Reaching Out to Parents
MMTLC also offers a series of workshops for parents. These evening seminars attract the School's families as well as parents of students enrolled in public and other independent schools. They cover such topics as positive behavior management, modifications for success, helping students with homework, ADHD, organizational skills and supporting social development.
The Parent Series is designed for all people who are interested in gaining a better understanding of a particular topic. Participants can sign up for the entire series or individual topics. The structure for these sessions is generally a lecture/discussion format designed for parents who want an overview of a specified topic relating to their student at home.
Past offerings include:
Strategies for Positive Behavior Management at Home
This workshop looks at behavior management as a comprehensive and proactive approach to interacting with students at home rather than implementing a reactionary approach to controlling a behavior. It emphasizes clarifying expectations, use of language, organization, and a variety of successfully management strategies for difficult situations should they arise.
Understanding ADHD and Helpful Hints for Home Life
This workshop focuses on the ways to support a student with ADHD, both with and without hyperactivity at home. We will explore ways to help with inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. In addition, structured approaches to develop stronger executive functioning skills will be addressed.
Learning Disabilities and Simple Strategies for Success
This workshop is designed to help parents gain an understanding of the
most common learning issues and how they can present themselves in student's behavior. Specific strategies and resources will be discussed for supporting a variety of common learning difficulties to make home life more successful. Approaches to help students become more self-aware of their own learning needs, be their own self-advocate and become more independent will also addressed
Helping Your Child with Organizational Skills
This workshop will give a detailed overview of a structured model for organization of materials, time and information that can be adapted to fit most subjects easily for both home and school. Various potential modifications and options to address the needs of the student will be also discussed. In addition, systems for helping students self-monitor their understanding of material and deal with confusions, missing information and questions will be addressed.
Developing Social Skills at Home
This workshop is designed to explore different ways to help students develop the skills to successfully interact with his/her peers. Different ways to structure play dates and social gatherings and establish and reinforce appropriate social behavior both at home and away will be addressed. In addition, developing ways of helping students be reflective of their social interactions in a meaningful and non-threatening way will be discussed.
All Workshops presented by Ginny O'Hare, Director of Outreach, at
Mary McDowell Friends School, 20 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201