In our social skills groups, we started the year with some vocabulary: expected, unexpected, rigid, flexible, and learning a little about thought bubbles vs. speech bubbles. I sent out a school-wide email to remind staff of the topics we have covered so that they are able to practice carrying those phrases over with our students. If the vocab and concepts are important enough to share with the whole school and you as families, please know how important it is for you to be using the phrases and vocab in your home. You are the key to carry over and generalization. Please try to use the above phrases as much as you can to label behaviors (wanted and unwanted). It is so important to work together. If you are unsure how you can use these phrases naturally please call me so we can meet or talk about this. We will show more gains being consistent that inconsistent.
After covering those concepts, we have been reading the "Social Detective" book by Michelle Garcia Winner. She is the author of this book which she adapted from her social curriculum "Think Social" for older kids/adults. This is the curriculum Mrs. Reece and I base our lessons off of. I felt it necessary to go back to the book and relaunch a unit in being a social detective so that not only the language is reviewed and retaught, but that we can continue to build expected behaviors and learn about how our behavior impacts others and the way we are treated or viewed from others. The more we can see pictures and talk about the concepts the more the kids can internalize the concepts. The book is a great resource as is her blog/newsletter that is free to sign up for. Here is a link to the website: https://www.socialthinking.com/
We have been talking about how our body needs to look, sound and act like in school and what that makes other people think about us. Looking at the pictures in the book has also helped us focus on inferencing as we have been analyzing what the characters are thinking and feeling.
Mrs. Szalay continues to pull the kids for support in both game playing and reinforcing the concepts taught in group.
For MLK week we read, "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr and talked about how Martin Luther King's work has helped us work and play together with people are are different from ourselves and how he did it using his words and not by fighting physically.
Please also check out the resources tab as I am posting a great website that offers "chewelry" for purchase. I just ordered some on the recommendation of our awesome OT, Tracie Schanen, who has used this website in the past. I found some necklaces and pencil toppers to chew on.
Have a great weekend!