood. I stayed behind with him and another child, AB, who had been using the restroom. JH was socially inappropriate with his language on the way over, and, at one point, walked away from me a few feet and stepped about 1/4 of a foot into the curb as a truck was making a right turn. I immediately yelled at him at the top of my voice to freeze, and he did so and immediately came back to me. He then complied, for the remainder of the trip, with requests that I made, and, when I told him that he could earn hero tickets for controlling himself, at first he didn’t, but then, fairly immediately (within three minutes) calmed down. He also chose to sit at a table by himself, but then eventually joined the others. The rest of the group was tolerant of his behavior, and, for the most part, ignored it.
Many kids displayed appropriate eating, conversation and other behaviors. CJ and EY were sitting near each other, and appeared to enjoy their interaction, as did EM. SB only asked about going home, and whether the food was gluten-free, on a couple of occasions. ND, SW, SB, QM and AJ all appeared to be enjoying their conversations as they banded together. GU gave advice to EM about what to order, and she had a form of Udon. It was very hot, and I showed her how to cool it off, and also how to take out the noodles so it was not so hot for her. Many of the kids tried seaweed for the first time (the paper type that goes around sushi rolls) and many of them said that they enjoyed it. Overall, it was a relaxed, if slightly noisy, interaction. We hurried back, and everybody kept up and followed directions, and appeared to have had a good time.
In all likelihood, we will have next group meeting at either a barbeque or we will go to the park. Thanks for everything. Contact me if you have any questions or comments.
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