Today started off in the office we headed off for our community outing, Laser Tag. The day started with a surprise LUNCH Points Raffle. Interestingly, JW had a certificate in his hand but wasn't attending until we rehearsed it a few times. AC responded right away. However, both wound up participating. This session, it's the teens who have taken more interest in LUNCH Points, overall. Other times it's reversed. As we prepared to watch some short animations, it created an opportunity to review how to check and not block others' view when selecting a seat. We've also been working on simple social skills, such as not standing right up against the door while someone else is in the restroom. MM had a chance to ask others to move their seat rather than crawling under the table to get past. ND appeared very tired (9:35am) and was reminded that he couldn't earn tickets when his head was on the table. Several of the group members earned tickets for quickly and accurately summarizing the videos they saw. Little opportunities for helping them with social language occurred, for example when SW said, "Can I please have the pen there, please?" He was prompted via positive practice to restate and did so successfully. We had the group describe the last animation they saw by summarizing in 30 seconds (DG did it successfully), 15 seconds (MM and SW did it successfully), and then within 10 seconds (EJ, AC did so more succesfully, SG and AJ had more difficulty summarizing). We also worked on what happens when someone tries to answer a question by interrupting or responds too quickly. AJ found the exercise humorous, where, as SW asked for a pen, I responded by quickly handing it to him before he was done, by saying "Now, that's service!" So, that was the first 75 minutes of group today. Time to head off for Laser Tag.
Catching the bus was uneventful, except that ND became upset when asked to sit rather than stand on the bus. This was uncharacteristic for him. Once we figured out that he wanted to sit next to SG and accommodated him, things improved. At Laser Tag, all of the kids were heavily rewarded for "playing together" or just "hanging out" while we waited the short time before the first game began. This was a great example of social modeling working successfully. First EJ and AC were rewarded, then SG and DG. AJ finally noticed that everyone else getting tickets and spontaneously searched for someone to play with, picking JW, who was also rewarded for walking and keeping his arms down. The two games passed quickly and it was impressive to see how they formed teams and strategies and as they played.
We finished up Laser Tag around 12:15pm and headed over to In-'n-Out for lunch. NR was anxious about her food and had a chance to practice asking for things in a calm and polite manner. A truck passed, producing someone loud, but typical, noises and those who were able to state they were not afraid of the truck noise were rewarded. Additionally, JW, ND, and SG all earned tickets for having conversations during lunch, as did SG for spontaneously opening a door as someone passed through and NR for waiting patiently for a water cup from one of the In 'n Out workers.
An example of how many group members need to work on pragmatics were inadvertently demonstrated when I mentioned there would be a surprise visitor coming next Friday. One of the kids asked if it was Kobe Bryant, and I off-handedly replied, "Sure, and President Obama is coming too." To my surprise, several of them began asking if this was true. Such behavior unfortunately will make them ripe targets for merciless teasing or even bullying at school.
Shortly after 1:00pm we waited to catch the bus to return to the office. JW was rewarded for standing next to other kids and also for eye contact while interacting with one of the counselors. AJ spoke in an excessive insulting manner to SW and SW was rewarded for not reacting. Unfortunately AJ escalated by kicking him and was physically removed from the others for a brief period until he could demonstrate that he had regained control. AC and EJ became engrossed in discussing park rides, but also switched when asked by a counselor by their weekend, maintaining this conversation for about five minutes. The bus didn't arrive until nearly 1:20pm and we made it back with just a short amount of time to spare. Full day!
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