Rex Groups are wrapping up this week, and so is our Behind the Scenes post series. But never fear, we’ll be announcing dates for our next round of Groups very soon.

Our School-Age and Pre-teen/Teen Groups had strong enrollment this session, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more new participants next time!

In week 5 of the School-Age Group, we practiced expressing our thoughts and feelings and our likes and dislikes with words instead of behaviors. The feeling of the week was “frustrated”. In week 6, we’ll work on understanding rules. We’ll discuss the importance of following rules and we’ll break rules into various categories, such as safety rules and health rules. Our feeling of the week will be “sad”.

In week 5 of the School-Age Parent Group, we discussed how behavior is a form of communication and why that’s important. We highlighted how the tools used in a functional assessment can provide information on exactly what a child’s behavior is communicating.

When the parent can’t figure it out or the child can’t express it, a functional assessment can help solve the mystery. That said, assessments are not just about diminishing undesirable behavior; rather, they’re about teaching children adaptive skills to get their needs met.

In week 6, we’ll be talking about sleep architecture, the stages of sleep, and the importance of sleep. There’s a strong connection between autism and sleep disorders, and as this article on sleep paralysis reminds us, problematic sleep patterns affect many aspects of life.

In week 5 of the Pre-Teen/Teen Group, we focused on responding to verbal teasing. We talked about different forms of bullying and addressed specific coping strategies. Our feeling exercises centered around the feeling of the week, “frustrated”. We’ll have our final Group this week!

In week 5 of the Pre-Teen/Teen Parent Group, we continued to train parents to be social coaches. We shared strategies to help kids respond to teasing, and we talked about the different types of bullying, which include verbal bullying, physical bullying, cyberbullying, and ostracizing.

What About Other Groups?

We’ll be announcing a new Yoga Group and School-Age Group with a concurrent Spanish-language Parent Group very soon, so be sure to subscribe via email for the latest updates.

~ The Project Rex team