A New Journey... Again!
Sometimes as the mom of the two boys with learning needs I feel like we're constantly running from one appointment, one group and one doctor to the other. I am lucky, my kids are healthy, but sometimes I feel like a hamster in a wheel.
This week we started yet another group for our eldest, who still struggles with social skills, making friends and his self-regulation. Months ago we filled out paperwork to connect with yet another agency to help support our family. Well our time on the wait list is over! I went to the parent session on Tuesday night to learn about what the goals and purpose of this group will be.
What is the Child Development Institute? It is an agency here in Toronto, geared toward child and youth mental health and supporting families with students with learning differences. They work with families who need support with behaviours, ADHD, Autism and LD's. They have a number of programs for children 0-12 and youth 13-18 and clinicians to support families and students.
In our case we'll be starting their Social ACES (Awareness, Competence, Engagement, Skills) Group Program which will consist of 10 one hour sessions in a group of 5 to 6 other children a clinician and a volunteer. The kids in the group are matched based on their needs, goals and abilities. During the course of the sessions the kids will be forced to work on their challenges in hopes of taking that learning into their real lives. They'll do this through play and interactive activities. For example, at the session there was a balloon, we were given the task of seeing how many times we could all hit the balloon before it hit the floor. A fun game but one that can sometimes create difficulties for kids.
This is an evidence-based program with two studies recently published on the outcomes of children's ability to adapt and create new learning. The person presenting to us, as the parents, in the information session made it clear that they will be making the situations challenging for the kids. They will look to find their areas of weakness and then work with the families and the children to build in the skills to have more success in those areas. It seems like a program that will build a really specific goal for our son and then help him and us support him in learning how to progress. It was also made clear that all will not be solved in one group. Many of their patients improve after one session but see even greater growth after two sessions.
He's excited about this new group. He's excited about learning new skills and creating gains in his abilities. He's been saying recently that no one at school plays with him. I am not sure that's 100% true, but I can for sure see how some of the children in his school might not want to play with him. He's unpredictable sometimes with friends, he's not a good looser, he does not like when people change the rules and he's the first one to call someone out. All of these are social skills that can make some people not open to starting friendships. I am really hoping over the next few weeks that he will be able to learn, grow and create positive change to be able to create friendships more easily.
Over the next 10 weeks I'll try my best to blog and post the progress. If you want more information on agency click on the picture and it will link you to their web page. Stay tuned for more updates!