Teach Social Skills at Home and School - Free Delivery - Tesco Entertainment

Teaching social skills in has just got a lot easier for customers in the U.K. - thanks to Tesco Entertainment for promoting both our games with free delivery. PC - Teach Social Skills 2 - How Are You? - Free Delivery - Tesco Entertainment

You can check them out with this link, and also view them from our website: http://www.hometrain.ie/

Preparing Special Needs Children for Hospital

Preparing any young child for a hospital visit can be a daunting task. If your child has special needs - or is particularly worried, here are some ideas you might like to try:
Your approach and the language you use are vital to reassuring your child's fears.
If you have never experienced the proceedure your child will have, find out exactly what is going to happen. If you are not clear yourself, ask your doctor.
Before your visit:

• You can make a book about hospital and print colouring pages.
• Let your child help pack their bag and include a new toy or activity as a treat to look forward to after their proceedure.
• Talk about fasting
• Use a planner or calendar to show how many days until you go, and when you will be home.
• Play Teddy hospital at home - this will give you a good idea of your child's undertanding and worries.

Keep your explantions simple:

• Doctors and nurses are there to help people get better
• Toys and games are allowed in hospitals
• They can bring their own pillow and blanket
• You will be with them most of the time

Children who do not ask questions still need a full explanation. Tell them what is happening and that they will be coming home after.

If they are worried about wearing a gown, try one on their teddy or doll. Find out if they can keep their underwear on if they are self concious.

There should be a playroom on your ward. Encourage your child to get up and play where possible.

Hospital play specialists (child life specialist) are trained to prepare children for different proceedures. Ask for the play specialist on your ward.

The organisation 'Children in Hospital Ireland' can help with information. They also provide and train volunteers in playrooms and information desks.

You can contact them here: http://www.childreninhospital.ie/

Remember that as a parent, you are a member of your child's healthcare team!

If you need any more advice or information, please feel free to contact me:

claire@hometrain.ie

Claire.

Planning a Social Skills Group

When you are planning to start a social skills group, careful planning will help you to establish a professional and organised group from the start:

1. Consider your group. What is your age range? This is a big question, as age does not always reflect ability. I would suggest keeping your age range short i.e. 4-7 years. This is because each child in the group has their own needs, and they will undoubtedly be at different stages of social development. So if you want to teach social skills effectively, I would suggest you begin with a small a peer group of the age range you choose.


2. How many children? This depends on your facility and staff. A small group of 4 - 5 children with two staff, or a larger group of up to 10 children with three staff would be a maximum in a 4-7 year old age group. If your group is for 7+ or teens, then you may be able to increase the group size. My suggestion is that 10 children is a maximum. Remember to keep a waiting list if your group is ongoing.


3. Do you include parents? Another big question! This depends on your group, the age and ability of the children attending. I would suggest try to make it a drop-off group as I find children respond better overall. If you do include parents, make sure you define guidelines about how you wish the group to be run - especially regarding meltdowns and refusal to participate.
4. Staff. If you have properly qualified staff ready to run the group, then great! If not, be careful when advertising, and be sure to interview candidates before accepting. Even if the group meets for a short time, your reputation and the children's health and safety is your responsibility. As the group leader, trust your instincts with people!
5. Insurance. Check that you have correct insurance - that includes the facility address and staff details. Be sure to let the parents know that the insurance certificate is available to view at their request. Give a copy to the facility owner if you are renting the room.
6. Health and safety. You must have at least one member of staff with first aid training. A checked first aid kit, and emergency phone numbers to hand. Be familiar with fire exit and have a fire drill protocol.
7. Equipment. Check all your equipment is clean, appropriate and safe for your group.
8. Planning. How are you going to run the group? Every week? for how long? Will you break for school holidays? Will you have a Summer group? My group runs for six week terms and runs alongside the school calendar. This way, I can write a six week programme that changes each term depending on the needs of the group.
9. Developing the programme. Keep a written plan for each week. I write a plan every six weeks. This keeps me focussed on the group, and allows for change as needed. For advice on what to include in your plan, you can contact me for ideas.
10. Communicate with parents. At the start of your group, have a booking form, ensure you have all relevant contact details and information you need. I have a sign in and out form on a clip board at the door, and mobile numbers of all parents in case of emergency. Make sure all parents feel they can contact you outside of the group if necessary (it can be a little hectic to talk at going home time!). Also, send a copy of the activity plan to parents so they know what themes you are covering. I send home letter every week, outlining this week's words, songs and 'what we did'. The letter home is also a good opportunity to outline any extra requests or reminders!
11. Reports. Keeping parents involved with the group and their child's progress is vital. I write a short update after week three, and a report every six weeks. The six week report outlines individual goals and ideas for the following term.
12. The group leader. Keep a simple routine to the group each week - you can contact me for ideas: claire@hometrain.ie This way, you can change the theme within a familiar routine. Have a back-up plan of activities ready - as not every week will go according to plan! Remember that there are huge differences between 1-1, classroom and group work! Be ready for a challenge!!

Happy planning!

Claire.

Special needs and the Christmas School Play

It's that time of year when the classroom routine turns it's focus to the all-important Christmas play. Be it the Nativity or another, teachers everywhere are hoping that it goes well - without tears, injury or disaster!
For parents who have children with special needs, it is a time to see how their child is getting on independently and (as all us parents notice...) in comparisson to their peers.

It's not an easy time for all. There are many kids who do not enjoy school play preparation. This could be because:

• It's out of the routine
• It's too noisy and confusing
• It's not fun or interesting for them
• They don't want to do it and feel they have no option

Some kids are without the ability to interpret or voice their feelings, and will undoubtedly display problem behaviour - such as interrupting the rehearsals in whatever way they can, or showing their ususal behaviours that signal a need to escape or gain attention.

The stress that some children feel is difficult for us to comprehend. We want so much for them to take part and share the pride of their achievements - but for some kids, we must ask ourselves as parents and teachers - 'Is it really that important?'

If your child or student is having difficulty, consider offering a choice:

1. You don't have to take part in the play.
2. You can say your poem, song or line just by yourself and leave the stage.
3. You take part if you want to, but you must not disrupt the other children.

Personally, I think choice 2 is the best of both worlds - especially for a child who has ASD. They get to take part and have a chance to read their peom or line, but in their own space, and without too many distractions.

I know I'm the first to encourage kids with special needs to integrate and take part and learn new social skills, but some things just will not matter in ten years time if they did/did not take part. Life could be a lot simpler if some kids, given a choice, did not have to.

So - if they do want to, and when you go to watch the school Christmas play, please bear these
questions in mind:

How many kids (non-diagnosed kids) are crying and don't want to take part ?
How many others arn't singing all the songs or doing all the actions?
How many others don't want to wear the hat, crown or costume?
Is it you or your child who is actually bothered they weren't picked to be Joseph?

Enjoy! and Happy Christmas to you all,

Claire.

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION !

To celebrrrate the updated release of our Social Skills software - 'Hello' and 'How Are You?' - we are giving them away in our facebook competition.

You can enter from anywhere in the world - closing date is 18th December 2010.

To enter, go to our Facebook page, like us, and answer the simple competition question!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hometrain/200851608031?ref=ts

Our games now have extra features, new cover designs and are compatable with both PC and MAC. They work great on interactive whiteboards too.

You can view them on our new-look site: www.hometrain.ie

You can also get into the festive spirit by lifting the boredom of our terrible weather and cabin fever here by checking out the Christmas printables in our Free resources:

http://www.hometrain.ie/christmas.php

Claire.

Hear the Hometrain Radio Interview

If you want to hear today's interview all about HT and our games, go here:

http://www.hometrain.ie/aboutus.php

Claire.

Social Skills Resources for Inclusive Mainstream Schools

Teachers - This could be the best thing you learn about today!

Finding quality and appropriate classroom resources for special needs students that assist with integration is a challenge for many schools.
Do you find you have

“Rarely enough time in a typical school week for the planning and collaboration
needed to make inclusion work well” ?

(Deborah McKnight – Director of Special Education, San Fransisco)

The solution is here at Hometrain!
We have developed a clever range of teaching games, designed to accompany the curriculum, help with problem behaviour and develop the skills of your teachers without spending valuable time away from the classroom.

Introducing ‘Hello’ and ‘How Are You?’
Our interactive computer games are designed for 1-1 teaching and for the whole class to play, talk about and learn.
There are 8 friendly boy and girl characters with fun games that explore different social scenarios. Each game has a video narrator who takes the children through different social scenarios,

Topics include:
Social skills – greetings, asking and answering questions, making friends, exploring emotions, expressing pain, what to do in social scenarios.
Games explore: behaviour in different social scenarios, learning about our bodies, identifying emotions and comprehension of the game or character.

Full printable teaching resources and parent information is included with each programme. Sending these home is a most effective way of demonstrating to parents your level of commitment to providing an inclusive service to their child.

Promoting good practice in your inclusive school:
When children learn how to initiate social communication within natural contexts – such as: home, community and school, they respond appropriately to the communications of others. From here, they can begin to develop positive relationships with others. Therefore, teaching communication and social skills should be a very high priority in an inclusive school.

With Hometrain products, establishing positive inclusion, behaviour and teaching social skills in the classroom is about to get a whole lot easier!

For more info go to: http://www.hometrain.ie/

Did you see our free printables?? - Christmas colouring pages are there too:

http://www.hometrain.ie/resources/