CHILDREN’S GROUP

Weekly Sessions (40 minutes each)

Mondays 4:30 p.m. -5:10 p.m.

Sessions 16, 17, 18 will be family training sessions from 4:30 p.m. -6:00 p.m.

Locations: School 21 during after-school care in boys’ locker room; School 30 during after-school care in teacher’s conference room; Boys and Girls Club in room 111; Barnett Kids Corner in room 444

Materials: The ICPS Red book: Intermediate Grades by Myrna Shure (1999), easel, and paper

Session: 1 Who and I What am I thinking Of?

Purpose: To encourage children to think about the characteristics of others as the first step toward thinking outside oneself when interpersonal problems arise.

Session: 2 What Makes People Feel the Way They Do?

Purpose: To sensitize children to people’s feelings and presences by helping them see that different people feel different ways about the same thing and that people can feel the same way about the same things.

Session: 3 Negation, Multiple Possibilities, Feelings, Two Things at the Same Time

Purpose: Awareness of various solutions and how to cope when things do not go the way we want them to.

Session: 4 Feelings: Frustrated, Impatient, Disappointed, Embarrassed

Purpose: To help children increase awareness of their own and other people’s feelings and how to identify how other people feel and cope with these feelings for later problem-solving.

Session: 5 What Else Can I Do?

Purpose: To encourage children to think of as many solutions to different problems.

Session 6: So What is the Problem Here?

Purpose: To illustrate to children that sometimes one assumes what the problem is but sometimes it is not the actual problem.

Session 7: Do I Remember?

Purpose: To show children how important it is to pay attention to what other people say and to practice those skills.

Session 8: Problems with My Siblings or Friends.

Purpose: To expand on perspective taking and understand reasons of a particular event such as interpersonal problems.

Session 9: Problems with my Parent(s).

Purpose: To increase awareness of how different behaviors affect the way the parent feels and might react. To practice more complex problem solving skills and coping.

Session 10: Problems with Three People at the Same Time.

Purpose: To expand on more complex problem solving and consequential thinking.

Session 11: Can I Tell You What Happened?

Purpose: To suggest why finding out why things happen before reacting and venting emotions is important.

Session 12: What do They Know?

Purpose: To extend on perspective taking and thinking about simultaneous coordination of more than one viewpoint, the base on differential knowledge about a situation.

Session 13: Remembering a Time When………

Purpose: To reminisce on actual problem situations in other to review and practice problem solving skills and identifying alternative solutions to each problem.

Session 14: Finding the Right Solution Takes Time Sometimes

Purpose: To help the children recognize that sometimes it takes you cannot solve a problem quickly and that the first thing that comes to mind is not always the best solution.

Session 15: Let’s Write Some Alternative Solutions

Purpose: To illustrate real life interpersonal problems and encourage them to think of solutions and consequences.

Session 16: Let’s Practice Communicating Mom/Dad? (session with parents)

Purpose: To illustrate the importance of active listening and practice with parents.

Session 17: Let’s talk some more (session with parents)

Purpose: To greater emphasize why it is important to actively listen to parents in order to encourage later sensitivity to their thoughts and feelings.

Session 18: Wrap – Up. What I Learned About You (session with parents)

Purpose: To express empathy and appreciating the parent role for the children and children’s perspectives for the parents.

PARENT’S/FAMILY TRAINING

Weekly Sessions (90 minutes each)

Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sessions 4, 5 and 6 will be held Mondays with their children.

Location: Boys and Girls Club of Paterson, room 111

Materials: Handouts, video, easel

Session 1: What do I want from this Experience?

Purpose: To increase awareness of the importance of building a relationship with children. A discussion and video will delineate the positives and negative of interacting with children in different ways.

Session 2: Basic Principles of Communication with Children

Purpose: Step-by-step outline of different communication strategies

Session 3: Parenting Styles

Purpose: Discussion and practice of different parenting styles..

Sessions 4, 5, and 6: In conjunction with children’s last three sessions.