Anxiety Intervention: That is What Summers are For!

It often amazes me how many kids I encounter with anxiety issues. On some level, anxiety is a natural part of life and helps us understand our own arousal levels, and ability for toleration. In other ways, anxiety can be all-consuming, and scary, meaning that it has essentially crossed the threshold from normal nerves to classical anxiety. I think that anxiety is a fairly normal, cue gasp, aspect of life that can be overcome and managed.

We use systematic teaching strategies.

I always hear the same story from parents, the academic year is full of anxiety; there is school, after-school programs, dance lessons, piano, Speech, ABA, OT and so on and so on until your child is just a ball of nerves ready to burst... Is it all a bit too much? Maybe. But what other option do we have, than to constantly push our kids to their maximum potential? We want gold for your kids, and so do you...that is why we give everything we have to making sure your kids meet milestones, develop self-awareness and become successful self-advocates. We want it all don't we? A happy, healthy and well adjusted kid that also does well in all arenas, from social to communication. We want the full package, we want every child to reach his or her potential, or better yet, surpass it.


So what it means, is that we as professionals, and you as parents, need to come together to understand your child's anxiety. Come together to understand how to combat and manage the anxiety, as well as using a behavioral approach to analyze the antecedents and consequences that come before and after the episode of anxiety, so that you can plan and manipulate variables as needed. By helping your child cope with anxiety, you shape the behavior needed to be able to deescalate one's own feelings of angst...what better gift is there?


Spending the time to address anxiety concerns, is crucially important for social, academic and inter-personal growth. Having the time to target anxiety in a hands-on way, is easy when you think about it....


Summer vacation is a time to recharge for students; it's a time to develop social and interpersonal skills, a time to develop hobbies and skills. Summer vacations can also be an incredible time to target the obstacles that prevent skill acquisition during the academic year, in a way that is intensive and hands-on.


Anxiety, for example, can be a difficult barrier to overcome without explicit intervention, and can hinder academic development among other skills. Overcoming anxiety will allow your child to be his or her authentic self; to experience self-love, and self-understanding, and most important self-confidence.


A successful intervention for social anxiety, would include a combination of 1:1 and group learning; it would involve a comprehensive program in which desensitization is targeted and reinforcement is used to pair social situations with reinforcement. Through a variety of presentations, students participate in both individual and group therapy, ensuring that all needs met throughout the day. Participating in a variety of activities, chosen for each unique learner's profile, kids can expect to overcome barriers, and become confidence and social learners. Most importantly, participants will return to school with strategies, and management techniques and abilities, which increase overall ability to perform independently.





P.S. Magnificent Minds offers a program like this. www.MagnificentMinds.ca for more details about our Summer Camp Program 2012


P.P.S. If you like the font used in the pic above, Google free fonts and get loads of amazing fonts for teaching purposes and making visuals :)

Social Skill and Making Memories

A bubble machine does wonders for getting a group of kids to focus on the same stimuli, for an extended period of time, in a small physical area. It hits ALL the bases.

Kids that would otherwise find a quiet space away from others to work or play are suddenly heading straight for the fuzzy red carper and participating in sustained joint-attention with their peers. One child says "pretend they are mosquitoes" an instructor follows along and says "catch a mosquito" and shows the other students how...she then instructs each child by name to catch a mosquito "Billy, catch a mosquito like this!" "Alley, catch a mosquito like this!"

In a new group, some kids just won't respond unless addressed  by name. Whatever it takes, right?! And eventually I will shape it and fade it, but for now...it's baby steps. Especially since it's only day 2.
All of the kids were engaged, and performing the same repetitive pretend skill, together. Some were even exclaiming "GOTCHA" to the bubbles/mosquitoes. Ah, success.

I started singing a song about mosquitoes and immediately a child covered his ears in horror. Eek, I should have known. I didn't realize my vocal skills were that bad, but hey I heard him loud and clear. I put on some phonics related songs instead.

Eventually, the bubbles ran out and everyone was feeling happy and satisfied. next we moved into the gym to use our sensory motor toys; I have to say, toys that are designed for two people (see-saw specifically) is ideal for eliciting social skills in a natural way. You literally have to ask someone to play in order for it to be fun. I love that! After some fun in the gym, we washed our hands and headed to class for a much needed drink, and snack.

Snack was yummy as always. We worked on answering what questions; what are you eating? What is Alley eating? What is Billy eating? What did you have for breakfast? We worked on labeling various items and saying them in a sentence "I have a ________" "I am going to have _________" and of course "Can you open this please?!" After snack it was time for musical-circle.

Props made my beach themed musical-circle a of fun. Giving each child a prop or costume item helped remind us that we were learning about the beach! It also helped us practice waiting, and using those important words (let's be honest, some of our kids are working on the ps and qs, but others are working hard to master simple manding and tacting first). Whatever the important words are, our kids were using them.

Adding maracas to the mix gave it the island feel it was missing. We shook our instruments to the beat and practiced following instructions in a group. This was easier for some of our friends than for others. By the time wheels on the bus came around I was feeling like pushing the envelope a bit. They were echoing back to be beautifully for each song, and I really want to see if they could mimic not only the words but the pace. I started going really fast, and sure enough the group did the same; ok not every single person, but it was definitely a success.

A lot of the time I find that the failure to acquire skills is the result of a tendency to avoid and escape demands; compliance, though the word itself seems almost animalistic (not a word according the blogger), is a really important part of learning. Especially when the goal is speech acquisition; without basic willingness to comply, there is a limit to your child's overall success. Once you have a child that is willing to engage and interact freely with you, without any (or at least not any indulged) escape and avoid behaviours, they become much more willing participants in the exchange. Not to mention it becomes much more comfortable and less stressful.

I agree though, it can be hard to get a child to relinquish control, especially when they have language delays and use behaviours as the primary means of communication.

As always pictures from freedigitalsphotos.net

Social Skill Building the MM Way

Social skills classes are great in theory, but in practice I have seen some that are... less than stellar. 


According to my research, which comes from a number of peer reviewed sources including but not limited to several text books from my post graduate degree, articles written in academic journals, and too many years of teacher preachers to cite; the main reason social skills groups fail is because of a failure to plan for social skill generalization.


It almost seems obvious doesn't it? Autism is itself associated with an often times great aptitude for skill acquisition, but with a deficit in the ability to transfer that skill to novel environments. Kids with ASD are often incredibly bright, but struggle to conceptualize the use of skills in environments in which they have not been explicitly taught. Many people never even think about how naturally skill generalization happens for typically developing children; it is something I certainly took for granted. 


Knowing what I know...How do I actively plan for generalization in MM social skills program?! 


Where do I begin?! By scheduling the group to float between classrooms (sensory, sensory motor, class, office) outdoor locations (playground, park), and by constantly changing the teaching materials (stimulus) and the structure of our physical  teaching environment. We are constantly exposing our students to novel environments as an active pursuit of generalization.


Having our students work with several instructors and educational assistants allows us to ensure that skills generalize across people; as a class, we interact with each other and become comfortable in a controlled social dynamic! The more positive interactions with people we have on a daily basis, and therein practice the elementary social skills (relative eye contact, pitch, greetings, answering basic questions, etc.), the more we are able to call upon these skills at another time; eventually, they join our repertoire. The more we practice, the more fluent we become.


Most of our kids thrive in a 1:1 setting, but working in a group we automatically tackle the other major concern when it comes to generalization; that is, will the skill taught in 1:1 generalize into group environment? Usually, it does take time but when instructors are skilled at eliciting these skill sets, students are able to stay on-task and motivated. The ALLSR includes this skill as a target, which at least to me, says it's worth considering.


When planning for maximum engagement there are themes....and there are themes.


Themes are a great way to keep social skills classes focused and age-appropriate. When working with themes it is important to do your research, not every idea on the internet works out and it is best to test it out before hand. I also like to have a few "in case of flop" ideas hanging around to; sometimes, you just can't plan for a lack of interest or a failure to launch. Some ideas just don't work, and it's best to let it go and move on. 


When planning themes, and all the while planning for generalization, I try to make themes functional, but also subjects of interest; anytime I can toss some life-skills into the mix, I do that too. I recommend you take your themes to the "next level"; include vocabulary, theme based games and of course arts and crafts should reflect a clear theme (from fish to french fries, topics and themes come in all shapes and sizes).


I always try to simulate real life scenarios; in a french fry unit I might host a mock restaurant, or in a shapes unit we might try cooking with only things that are round. This year I plan to simulate a buffet; a particular area of concern for some of my little ones.  Keeping it hands on, theme based, and outside the box helps our kids stay engages with the activity and with each other.


As always, thank you to freedigitalphotos.net