Re: off to social skills & pirate class

February 7, 2010

I know what you mean about a kid not wanting to leave the

house. It may be the zoloft that helped my daughter.

I can get her to go out on the weekend know to places she likes to

go.

I hope he likes the class. If his anxiety gets in the way

look into treatment for it. A very low dose of a ssri like

zoloft really can help. But go very slow, low dose and

make sure it has not side effects like tics or affects

sleep etc. My daughter had no side effects at all. But it works

differently on people.

good luck,

Pam

>

> excited to take my ds to his first " special needs " classes... He said he's

nervous, but I think it'll be good. It's impossible to get this kid to leave

the house on the weekend and we're doing a trial of the Pirate class so I'm

hoping it impresses.

>

> description of classes :

>

> Social Skills:

> This class

> teaches social and nonverbal communication skills using creative

> movement, interactive games and group role-plays. The curriculum will be

> tailored to the specific needs of the students, and begins with basic

> social skills such as listening, joining in and playing games. In

> conjunction with these skills, the class will practice nonverbal

> communication skills such as eye contact, personal space, and tone of

> voice.

>

> Striking

> Viking Story Pirates

> Create

> stories! Make puppets! This class invotes children with special needs,

> along with their interested siblings, to express their creativity by

> taking part in various aspects of story making and puppetry.

>

February 8, 2010

The social skills class went okay but the Pirates class was a disaster. I was

pushed into trying it by the registration people because the class he wanted

wasn't running because they didn't have enough kids .. and this one has only 2

kids in it .. my son would have been the third....

It's based on imagination and this comes very difficult to my son ... One of the

other children in it has been in it before and loves it and was already

" scripting " ideas before they went in ...

My son lasted about 40 minutes of the 60 minute class but emerged hysterical

crying .. why? because those kids watch noggin and noggin is for babies.

Of course, that's not really why but that's the reason he gave me .. The teacher

eventually came out and confirmed that if he doesn't like imagination games this

wasn't the right place for him.

The class is taught by drama students - not special ed teachers so clearly they

aren't interested in drawing this out of him or working with him in anyway ..

either you're interested or you're not so I guess that's it for this class.

We'll go back for social skills -- but it's a long commute for just the one

class.

>