Hi Parents,
Tonight we had a total of thirteen in attendance and Sophie made an appearance today. The group was surprisingly well organized, which, on the one hand should be expected at this point of time, but, on the other hand, is just impressive just because school’s nearly over and it’s getting towards the end of the school year. I am always amazed when they’re able to keep it together as they did.
They came in and Sophie was there and greeted them. The majority of the kids were appropriate with her and many of them had an opportunity to practice giving her commands, watching her sit and lay down. Additionally, I had recently made a video with her as part of a presentation that I had did and it had some humorous moments in it and also Sophie appears to be nodding “yes” and “no” to different questions. They enjoyed it, but true to form they seemed to enjoy it most when she was misbehaving (within acceptable limits, of course).
Because we are getting close to the end of group and we’re doing our progress notes, we had the kids go through “what I liked and what I wish was different.” They were very well organized about this and appeared to appreciate that it was done on an iPad (they also watched the video on the television which was being output from the iPad…technology moves forward).
For dinner, we went off for Chinese food and they were well organized in doing so and tonight was also a LUNCH Points raffle. None of the kids exhibited serious behavior problems tonight. We sent a few out of a few seconds up to a minute here and there, primarily SB and JH and both of them recovered nicely within a minute or two. One of the strategies that appears to work is letting them know that they are about to miss out on the other kids getting some kind of reward. It usually doesn’t seem to matter what the reward is (in our case it is a blue ticket), but that’s something they don’t want to miss on. At the Chinese meal, the kids were a little bit more tame about their food choices than previous groups have been, but I decided not to force them too much or make a big deal so a little more noodles than usual and no Kung Pao chicken and yet they seemed to enjoy themselves and have a good time. KK had plain fish, which he appeared to enjoy along with white rice and the other kids also found other things that they enjoyed as well. The main thing was the ordering to some extent and also the conversation between them which is what we look for most.
At the end of dinner, we did our LUNCH Points raffle and three kids won either a Best Buy card for $10 or a itunes card for $15.
Thunder storms had been predicted and we worried about whether we would get rained on, however luck was on our side and no rain occurred on our walking outing. Parents were on time and the evening ended uneventfully.
We have a parent meeting coming up the first week of May and that will be in the office at 6pm and we will work in one more community outing, which will be the third week of May so be prepared to drive somewhere else for that meeting and the final meeting will be the first week of June.
This blog contains a non-confidential summary of Kid/T(w)een LUNCH Groups session activities. If you wish to sign up for a regular email subscription, visit www.lunchgroups.com, click on "Blogs" and enter your email under the appropriate blog you wish to follow.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
School Year Kids/Teens 09-10 Session - 11
Hi, Parents:
We are getting towards the tail end of things. After tonight’s group, there are a total of four sessions left. For group tonight, we had ten kids out of our total of sixteen, and they had a pretty good time. We originally had planned to BBQ or go to the park, but, because we had a fair number of kids missing, (maybe Spring Break; not exactly sure) we opted for a different activity. Some of the kids continued “The best thing that happened to me in the past year was…” video project that we were working on, while others opted to play at tables outside in a “Guess Who tournament.” This was something that we hadn’t done in a while. Watching them yesterday, I’m sorry that we haven’t done it more frequently. Watching your kids engaged in game strategy, treating each other respectfully, talking back and forth, switching from one child to another, as they had winners and losers, was really an enjoyable experience to observe. For the kids in the video project, the reason for doing this is because it helps produce a benign stressor for them that helps them work on their social skills, emotional flexibility, language and executive functioning. You will see the results of this in our end of group video.
After the games and the video project had ended, (by the way, the kids who finished the video project also had a chance to participate in the games) we went off to dinner. Dinner tonight was Baja Fresh, and we had the kids practice ordering by looking at the server, and, with somewhat less success than I’d like to see, using the word “please” spontaneously. What is nice about Baja Fresh is that the tables are right near one another, and the kids can cluster in groups of threes and fours and eat and interact. That is exactly what occurred.
Overall, a nice evening. We focused, with a couple of kids, particularly ND, on pedestrian safety, and I had a chance to briefly speak with his parents afterward. In general, this is something that all of your kids should be mindful of. Because of the tendency for many of them to have trouble with attention, that places them at increased risk for getting into a pedestrian auto accident. Check the statistics, and you will see that this isn’t something that is an overblown concern. Their pedestrian safety skills need to be even better than kids who don’t have attentional difficulties.
Looking forward to seeing you later in the month. We will have our next parent meeting, our final parent in-office meeting, in the office on May 5th.
We are getting towards the tail end of things. After tonight’s group, there are a total of four sessions left. For group tonight, we had ten kids out of our total of sixteen, and they had a pretty good time. We originally had planned to BBQ or go to the park, but, because we had a fair number of kids missing, (maybe Spring Break; not exactly sure) we opted for a different activity. Some of the kids continued “The best thing that happened to me in the past year was…” video project that we were working on, while others opted to play at tables outside in a “Guess Who tournament.” This was something that we hadn’t done in a while. Watching them yesterday, I’m sorry that we haven’t done it more frequently. Watching your kids engaged in game strategy, treating each other respectfully, talking back and forth, switching from one child to another, as they had winners and losers, was really an enjoyable experience to observe. For the kids in the video project, the reason for doing this is because it helps produce a benign stressor for them that helps them work on their social skills, emotional flexibility, language and executive functioning. You will see the results of this in our end of group video.
After the games and the video project had ended, (by the way, the kids who finished the video project also had a chance to participate in the games) we went off to dinner. Dinner tonight was Baja Fresh, and we had the kids practice ordering by looking at the server, and, with somewhat less success than I’d like to see, using the word “please” spontaneously. What is nice about Baja Fresh is that the tables are right near one another, and the kids can cluster in groups of threes and fours and eat and interact. That is exactly what occurred.
Overall, a nice evening. We focused, with a couple of kids, particularly ND, on pedestrian safety, and I had a chance to briefly speak with his parents afterward. In general, this is something that all of your kids should be mindful of. Because of the tendency for many of them to have trouble with attention, that places them at increased risk for getting into a pedestrian auto accident. Check the statistics, and you will see that this isn’t something that is an overblown concern. Their pedestrian safety skills need to be even better than kids who don’t have attentional difficulties.
Looking forward to seeing you later in the month. We will have our next parent meeting, our final parent in-office meeting, in the office on May 5th.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
School Year Kids/Teens 09-10 - Parent Dinner
Hi, Parents:
Tonight was the parent meeting for both groups, and it was reasonably well-attended. We had four parents from the kids’ group and five parents from the teenage group. During the evening, I showed videos of both the kids’ group and the teenage group as to what has been happening throughout the year, and also shared a project that I have been working on with the kids that involves “the best thing that happened to me in the past year was …” We talked about language and how we work in the group with kids on the effectiveness of their verbal communications, and being able to use language as a socialization mechanism.
Additionally, we talked about the role of executive functioning. Parents heard how many of their kids kind of got the instructions wrong, and sometimes had difficulty making their point clearly and succinctly. I reviewed how I work with the kids to have their conversations with a proper amount of detail, rather than excessive degrees that act like a prepositional phrase that goes on and on. Parents remained interested. Their were quite a few questions in general about overall diagnoses, and we talked about those in terms of the functional behaviors that they represent.
Parents asked about the summer group program, and we will be doing our end-of-group surveys in April, with a follow up to occur in June. Overall, as the parent meetings go, it went smoothly. Perhaps the only exception was that, in the buzz of conversation, we sort of forgot to order dinner, and the server didn’t take our orders until 6:45 p.m. The meeting broke up a little bit after 7:30, and parents could still be seen engaged in conversation fifteen minutes later in the parking lot.
We have group later this month, and then next month is our last parent meeting, in the office this May, 5th. There will be a final parent dinner in June. Much too quick!
Tonight was the parent meeting for both groups, and it was reasonably well-attended. We had four parents from the kids’ group and five parents from the teenage group. During the evening, I showed videos of both the kids’ group and the teenage group as to what has been happening throughout the year, and also shared a project that I have been working on with the kids that involves “the best thing that happened to me in the past year was …” We talked about language and how we work in the group with kids on the effectiveness of their verbal communications, and being able to use language as a socialization mechanism.
Additionally, we talked about the role of executive functioning. Parents heard how many of their kids kind of got the instructions wrong, and sometimes had difficulty making their point clearly and succinctly. I reviewed how I work with the kids to have their conversations with a proper amount of detail, rather than excessive degrees that act like a prepositional phrase that goes on and on. Parents remained interested. Their were quite a few questions in general about overall diagnoses, and we talked about those in terms of the functional behaviors that they represent.
Parents asked about the summer group program, and we will be doing our end-of-group surveys in April, with a follow up to occur in June. Overall, as the parent meetings go, it went smoothly. Perhaps the only exception was that, in the buzz of conversation, we sort of forgot to order dinner, and the server didn’t take our orders until 6:45 p.m. The meeting broke up a little bit after 7:30, and parents could still be seen engaged in conversation fifteen minutes later in the parking lot.
We have group later this month, and then next month is our last parent meeting, in the office this May, 5th. There will be a final parent dinner in June. Much too quick!
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