Our New Website!

We have a new website! Thank you for subscribing to e-mails and updates through this website. All new information and updates will now be found at our new website. We would love for you to jump over to our new website found here https://www.confidentsolutions.org/ and check us out!  If you would like to continue to subscribe for updates, please enter your e-mail address on our new website. We look forward to connecting with you!

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy

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Middle School Winter/Spring OTB Dates

Happy New Year! We are excited for our winter/spring schedule for our middle school group.   If you are new to our group, please click here Registration for Middle School OTB Club Winter_Spring 2018 to complete a registration form. We need at least one registration form for you child.

Middle school can be a challenging time socially. It can be especially challenging understanding the “hidden” social rules, nonverbal language and all of the “grey” areas that exist. Beginning in January, we will host a middle school hang out for teaching, learning, and practicing all of those grey areas in a fun environment. The group meets from 6:30-8:00 p.m. Each class, of no more than ten, will be a diverse group of students. The mixture of 6th-8th graders will be students who need to strengthen their overall social skills with kids who have strong social skills. We feel it is important to be able to support this age range in more of a natural environment with peers so they can have help in bringing awareness and strengthen self-monitoring skills to “grey” area situations. For example, grey areas may consist of times such as losing a game, having someone being perceived as “cheating”, or knowing how to start and hold a conversation socially with a peer or group of peers.

The cost for each class is $25.00 and we welcome you to drop your middle schooler off and pick him/her back up at 8:00 p.m.  Upcoming dates are listed below. Registration will remain open unless a class becomes full. Any full classes will be listed on our website. You may register ahead of time to reserve your child’s spot. You also have the option of registering the week of the class (as long as it is not full). Please e-mail, call or text us prior to 24 hours of each class date to confirm your child’s spot.  Please reach out to us at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com with any questions.

To register, please fill out at least one registration form found in the link above and e-mail it to us at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com. We will send you a PayPal link to complete your registration. All classes are held at University Ridge Office Center, 1905 JN Pease Place, Suite 201, Charlotte, NC 28262

All classes meet from 6:30-8:00. Upcoming Dates:

January 26th

February 9th

February 23rd

March 16th

April 13th

April 27th

May 11th

 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us a note at confidentsolutions7@hotmail.com. We look forward to seeing you!

With Appreciation,

Wendy and Christina

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Middle School Group for December

Good Morning!  Our middle schoolers will be meeting twice in the month of December.

 

 December 8th   6:30-8:00

Our amazing Drama Therapist will be coming back to join our teens the night of December 8th. You seriously won’t want to miss this! So what is Drama Therapy? North American Drama Therapy Association describes it as the intentional use of drama and/or theatre processes to achieve therapeutic goals. Our goals for our middle schoolers are to strengthen their social learning skills. The focus of this interactive session will be on conversations with peers and how to integrate that into their natural environments. This technique includes improvisation, theater games, storytelling, and enactment. This organic and fluid experience will be a ton of fun for us all!

Drama

 

December 15th 6:30-8:00

We will be having a chef join our teens the night of December 15th for some holiday baking and an end of semester party.  Please let us know ahead of time of any food allergies your child has.

baking

 

If you’re interested in reading a past post about our group, please click here Middle School OTB Group-Fall Semester

All you need to do is e-mail us and let us know you’re coming!

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy

Registration for Social Skills Classes January 28th-March 4th

Registration is now open for our next six-week session of social skills classes. Classes begin on Sunday, January 28th and run through Sunday March 4th.The total cost for a six-week session is $225.00. Each group will have no more than 5 students so we can practice “thinking” about thinking as well as individualize for each child. Teacher letters will be provided weekly so all of the adults in your child’s life are using the same terminology and have the same expectations. 

Questions about our classes? Please e-mail or call us with your questions and we would be happy to connect with you to tell you more!

If you are new to our groups, please complete a registration form found here Registration for Social Skills Classes January 28th through March 4th 2018 and e-mail it to us at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com.

If you are a returning family, please fill out this condensed registration form and send it via e-mail Registration for Social Skills Classes January 28th through March 4th Condensed 2018

For some students, obtaining and utilizing good social skills do not come naturally. They move through their environment having a difficult time communicating and understanding more than just direct language-based interactions. We typically begin intuitively learning key social skills around age three through observation and parallel play. When these skills are not intuitively understood, they can be taught cognitively. For example, good social skills include eye contact, conversational turn taking, and flexible thinking. For some students, these skills need to be taught and practiced in a non-judgmental environment.  Previous posts about Social Learning can be found here Social Learning and Who Benefits From Social Skills Classes? 

We are offering three different sessions so please read the specifics below. As always, reach out to us with questions at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com. We believe that empowering the parent/guardian is equally important in empowering the child. Please plan on staying for the parent session of your child’s class to learn what your child is learning and how to help your child at home. As we send your weekly teacher letter, we encourage you to let your child’s teacher know that he or she can also reach out to us for extra support or questions for your child in the classroom. We’re all here to help your child grow in his/her social learning.

All classes are held at University Ridge Office Center, 1905 JN Pease Place, Suite 201, Charlotte, NC 28262.

 Social Communication-This class is full. If you would like to be put on the waiting list in case of any cancelations, please send us an e-mail.

This session focuses on the different types of  communication: body language, spoken language, and comparative vs literal language.   Students will learn why we participate in different types of communication as well as understand the sometimes “hidden meanings” within these communications.  Once these concepts are taught, students will practice making “smart guesses” to assist them in understanding how others may be perceiving them in various social situations. Does this match how they want to be perceived? With students gaining the above skills, they will begin to move past just thinking about themselves and will be better able to think about others so they can participate in social situations with more success.

This group meets every Sunday from 1:00-2:00.

 Mindful Thinking and Zones of Regulation

Zones of Regulation teaches emotional self-regulation with any emotion through building social and sensory skills.  Mindfulness  provides the foundation of awareness through five realms; physical, mental, emotional, social, and global literacy. Mindfulness is a way of being. Through conscious observation (mindfulness) of our behaviors and thoughts we gain personal power.   This process is both physiological and mental. Thinking is a powerful tool that we can access within each of the four zones to help with emotion regulation. By categorizing our thoughts and emotions we can build a toolbox that will empower us to monitor without judging, and choose our responses successfully. Students will also learn how to identify a problem and the steps to solve it.  Learning how to self-regulate is a skill that does not develop overnight. It takes time, patience, understanding, and support. This is where training your brain to think Mindfully can be a powerful tool in your toolbox of self-regulation.

This group meets every Sunday from 1:00-2:00.

For further reading, here is an article about the benefits of teaching Mindfulness with Social Thinking https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=Mindfulness+and+Social+Thinking&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_Mindfulness_and_Social_Thinking_Perfect_Companions

 Self-Awareness-Learning How To “Think” About Thinking Socially

This is the perfect beginning class if you are new to our social skills groups. This six-week session lays a foundation of skills that your child can continue to build upon and grow his or her social thinking. During this session, children and parents will learn the differences between self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-control. Students will learn about “hidden” social expectations in different environments, how to make social observations to learn those “hidden” rules, how behaviors are connected to emotions, strengthen observation/imitation skills, how to gain self-awareness with individual behaviors, move into self-monitoring tools for shifting negative behaviors into positive ones, how to identify if a problem is a big one or little one, and learn how to use your whole body to listen. As we continue to teach these skills, the group will begin to understand that people have a perspective that is different from their own and how to navigate a social interaction using this knowledge. Each child will choose a personal behavior goal and learn tools to help create a shift in awareness and behaviors.

There are two sessions being offered for this class so please be sure to check your preferred time on the registration form.  The first group meets every Sunday from 3:00–4:00 and the second group meets every Sunday from 4:30-5:30.

If you’re not sure if our group is the right fit for your child or have any further questions, we would love to talk with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com.

Haley for website

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy

Find us on Facebook

Don’t forget to find us on Facebook!  Not only do we share helpful resources, we do live videos of our upcoming events.  

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy 

Middle School Group 10/27/17 and 11/17/17: Inner Coach and Who Am I?

Next Friday, October 27th, our middle schoolers meet again from 6:30-8:00.  We will be focusing on teaching  the difference between your Inner Critic vs. your Inner Coach.  Building and recognizing our own self-talk is important in building self-esteem and in being able to engage socially with peers.  We will also be teaching the variances of “teasing” whether it is done in jest with a friend, done playfully during a game, or whether it has a mean undertone.  We’ll be focusing on specific examples of how you can “read” the cues in a social situation to know which category the teasing falls under.

Our middle schoolers will come together one time in November on the 17th from 6:30-8:00.  Our children have access to so much of the world with social media and the web. It’s challenging to teach them healthy boundaries with social media until they have some self-awareness of who they are.  We will be talking about Who Am I? and creating collages. It is our goal that as they continue to grow in self-awareness, they will be empowered with confidence when accessing social media and the web.

We can comfortably house 10 middle schoolers in each group.  If you are interested in attending the next two sessions, please send us an e-mail to confidentsolutions7@gmail.com to reserve your spot.  Please also feel free to e-mail us with any questions!  Middle School OTB Group-Fall Semester

We will post details about December soon! However, we will be bringing our drama therapist back on December 8th and having an end of the semester party on December 15th! We have a chef coming in to bake something delicious with our middle schoolers.

i-am-wm

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy

 

Thankful-A Contest

Every year, we like to honor those that go above and behind for our children.  Maybe it’s your child’s soccer coach that understands what your child needs to be successful on the team.  It could also be a dance instructor, art teacher, the general education teacher, special education teacher, a Tae-Kwon-Do instructor, or an after school teacher.  Maybe it’s the principal at your child’s school that has shown empathy and understanding and helped created an accommodation for your child. The possibilities are limitless!

We would love to hear who has had a positive influence  in helping your child be successful! Please e-mail us your nomination(s) at confidentsolutions7@gmail.com no later than November 16th. Please include the name and the area in which he/she has positively influenced your child.

On Friday, November 17th, we will announce the winning professional and award them with a $50 Target gift card (just in time to use over Thanksgiving break ).   Every nomination will receive a handwritten, handmade card of gratitude.

Gratitude will bring more into our lives immediately.-Rhonda Byrne

With Appreciation,

Christina and Wendy