Giving kids the social skills they need to succeed
Every March, the staff and kids here at Academy MetroWest take part in one of our favorite annual rituals – March Madness. No, we do not have our kids fill out brackets and bet on the NCAA basketball tournament. Although I’m sure we’d have some interesting picks if we did that, in our program, March Madness takes on a different […]
» Read moreFor 21 years, Academy MetroWest has run therapeutic groups for children and adolescents that center on the use of cooperative, collaborative physical activity. Aside from the therapeutic benefits obtained through working this way, it’s an enjoyable way to structure physical activities for kids. Over the last few years, I’ve been happy to find more and more video games and board […]
» Read moreEarly this month, Academy MetroWest hosted a free workshop for parents. Dr. Joe Moldover, a top-notch neuropsychologist in our area, talked about Non-Verbal Learning Disability, Asperger’s Syndrome, and High Functioning Autism. At one point during his presentation, Dr. Moldover described the way kids with these profiles learn social skills by comparing the process to teaching baseball to little leaguers. With some players, if you […]
» Read more
In my office, I have two green chairs that are more comfortable than my other office chairs. As chairs go, they’re entirely unexceptional. They’re comfortable enough but not extraordinarily so. But if you were to watch the way some of our kids argue over them, you’d assume they were truly heaven on earth for the butt cheeks of our nation’s youth! Groups at […]
» Read moreDuring the summer, Academy MetroWest runs a small day camp. Some weeks at camp adhere to a specific theme and this week is one of them. It’s our second annual LARP week and it’s the brainchild of a long time member of our staff, Adam Hurley. For the uninitiated, LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. According to Wikipedia, a LARP is: […]
» Read more
“The real scholars were left in almost total freedom to ply their studies and their Games, and no one objected that a good many of their works seemed to bring no immediate benefits to the people or the community and, inevitably, seemed to nonscholars merely luxurious frivolities.” – Herman Hesse, Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game Two summers ago, my […]
» Read more
Before I went to graduate school and embarked on a professional career, I flirted with the world of hippie-dom for a few years. I was captivated by Jack Kerouac’s writing that extolled the life of on-the-road spontaneity and the freedom to “dig” all that was around us. I spent my share of time at Grateful Dead shows, captivated as I was […]
» Read moreA few years ago, a couple of teenage boys I was working with asked me a question that must be on the mind of many an adolescent: “Bruce…is bastard a swear word?” I answered that it depends on the context in which it’s used, whereupon one of my young charges replied “Screw context! What the hell has it ever done […]
» Read more
As a species, we humans are decidedly a mixed bag. Interactions with other people elicit emotions ranging from rage to indifference to joy. For most of us, the frustration inherent in everyday communication can be looked upon as a minor irritant – the cost of doing business. For other people, those annoyances are deal breakers. They see other humans as means to an end at best and […]
» Read more
“Well, I’m not giving my baby any more dangerous drugs. From now on, it’s nothing but fresh air, lots of hugs, and good old-fashioned Ritalin.” – Marge Simpson To medicate or not to medicate, that is the question. It is, at any rate, for scores of parents of kids and adolescents with ADHD. Paraphrasing the […]
» Read more