Fred Poutre wrote:
Fred, If you're teaching a group that needs to work on Life Skills, Set
is
going to be very frustrating for them.
<snip>
failure for my kids with an autistic spectrum disorder. The rules
change too quickly, >and that is the biggest problem that kids with an
autism spectrum disorder have; they >need things to be structured and the
same.
Oh, no, the kids I am going to work with (from my understanding) are not
in need of life skills because they have developmental disorders. They
need such because they are lower income families, whose parents or single
parent are too busy working to get the opportunity to tech their kids
household skills.
Ahh. I have worked with a lot of kids like this (I worked in the inner
city, and even once I left, I still work in low-income areas). The same
applies, but not for the same reason. A lot of times, these students
are scared of failing, and so a game that requires really quick thinking
like Set makes them feel like they are, for lack of a better phrase,
'set up'. I didn't start the kids off with Set, and when I did, I
introduced it individually using the on-line version (which is free on
the Set website!). That way, the kids were with me and none of their
peers saw them "fail". It made a HUGE difference in their buy-in for
the game.
The program is aimed for kids that typically fall into social
circumstances that put them "at risk" for school failures that usually
lead to life failures. Lower income kids that are falling behind in
subjects, who can hopefully be encouraged by both the one-on-one teaching
focus, and the fun field trips where we show them how to apply different
subjects to real life circumstances. They hope to do carrier shadowing as
well.
That is awesome... I hope it works. I've seen some really good programs
like this for students like I teach; I wish there were more of them, of
good quality with tutors who care! These are the kids who, if addressed
early enough, can stay OUT of special education classes... typically
the emotionally or behaviorally disordered classes. They wind up there
because people can't explain their behavior, or why they act the way
they do and why they have trouble learning in a regular classroom.
The social skills is a good point, which honestly was last on the list in
my head (fun, thinking, math, social).
Well, one reason I emphasize social skills is because research shows
that the reason most people are fired or asked to leave jobs isn't
because they can't be trained to do the work, but because they can't
work in a team or can't get along with people at the job site. If we
can teach the kids how to do this... and games require that you work
together, take turns, praise as appropriate, follow rules, handle
materials, listen, etc, then they will have a better chance at getting a
job and keeping one. I could use videos or books or worksheets to teach
the skill, and certainly my administrators and others would understand
that better, but I don't find that the social skills books do a good job
of teaching these skills. It teaches the skill as a 'stand alone'
skill. Its not integrated into anything the students do daily, so its
hard to practice. By teaching them popular board & card games like Uno,
Monopoly and Fluxx, I'm teaching them the social and behavioral skills
in a way that they practice A LOT! And often, without me ever being there!
Magi