Kid Group Session #6

Hi Parents,

Tonight we had three kids out. One arrived a little bit late and one had to leave a half an hour early. Otherwise, it was a perfectly calm, relaxed normal session. Oh, did I forget to mention the rain? The fact is that it was a perfectly relaxed, normal session. We made some adjustments because of circumstances and what occurred is that the group decided, and, in fact, it was one of the group members who suggested it, that we postpone the raffle by one meeting so that those kids who were out sick wouldn’t feel as though they were missing out. Kids who said that they could handle that level of disappointment earned a Hero ticket. Kids who weren’t paying attention or didn’t respond when asked about it did not earn a Hero ticket.

The group played the Wii tonight more than they ever had and I debated whether to allow it to occur, but if you watch the video that I was shooting during that time, I think you’ll see why I permitted it. There was interaction and they were cheering one another when somebody else made a shot (I believe they were playing golf). They were watching and some of the kids were reinforced with tickets for watching and paying attention to what the rest of the group was doing, even they weren’t actively playing (this was as opposed to the individual members having their faces buried in magazines, which they will often do if given the chance in the waiting room).

Because the rain was intermittent, but strong enough that we did not want to venture out to a restaurant, the group ordered food from Gelson’s and I took one of the group members with me to go purchase it. What wound up occurring was that they sat in the group room, enjoying food, and seated themselves across from one another, having conversations and eating their piece of corn dog (and other less healthy than we normally like to get them food), due to the rain.

Finally, it was one of the group member’s birthdays tonight. The rule in group is that if a group member’s birthday falls on group night, they get a cake with candles, “Happy Birthday,” and the whole thing. That’s exactly what occurred, although interestingly, that group member when asked about an important event in his life talked about some other things other than the fact that it was his birthday today. One of the things that we try to work on in group is to have the group member’s prioritize and talk about what’s most relevant first. One of the other group members had noted that this had occurred and prompted the child who forgot to mention his birthday that this was probably the most important thing to say and then we practiced that a little bit more. The group sang “Happy Birthday,” candles were blown out, and all of the kids had a good time, except for one child who is allergic to dairy products. I had purposefully purchased a non-dairy dessert for that child, however upon inspecting the ingredients further, I saw that the second cake in fact contained non-fat milk. This child was able to handle that disappointment extraordinarily well, earning himself a Hero ticket and also earned a Pez, which of course doubled as a non-dairy dessert.

In all, it was a good night. It was a less structured group session than we normally have, but one that had a high degree of social interaction. See you all in January. Have a wonderful holiday!

Kid Group Session #5

Hi parents!

Tonight was the first December group and what all of us here at LUNCH Group Central observed is that your kids, as an entire group, simply were calmer. We saw pieces of it last group, but it just came together tonight. And that doesn’t mean everything was perfect. Kids were still given opportunities to practice behaviors the second and third time.

In one case, one of the group members who started to cross the street arguing with one of the staff was pulled back and told to wait while the rest of the group went. Normally, this would have resulted in a melt-down for a few minutes. It resulted in zero melt-down. The child accepted that he had done something inappropriate. He talked about it and I crossed with him as we caught up with the group.

During dinner, we were at Numero Uno’s and the kids figured out ways of sharing certain things. They were using better table manner and there was more conversation. While we generally prohibit watching of television, in this case, two or three kids wanted to comment on a Lakers game together and that seemed to be a very appropriate social interaction for them to engage in. So, it’s important obviously that we have our rules, but it’s also important to recognize when the rules need to be bent or changed to accommodate the situation.

The group also would practice the whole thing of getting their attention and being able to give an announcement. One of the things that I really liked seeing is that when I tried a couple of times and couldn’t get the attention from everyone and I stopped and said I would wait till later, that seemed to matter to them. I did so calmly and some of them got a little bit upset at their peers, that they weren’t calming down, but ultimately they improved over the course of the evening in being able to just have me say, “I want to make an announcement,” disconnect from what they were doing and pay attention.

Couple of announcements which you will get reminders about. 1) The next group on December 17^th will be a birthday party group. One of the group members has a birthday on that night and per our group rules, if a group member comes on the night of their birthday, we celebrate with a cake and candles. 2) The group will be going for laser tag in January. We’ll be announcing more about that.

The LUNCH Points also appears to be working successfully for a number of members. We had 6 group members come in tonight with LUNCH Points certificates, some as many as 9 of them. We announced to the group that over the next 2 weeks, they will be able to earn a blue ticket in addition to anything else they earn on the certificate itself each time they have a LUNCH Point certificate. We will be having 2 raffles next time: a blue ticket raffle and a Hero ticket raffle.

Five of the kids wound up using the Wii and I interviewed them (you will find an audio recording on this link here that you just click on; you use your log-in and password, which gets you to be listen to the recording). The group members were uniformly enthusiastic that it wasn’t just playing the Wii, but it was playing the Wii with other kids that was so rewarding to them. The kids who did not play the Wii had an opportunity to come into the group room and (as you’ll see on this link here), they were able to begin an avatar animation where they each got in front of the camera and had an opportunity to do takes and re-takes.

So, all in all, it was a very pleasant, enjoyable group. It’s one of those nights that it ended before it began. We have a parent upcoming that will be a dinner for both the kid and teen groups (December 16th -- you should have received a notice). Hope to see you there. Otherwise, we will have group again on December 17^th.