Teaching Social Skills Through Recreational Activities

By Jan Petrides, CIP Berkshire Center

Social skills are difficult for most of our students with Asperger’s and learning differences. Many students are uncomfortable making eye contact or may not understand subtle social cues or facial expressions. Some students may be confused or distressed when new or unfamiliar activities are presented, not to mention struggling with peer interactions.

Recreational activities can help make students social interactions more comfortable. Students should be required to attend some social activities each week. One way staff can mentor students is by allowing them to experience new and different things.

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Wellness Student of the Month

By Jim Walsh, The Bloomington Center

Matt Patterson works at the IU Wright Food court hauling piles of heavy trays, washing pots and pans, carrying out the trash, and wiping tables during the hectic daily ebb and flow of the student population. However, rather than just zonking out on the couch after such a physically strenuous shift, Matt has been keeping with his own active fitness program.

On Mondays, Matt has an individual wellness session where he does an hour of guided weight training. This session is also used to monitor Matt’s weight, which has steadily been declining since the summer. “I haven’t had French fries for like 4 months, I’ve also cut back on my pop,” Matt said. “I can’t wait till it gets warmer, when I can walk and ride my bike around more.”

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Mentoring Flexibility

By Karen Noel, Berkshire Center Admissions Coordinator

As staff working with young adults that have additional challenges trying to get along in the world and be successful, we at the Berkshire Center pride ourselves on being good role models and treating each other with kindness, and going out of our way to help one another.

The best example yet of how our staff works so well together came This January during a snow storm. We had a family scheduled for an interview that lived approximately 2 1/2 hours away. Their appointment was scheduled for 10:30 am. The Northeast woke up what was called a “snow squall” that made for messy driving and caused many accidents.

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Berkeley Students Bake Sale For Haiti Relief

By Nicole Hughes, Berkeley Center Career Coordinator

In effort to raise money for Haiti relief effort, the Berkeley Center had a bake sale as well as a donation jar that staff and students were welcomed to donate to. Many students participated, baking an assortment of cookies, lemon bars and more. They also contributed in other ways; shopping for the items necessary to bake, helping make the poster for the bake sale and working in different shifts to sell the delicious goods to the public.

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CIP Advisors Teach Accountability and Independence

By Mary Ann Brown, Berkshire Center Student Advisor

As Advisors, one of our focuses is to teach our students banking and budgeting. This is a hard concept for many of them to grasp as they have not had the opportunity of experiencing a cause and effect where money is concerned.

Their monetary needs have been met by their parents and, in most cases, they have not had jobs. They have chosen to attend CIP because of our emphasis on college and career development and they know on some level that if they are to become independent either through taking college courses or pursuing a vocational course, they need to learn to manage their money.

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Brevard Staff Attend FIT Conference

By Ryan Therriault, Academic Coordinator, and Janet Hrezo

The CIP Brevard Center staff had the opportunity to attend Florida Institute of Technology’s Fourth Annual Applied Behavior Analysis Conference on February 22. Themed “Behavioral Interventions Across the Lifetime”, the conference featured speakers Dr. Timothy M. Weil, Dr. Patrick C. Friman and CIP National Professional Advisory Board Member Dr. Peter Gerhardt.

Whether or not one has a background in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), the conference was thought provoking particularly the presentation by Dr. Gerhardt who is on the National Professional Advisory Board of CIP. His presentation on interventions with autistic adults and older adolescents emphasized the need to help them acquire adaptive and functional skills in order to ultimately enhance their quality of life.

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Bloomington Center Student is the Cat’s Meow

By Jim Walsh, The Bloomington Center

Adam Breall and I were up to Bloomington’s “Instant Gratification Movie Challenge,” a monthly indie movie filming collective. Each month a theme is chosen like “King for a Day,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and “Behind the Scenes.” Each participant is encouraged to take their own interpretation of the theme, film a movie, and at the end of the month all the movies are shown at a local concert venue.

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Brevard Center Student Named “Volunteer of the Year”

By Lee Kananack, Psychologist, The Brevard Center

When we last spoke about Moultrie Woodall, a volunteer intern at the Rossetter House Museum, he told us about how much he enjoyed his position there.
Apparently, the museum staff enjoys him as well.

At an awards ceremony this January, Moultrie was voted “Student Volunteer of the Year” by his peers and museum personnel. He described himself as being “nearly speechless” when his name was announced at the ceremony. However, when interviewed at the Brevard Center for this article, he was more than willing to discuss his award.

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Brevard Center: What’s New with the Drama Club

By Janet Hrezo, The Brevard Center

If you’ve been at the Brevard Center on any recent Wednesday afternoon, you may have heard some silly songs echoing through the hallway. Don’t worry. It’s just the Drama Club rehearsing for their next performance.

Each semester they “go live” before an audience of students and staff and are currently trying out some new improvisations as well as beginning work on a new play by actor and resident playwright, Daniel Eakin.

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Life Skills: How to Learn Basic Knife Skills

How To Learn Basic Knife Skills.

Perceptual Reframing

By Jeff Wheeler, Academic Coordinator, The Berkshire Center

The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being. No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. - Emma Goldman

I have worked with scores of students with learning differences at the College Internship Program (CIP) for more than a decade. In that time I believe that I have encountered every possible LD diagnosis as well as great number of psychological and psychiatric diagnoses.

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Online Readiness: What You Need to Know

By Marc Larrivee, The Berkshire Center

“Should I take this online course?”

Frequently a student will drop by and ask that question. With the great variety of online classes, our students consider online classes more often than ever. Here at Berkshire Center, students have enrolled in English, History, Math, Early Childhood, Technology and other classes.

I like learning online. In fact, I like taking classes in any medium. However, online classes present their own advantages and challenges. Whenever a student asks me about taking an online class, I often help them consider their own readiness for online learning and for the particular class.

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