The Bean Club
We kicked off week 1 of our social skills club for children with social, communication and emotional difficulties by supporting the members to introduce themselves to the group. As we know that children with language difficulties can find it easier to express themselves through pictures, we encouraged members to draw a picture of what they were good at or what they wanted to improve. They enjoyed sitting around the table drawing and talking about themselves and each other.
A key aim is for the children to own this group, so we supported them to work together to rename the group. The majority of our members voted for the “The Bean Club” because they love Mr. Bean. One member of the group is slightly unsure of this name so he has suggested that he “needs time to think and will come up with a different name next week”. The suspense is killing us!
The members were encouraged to come up with 5 rules for the group. We are pleased to say the rules were never ending… now for the job of getting them to comply to all these rules!
Snack Time
During snack break they were given opportunity to share and dip into each other’s snacks; this ridiculous idea was rejected by most members! Well at least we were on the right track to choose sharing as a target! Perhaps we need to get to know each other better before we are ready to share rice cakes! It was great to eavesdrop on their spontaneous chats between the group during snack.
Homework
Homework for this week is for the parents to focus on the strengths of our members, identify and talk about these strengths when they see it and most of all, encourage the members to praise themselves. We want to develop self-confidence.
Skills tickets (http://www.skillstreaming.com) were given to parents to be give to the members when they self-praised during the week. Members are motivated to earn their skill ticket so that they can exchange it next week for ‘surprise,’ We are committed to reinforcing and generalising these skills.
Finally some of the key phrases our members expressed
“I am good at Ancient Greece.”
“I am good at swimming.”
“I am not good at staying focused.”
“I am good at everything.”
“I speak Italian.”
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