Giving kids the social skills they need to succeed
Ben KesselFor the past couple of years, I’ve been facilitating a monthly father’s support group for the Asperger Autism Network or AANE. The group is one of the high points of every month for me. Not only does the group put the lie to a fairly common view of dads as clueless troglodytes, at least as it pertains to their […]
» Read moreNow that we’re well into our 9th month of the pandemic, I’ve been noticing a growing phenomenon among many of the kids I know. I’ve seen an emerging reluctance among children to reach out to their friends and an even greater reluctance to reach out to make new connections. Particularly as the weather gets colder and COVID numbers keep going […]
» Read moreFew things frustrate me more than wasted potential. Seeing smart, capable, hardworking people who, through no fault of their own, are denied opportunities to live their lives to the fullest, motivate me to come to work as a counselor each day. When I met Sam Farmer about 2 months ago, it occurred to me that he could easily have become […]
» Read moreA couple of weeks ago, I received a newsletter from The Asperger Autism Network (AANE). AANE’s newsletter is excellent and I make a point of reading it as often as I can. In this installment, one article in particular caught my eye. AANE is embarking on a fundraising drive to update and expand their training center and they’re going to […]
» Read moreIn a 75 minute group here at Academy MetroWest, we spend about 60 – 65 minutes in our gym playing cooperative games with our kids. Cooperative physical activity is the primary focus of our program but during most sessions, we spend the last 10 minutes or so in our offices having snack and doing some quieter activities with our group […]
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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: […]
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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 moreOn April 2, The U.S. Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) issued a statement regarding changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders stemming from the publication last May of the DSM5. I found one section of the statement particularly curious. Here’s what it says: “…the Committee cautioned clinicians to pay special attention to individuals with obvious ASD symptoms who narrowly […]
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