Giving kids the social skills they need to succeed
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to NPR on the way home from work and heard a piece that has been lodged firmly in my brain since then. In the segment, Melissa Block interviewed Jennifer Senior, a contributing editor for New York magazine, about her new book about parenting entitled All Joy and No Fun. According to Ms. Senior, the book set […]
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Academy MetroWest uses cooperative, non-competitive physical activity as a vehicle to help kids see themselves in a more positive light and to interact better with their peers. While there’s more to any improvements in social skills and self-image than playing a bunch of games with other kids, using games that bring the focus away from kids vs. kids competition is our […]
» Read moreA few weeks ago, I was sitting in my office with a group of 3rd grade boys. We were finishing up our session with a snack and a quiet activity – to the extent that doing anything with a group of hyperactive 3rd grade boys can be quiet. As I asked the boys what they wanted for snack, one of them […]
» Read moreBashing the US Public Education system has become so popular that it seems to be giving baseball a run for national pastime. You’ll get no argument from me if you say the system has its faults. But taken as a whole, there’s a good deal more that’s right with our public schools than there is that’s wrong with them. In […]
» Read moreOnce I start reading a book, it has to be utterly abysmal before I decide to give up on it. The book I’m reading now is putting my resolve to the test. The book is called The Optimistic Child. It’s written by an eminent psychologist named Martin Seligman. Those of you who took Intro. to Psychology in college may be familiar […]
» Read more“ADHD?…they used to think I had that. Now they know I have Mad Cow Disease!” -11 y.o. Academy MetroWest participant When new kids enroll in our program, the first step in the process is undergoing an initial interview. We run through some activities in our gym with them to help us get a […]
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The Wall Street Journal just ran an article about a study on disciplinary strategies out of the Universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan. The authors found that parents can inflict similar harm on their kids by yelling at them as they can through hitting or other forms of physical punishment. “Harsh, verbal discipline” used on 13 year old children was found […]
» Read moreNPR just ran a story about a study published by researchers from Duke University and University of Warwick in England. It looked at what happens over a long period to people who were bullied as kids. According to the authors of the study, the results suggested that “Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage but throws a long […]
» Read moreIn the work that we do at Academy MetroWest, we run gym-based groups that center on cooperative, non-competitive physical activity, aimed at helping kids feel better about themselves and improve the way they interact with others. Groups of up to 6 kids participate in weekly 75 minute groups. In basing our groups around cooperative activities, we create a low stress […]
» Read moreThe authors of a recent study published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry have created a buzz in the human service community. Deborah Fein, a researcher at University of Connecticut, and her colleagues studied a group of children and adolescents who had been diagnosed with Autism by the time they were 5 years old. The authors found that in […]
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