Selecting the Right Camp for a Child with Social, Emotional, and/or Behavioral Issues

Dear Friends of Quest,     I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  We are excited to announce that we have set our summer calendar and summer registration will open on February 15th! Summer Camp Dates are: June 27th to August 11  at the Central Library in Huntington Beach   Please Click Here for the 2016 Summer Calendar   Please Click Here for Detailed Camp Information    Monday, March 9, I will be CHADD's speaker giving a talk on the "hidden rules" of social skills for children with attention difficulties.  Please Click Here for the Flyer for the CHADD Talk   This issue of our newsletter is focused on finding the right camp for your child.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

Selecting the Right Camp for a Child with Social, Emotional, and/or Behavioral Challenges Selecting the right camp for your child can be challenging for any parent.  This can be especially true though for a parent of a child who has social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges.  The great thing is there are so many types of camps out there from day camps to residential camps and camps that are specialized such as camps that focus on a specific sport, dramatic arts, LEGOs, Robotics, and camps that are specifically designed for a child with special needs. Often I find that parents feel a lot of stress about picking the right camp since often children with social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges have had difficult experiences in the past at places like on the school playground or if they have been in a camp setting that wasn't the right match for them.  Parents want the camp experience to be a success for their child.  In addition, parents often discuss with me concerns about their child's lower self-esteem related to past social and behavioral issues and they want camp to change this pattern through a success experience.   When you are considering a potential camp.  There are several things to consider.  Questions that would likely be helpful to ask when deciding on a program are: 1) Is your program accredited? 2) How much structure is built in to your typical day? 3) What is your camper to staff ratio? 4) What are the typical levels of qualifications of your staff? Level of training? 5) Do your staff have training in working with children with ___________ (social, attention, behavioral, emotional, etc.) issues? 6) What kind of support will be available if my child has a problem? Bob Ditter, a licensed clinical social worker, who specializes in camp related mental health issues also recommends some potential strategies that could be potentially helpful for working with challenging camp behavior.  Here are four tips he provided related to a case example of a girl with attention difficulties who was asked to leave a residential camp early one year and the family and the camp were trying to decide if she should re-enroll in camp the following summer.  Ditter recommended: 1) Provide a release of information so that the camp can speak with your physician if your child is prescribed medication.   2) Have the camp provide a special adult contact person for your child to assist your child in making friends 3) Have the camp provide at least 2 gross motor activities per day such as soccer, dance, swimming or yoga 4) Have the child have a built in "chill time" to write in a journal or draw [1] These two sets of questions will hopefully be helpful to a parent who is possibly considering a typical camp since the responses from the camp should give you some sense of how familiar and competent they might be in working with a child who might need a little more support to be successful.  The top list focuses a little more on typical standards built in, while the second list is focused on whether the camp have things incorporated that we know work as interventions or are they willing to put these interventions in place. The next level of questioning is for parents to decide how they want to use their time for the summer.  If parents begin to ask if they want their child to attend a camp that is truly a specialized camp tailored for children with social, emotional, and/or behavioral needs then the focus is different.  For example, at Quest in general our ratios are much smaller, our staff is older and more educated, more structure is built into the day, and specific therapeutic interventions are daily occurrences for all campers versus special additions camp staff are trying to implement with a few isolated campers.  We think of Quest as 32 hours a week of intervention through a day camp framework, which needs to feel fun and like camp to kids, while also balancing very lofty treatment goals for each camper.  I meet with a lot of other directors of accredited camps and we have some things in common.  In general, we talk a lot about safety, creating fun environments, and places that help children develop the 21st century skills.  When it comes to specialized programs is where we really start to differ and our camps are more unique.  Some of the things that I believe set Quest a part are that I am kept up at night thinking about how we have to creatively fit more fun therapeutic programming in for our kids even though on a typical day we might already do social thinking, games in the park, an experiential therapy activity, and a mindfulness activity like yoga, soccer, all through our Quest Therapeutic Model.  Quest is also set a part since we also get to work with the very best campers--no doubt about it. Ultimately parents are the expert on their child and they can use what they know, plus all the information they gathered about various camps to make the best decision.  I hope that these questions might be helpful for parents as they are deciding what type of camp program is right for their child this year since a child's needs change over time.  I am excited to say that a lot of our campers come to Quest to learn some skills and then are ready to transition to other programs.  I see a lot of these questions being appropriate for our previous camp families to select the right camp as our campers are ready to leave our nest and soar as that is always one of our top goals. [1] Ditter, B., Case Studies: Working with Challenging Camper Behavior. Camping Magazine, November/December 2015 10-11.

Quest Found to Decrease Aggression and Impulsivity and Improve Social Skills

Dear Friends of Quest,     I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of time to reflect on all that you are thankful for!  For Quest, we are thankful for so many things including the amazing children, family, and staff who have been apart of our program since 2009.  The children and families we serve are fantastic and it is quite an honor to be where we are in the community.  With only 2 weeks left, our Fall Quarter group is drawing to a close and we will soon be gearing up for our Winter Quarter group.      The Winter Quarter General Group Dates are: January 6 through March 16 from 5:30 to 7:30   at the Central Library in Huntington Beach There will be no group March 9 since I will be CHADD's speaker this night giving a talk on the "hidden rules" of social skills for children with attention difficulties Sign Up Now! Early Registration Discounts Through December 16th!  This issue of our newsletter is focused on exciting research from Kyle Smith, our Assistant Director's thesis, that found great benefits for children who attended Quest's summer program.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

Quest Found to Decrease Aggression and Impulsivity and Improve Social Skills  Written By Kyle Smith,  M.S., Assistant Director After 2 years it's time to talk about the findings from the research that we've been conducting at Quest. We found that our campers showed big gains across a wide variety of areas! Kids who came to camp showed decreases in aggressive behavior, better ability to recognize and interpret social cues, and improved social communication. Finally, Quest campers showed improvement on an overall survey of their potential challenging areas like following directions and impulsivity. Naturally, we're really excited about these findings because it's even more evidence that Quest works for our campers (children 6 to 18 with mild to moderate social, emotional, and/or behavioral difficulties). Emotion regulation and aggression are tied closely together. We think that Quest techniques like our point system and providing varied opportunities to practice the emotion regulation skills we teach are the key to bringing about those improvements. The same goes for the leaps forward we saw in social skills too. Campers get lots of chances to practice new social skills, and build friendships using techniques that we teach and model. In the end our campers come away from Quest with lots of skills to tackle tough feelings and make new friends. Being able to recognize and interpret social cues gives our campers vital insight into the world of unspoken communication that so many of them miss. This insight only gets more important as children get older and the rules become less clear. The gains here show that Quest is great for teaching children important parts of being a good friend. The increases in social communication empower our campers to use their words to express their feelings, thoughts, and needs so that they can be equal partners in their friendships, and advocate for their needs and wants in appropriate and effective ways. We collected this information by sending out survey packets to parents before and after camp. The surveys had lots of questions about different possible areas of difficulty for our campers. Then I compared the scores from before and after camp. In the end we had 47 families participate in the 2 summers of data collection. We went in to this study with the expectation that we'd see improvements like these since our found camp in the Bay Area has already been shown to reduce aggression, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention, while increasing peer relations, family relations, self-esteem, behavioral control, and athletic competency. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of research on therapeutic camps. However, what is there suggests that therapeutic camps provide a promising way to help with lots of different issues. The Quest Therapeutic Model has core aspects in common with other programs that have been shown to work. On top of that, individual components of Quest camp (like our point system) have been used to treat children just like our campers with lots of success as well. We're thrilled to add this study to growing body of research that says camp is awesome. Collecting information like this about Quest is important because it helps us see if our program is doing what it's supposed to do. In this instance, we've seen that Quest is effectively decreasing aggressive behavior and impulsivity, while improving following directions and our campers' ability to recognize and interpret social cues and demonstrate improved social communication. We'll keep collecting information so that we can continue to paint a complete picture of Quest excellence. Big thanks to the parents that participated over the last few years. You're now a part of Quest history! Please click here to see Quest Research Results in Graph Form [1] Smith, B. K., Therapeutic Summer  Camp Outcomes and Negative Mood Regulation Expectancies. (2015). California State University, Fullerton, Thesis.

Good Health Update or Get Up and Jump Around

Dear Friends of Quest,

I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  I hope that you are all gearing up to have a wonderful Halloween tomorrow!  For Quest, we have been having a great Fall Quarter group with our kids as this week some of our kids will start filming their Quest movie and others our working on their social skills driven video game they are creating.  Beyond that this quarter, we have focused time on friendship skills, bullying, diversity, and just having fun together so it has been a great quarter so far!

This issue of our newsletter is focused on some recent research regarding good health behaviors.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.

Sincerely,

Jodie Knott, Ph.D.

Director and Licensed Psychologist

Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

Recent Findings Regarding Good Health Otherwise Known as Get Up and Jump Around

A couple of weeks ago Dr. Martha Klassen and I attended a great talk given by Dr. Sharon Orrange regarding the latest findings regarding good health.  Dr. Orrange is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine for the Department of General Internal Medicine for the Keck Medical Center of USC .  For those of you who have attended Quest Camp you may remember Dr. Klassen since she is my Psychological Assistant and provides many psychological interventions at camp.  I don't know if it has been the same for her this past week, but I can't stop talking about some of the topics Dr. Orrange shared about so I wanted to share some of the information she presented in the newsletter this month.

Some of the Research Presented by Dr. Orrange:

1.  Eating a mediterranean diet with either nuts or extra virgin olive oil can increase brain function in amazing ways!

Dr. Orrange reported that people who ate a Mediterranean diet with either nuts or extra virgin olive oil showed better cognitive functioning than they had years before.  This meant that for these groups that people eating this way, their diet not only kept memory functioning from declining, but actually improved memory functioning. [1]  Researchers found evidence that switching to a Mediterranean diet can actually improve cognition. Currently, there is no effective delay to halt the progression of dementia and this study gives evidence that those that were on Mediterranean diets have better global cognitive performance after 6.5 years. In 2030, the prevalence of dementia is expected to reach 65.7 million. In 2050 it is expected to reach 115.4 million. Diet change, specifically, a change to a Mediterranean diet can slow this process. A Mediterranean diet includes extra virgin olive oil as the main culinary fat and a high consumption of plant-based foods such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes and minimally processed cereals as well as the consumption of fish and seafood, with a low consumption of dairy products and meat products. [2]

2.  "Our chairs our killing us"

Dr. Orrange cited studies that remarked about how even if you exercised regularly that our bodies are not meant to sit as many hours as we do.  She noted that by dropping the amount of hours in a chair at work from 40 to 32 by doing things like walking around or standing at a desk while working instead of sitting a person can have amazing health gains. [3] Dr. Levine, Director of the Mayo-Clinic states that sitting is more dangerous than smoking and that sitting is to blame for several ailments including obesity. [4]

3.  It is important to be outside and be barefoot in the grass for good health

Dr. Orrange cited research that talked about the importance of how our feet are not meant to be in many different types of shoes due to their structure, but regardless of this it is restorative to be barefoot in the grass.  This was not a surprise to me as my mom has been reading about the "grounding" and healing aspects of being barefoot in nature for years.  [5]

4.  Jumping is good for you and your bones

Dr. Orrange cited some studies regarding the importance of bone health and how doing activities that create pressure such as jumping are great for your bones.  [6]

So basically....

Get up out of your chair and go walk around barefoot while eating some nuts and then after you have chewed up the nuts jump around some!  Then you will be happy and healthy and many years from now you will be around, have good bones and will even remember what you did!!!

[1, 3, 5, 6] Presentation by Dr. Sharon Orrange. "Fight On." October 21, 2015. Jonathan Club.

[2]  http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Estefania_Toledo/publication/236740643_Mediterranean_diet_improves_cognition_the_PREDIMED-NAVARRA_randomised_trial/links/0046351a4621ee6261000000.pdf

[4] Are our chairs killing us? Get up and get moving, scientist urges August 6, 2014 by Mary Macvean, Los Angeles Times http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-08-chairs-scientist-urges.html

The Annual Newsletter Review

Dear Friends of Quest,     I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  Even though the weather is still hot, fall has officially begun and we are having a great school year group! Unfortunately, the rock climbing gym, ClimbX, that we have partnered with for 9.5 years officially closed its' doors tonight due to their current building being sold.  I am happy that some of our Quest families were able to join us last week for one last climb at the current facility and we even got to celebrate as one last camper made it to the top of the wall for the first time, which was a wonderful achievement!  Bryan (of ClimbX) and I are already exploring exciting options related to the rock climbing components of our Quest program and I will keep you posted as this develops.   This issue of our newsletter is our annual review of what has been written for the newsletter this past year.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

The Annual Review of the Newsletter August always seems like a good time to provide a summary of all the Quest newsletters that have been written since it first began in May of 2011.  I thought this would make sense to do since it would be a way to cover some of the topics that I tend to find the most relevant for families and include things I discuss frequently with both the children and adults I see in my office and at camp.  I continue to strive to have the newsletter be a solid resource with information and tips to help children and families live happier, healthier lives.  Hopefully this review will lead you to some of our archived newsletters that you may have missed or would like to further explore at this time.  Below I have listed the article by name and have labeled the topics covered.  A link is also provided at the bottom with all of these newsletters together.   Quest Newsletter Article Review (Sept 2014 to Present)  ARTICLE NAME TOPICS COVERED Connection of Diet and   Attention/Behavior  Alternative Health Options Limiting Children's Electronic Exposure  Parenting Letting Go  General Health  Making Changes that Last in the New Year  Treatment Goal Setting Sleep and Children with ADHD  Parenting Executive Functioning and ADHD  Treatment Parenting  Quest's Scholarship Fund  Quest Information  The Benefits of Mindfulness  Treatment Strategies to Help the Socially Awkward  Social Skills Treatment   Partnering with Teachers: Assisting Children with Attention, Social, and Learning Difficulties   Academic To sign up for the Quest Newsletter: Please click the link on the left side of this newsletter.  For Newsletter Articles Please Click Here

Partnering with Teachers

Dear Friends of Quest,     I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  It is hard to believe but summer camp is over once again and we are gearing up for another great school year for Quest!  I don't have enough words to say how incredibly proud I am of how our campers did this summer reaching their goals!  This summer we saw many of our campers try new things, build new friendships, have great achievements like reaching the top of the climbing wall, scoring their first goals in soccer, and boogie boarding for the first time, while building skills for how to better control their emotions and understand the social world around them.  This summer also had us expand to a 7 week summer camp, including a 3 night/4 day trip to Big Bear.  All in all, it was a fantastic summer!   Our school year groups begin on:   Wednesday, September 23rd! Our online system is active and taking registrations:   (early registration discount through September 4th) Fall Groups  Early Afternoon Therapy Group --General group at the Central Library in Huntington Beach from 4 to 6pm on Wednesdays. Rock Climbing Therapy Group --At ClimbX Indoor Rock Climbing Gym from 6 to 8pm on Wednesdays.  This issue of our newsletter provides some types about how to support children with attention, learning, and social difficulties at the start of the school year to start the academic year off right.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

Partnering with Teachers: Assisting Children with Attention, Learning, and Social Difficulties  The beginning of the school year can be exciting and also nerve racking for many parents.  This is especially true for parents of children who have attention, learning, and social difficulties.  As Facebook this week filled with many families sharing pictures of their children with their Minecraft, Lego, and Princess lunchboxes headed out the door for the first days of school many hearts filled with hope about the year ahead.  As a specialist who works with children who often need a little more support at school, I know of many parents who said a few extra prayers and took a few extra deep breaths this month hoping for a smooth transition to the next grade.  This month's newsletter seemed like a good place to share some of the strategies that I think can help make for a better transition for these amazing children who at times need a little extra resources and support. Here are some tips that hopefully you find helpful: 1.  Be involved and contact the teacher prior to an issue occurring.  I typically find that the more engaged and involved that you can be the better.  This looks different for each parent/teacher pairing, but is important.  A lot of times I recommend that after the first couple of weeks of school have passed it can be important to contact the teacher if this hasn't happened already to introduce yourself and to talk more directly about your child.  I think it can be very important to speak openly about your child's strengths, his or her struggles, and what has worked well in the past for him or her.  Volunteering in the classroom when possible can often be a great way to get to build this type of relationship with the teacher and see how your child is doing.  This can be helpful as well since often children with attention, learning, and social difficulties struggle with describing their world around them including the ins and outs of their day.   2.  Be collaborative in nature.  It is really important to take a team-based approach.  This team-based approach will often happen automatically when an IEP or 504 accommodation plan is in place.  Even when these supports are not occurring, partnering with the teacher and other supportive professionals such as the principal, vice principal, school psychologist, counselor, occupational therapist, speech pathologist, etc. can be incredibly helpful.  3.  See the teacher as a resource and a helper.  The more that you can come from a place of seeing the teacher in a positive light and as someone who is there to be a support to your child the better.  Deep down, the teaching profession is filled with many people who have dedicated their lives to the education and development of our young people.  While the desire can be that like a mama bear wanting to defend her baby cub if there is an issue, the more that you can give the teacher initially the benefit of the doubt the better and go into a meeting with a teacher to be a resource and a helper, often more positive results can be found. 4.  If there are significant challenges for your child set up a strong foundation.  If a child is exhibiting significant attention, learning, and/or social difficulties it would likely be time to formally have him or her assessed if this hasn't already occurred so that it would be possible to provide more systematic and consistent treatment to him or her.  In addition, this process is often the start of getting a child an IEP or 504 accommodation plan through the school district if there is a documented attention, learning, or social difficulty, which can lead to more intervention and support if problem behaviors arise at school. 5.  If partnering solely with the teacher isn't working, involve more people.  Sometimes for whatever reason, partnering or collaborating with just the teacher isn't producing the results needed for a child.  In these cases, I recommend making sure more people are involved in the collaboration process to make sure the child's needs are being appropriately assessed and met.  Sometimes this can be adequately done through a collaboration with people inside the school such as the principal, special education resource specialist, school psychologist, etc.   In other cases, however, it can be critical for a family to bring in resources from outside of the district to support them.  These outside specialists might have a different take and way of advocating for the parent and the child inside a school forum.  It is not uncommon for families to have advocates attend school meetings with them to argue for more services and interventions when a family feels that not enough has been done to address service needs for their child.  As a psychologist, I have also attended many school meetings for children that  I work with in the community to assist the team to better support children academically and socially in the school environment.  I often attend meetings (not just in cases in which something has gone wrong), but to be one more person of our collaborative team from a strengths-based approach. Ultimately, there are many things that go into a successful partnership with a new teacher and unfortunately it isn't a magic formula.  Hopefully these tips will aid in the process.  Deep down, it does take time to build relationships (with your child and with you).  The more that you can be positive, collaborative, and helpful about sharing about your child, the more likely you will probably get good results.

Strategies to Help the Socially Awkward

Dear Friends of Quest,    I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  CAMP IS 4 WEEKS AWAY!!!  We are super excited about what we have planned for this summer.  If you still haven't registered, but plan to come this summer--Now is the time!    Please Click Here to see our Summer Calendar! This issue of our newsletter includes an article on strategies to assist children who can be socially awkward.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

Strategies to Help the Socially Awkward This month's Camping magazine, a publication that goes out to all ACA accredited camps, had a great article by Dr. Christopher Thurber that I wanted to pass on.  While his article, Rejectology: Helping dorky kids fit in requires understanding social rejection, focuses on what all camps can do to support children who are socially awkward, I thought Dr. Thurber presented many solid tips that can be spread across many different environments including school and home and were worth sharing.  The plan for this newsletter is to present several of the ideas put forward by Dr. Thurber and then to expand about specific ways to support children who struggle with being socially awkward.  Dr. Thurber starts with a description of some socially awkward characteristics that some children struggle with:   You know them when you see them: the boys and girls who don't mesh.  Maybe their shorts are pulled up a tad too high; maybe they don't know the rules to common games; maybe they blurt out dumb jokes at inappropriate times; maybe they prefer to be alone; or maybe they don't see how other kids perceive their behavior.  [1] Dr. Thurber goes on to further detail "socially clumsy conduct" that often can get kids labeled as a "dork" and lead to rejection including: 1.  Dressing in a way that departs from a functional, if not fashionable, standard in the host culture. 2.  Jumping into a game or group activity without being invited or asking permission. 3.  Failing to adhere to generally accepted norms for cleanliness. 4.  Making assertions or comments that are patently unrelated to the conversation. 5.  Displaying a noticeable lack of basic coordination in a game or sport. 6. Trying too hard to be funny or trying to impress peers with exaggerated stories. 7.  Revealing a lack of culturally relevant knowledge about topics that have social importance for the group. [2]  Dr. Thurber noted that these kids typically want connections and friendships and these behaviors often serve as an "accidental social wipe-out."  He also provides a list of how programs can teach children with social awkwardness how to more likely avoid these social wipe-outs and create less rejecting environments by: 1.  Teach consideration--to prosocial peers since people who are responsive to others needs are seen more positively.   2.  Teach sportsmanship--by calling out poor sportsmanship and teaching what should be said or done instead.  3.  Teach appropriateness--by not sugar coating your feedback and instead being clear and direct.  4.  Teach fairness--about how when more prosocial peers leave others out it is "unfair" and how they don't want to be seen this way.  5.  Teach hygiene--being direct about how poor hygiene is affecting them socially.  6.  Teach healthy risk taking--about how to positively encourage children to try new things since not taking these risks is viewed negatively socially.  7.  Teach playfulness--by teaching and encouraging children how to invite others to play and why they should say yes sometimes when others invite them to play.  8.  Teach imaginative behavior--by finding what a child who is awkward is good at and giving them opportunities to teach other kids.  9.  Teach humor--by modeling a good sense of humor and trying to teach telling appropriate jokes at the right time. [3]    I think that these are great strategies that can be used across a variety of environments (camp, school, and home) to teach kids necessary skills and create an environment that is inclusive.  I feel lucky that at Quest we get to target these social difficulties on a large scale since our whole program is set to specifically address these areas for children with mild to moderate social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties.     Some strategies that we use at Quest: 1.  Create a positive environment that is supportive, structured, and that celebrates effort.  Having a large reward structure that is well defined with many opportunities to provide specific feedback to children and highlight successes is a cornerstone to the Quest Therapeutic Model.  The kids we specialize in working with tend to need 4-5 times the amount of rewards that other children need.  I can tell you the healthy risks kids will take when they feel supported and have high incentives is pretty amazing from jumping off 50 ft. ziplines, playing soccer or asking a peer to play despite feeling rejected in the past, and setting their own personal goals to achieve.  My best advice is if you are having difficulty getting movement or buy in from your child or children you serve first look at how positive, encouraging, and rewarding the environment you are providing is to the child.            2.  Teaching needed skills in very direct ways is to me the other crucial component to helping children who struggle with being socially awkward.  I continue to be obsessed with the area of teaching social thinking as a way to assist children who struggle with many social nuances that can be tricky for kids since they often don't intuitively read others facial expressions or body language and miss many "hidden rules" of social interaction.  Michelle Garcia Winner's body of work at www.socialthinking.com provides great resources and research-based approaches to teaching needed social skills.  At Quest, we use our group therapy time as well as our social thinking group to teach needed skills.  We have a "hidden rule" daily that provides children with information that is crucial for social success.  Our daily hidden rule acts as a vehicle for us to teach needed skills and ideas related to the importance of controlling emotions, how to enter a group, aspects of how to have a successful conversation with others, the importance of manners and hygiene, etc.     A key component for us is related to helping kids understand the social thinking concept that others have thoughts and feelings about them and their behavior.  Basically, when we do "expected" behaviors people have positive thoughts and feelings about us and we then have positive feelings about ourselves.  In contrast, when we do "unexpected behaviors" others have negative thoughts and feelings about us, which then leads us to have negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves.  We go back to this formula again and again and plug children's specific positive and negative behaviors into this model to further promote their understanding and ability to engage in social thinking.  Another key area where specific skills are needed is emotion regulation for our kids.  Our campers often struggle with recognizing their emotions or the emotional experiences of others.  It is critical to also be direct in your teaching in this area as many people who naturally read other's facial expressions or body language assume that kids are picking up their cues--sadly kids with social struggles rarely do without support regarding how to decode these cues from others.  We specifically teach many skills for emotion regulation including how to utilize relaxation strategies (deep breathing, imagery, progressive relaxation), to using a number scale to identify and discuss various emotions and their intensity.  For example: we might say, "Right now I am a 4 out of 5 for frustration on our scale.  Some cues that might tell you this are that my mouth is down turned, my eyebrows are angled, my hands are on my hips, and my voice has started to raise." Ultimately there are many ways to transform the various environments that a child who struggles socially is in to be more supportive and directive to help kids to develop the friendships that they crave.  Dr. Thurber is correct that it is critical to understand rejection and to help develop skills for kids who have deficits regarding social skills.  I believe it is also important to help kids become social thinkers so that they will be able to generalize more skills and understand how their behaviors impact others and how this can impact them socially.         [1] Thurber, Christopher, Ph.D., Rejectology: Helping dorks kids fit in requires understanding social rejection. Camping, May/June 2015, page 33. [2] Thurber, Christopher, Ph.D., Rejectology: Helping dorks kids fit in requires understanding social rejection. Camping, May/June 2015, page 34. [1] Thurber, Christopher, Ph.D., Rejectology: Helping dorks kids fit in requires understanding social rejection. Camping, May/June 2015, page 36.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Dear Friends of Quest,    I hope that this monthly installment of our newsletter finds you happy and healthy!  I can't believe camp is less than 2 months away!  We are excited to announce that we have added a 7th week to our summer camp, which will be a 3 Night/4 Day Big Bear Residential Week! Please Click Here to see our Summer Calendar! This issue of our newsletter includes an article on mindfulness.  At Quest, we are proud to provide an innovative treatment program through our therapeutic summer camp and school year therapy groups that have been proven to reduce problem behaviors not only at camp, but in school, at home, and in everyday life.  We hope that our newsletter will be a source of support and applicable information to improve the lives of the amazing children and families in our community.    Sincerely, Jodie Knott, Ph.D. Director and Licensed Psychologist Quest Therapeutic Camps of Southern California

The Benefits of Mindfulness Mindfulness has been a term that has gained popularity in recent years.  Part of this attention is well earned due to the new and exciting research that shows positive effects on both emotional control and executive functioning skills for both children and adults.  At camp we have been implementing many of these concepts and interventions for several years.  We have been practicing several aspects of mindfulness to help our campers develop in new and exciting ways.  Mindfulness has been defined as "paying attention to the present moment with acceptance and non-judgment (kindness and curiosity)." [1]  It often involves focused energy related to a sensory experience.  Paying attention to subjective experiences as well as our own emotional and  physical state, can lead to calm effective problem solving.  This leads to a state of "mindfulness" that allows for more effective thinking.  Specifically, mindfulness targets an approach that starts with physical aspects such as calm body and calm breathing. The focus then switches to a calm mind where thoughts and experiences are calm and focused on the present moment.  Lastly the focus shifts to emotional control and emotional regulation by practicing calm emotions in combination with a calm body and calm mind.   This leads to a state of thinking termed "Mindfulness". There is new and exciting research by Carol Dweck about the importance of mindset.  She found that by teaching people about our thought process there can be improvements that have an important impact on growth and development.  Specifically by changing our thinking patters we can create dramatic and long lasting improvements.[2] Research shows that Mindfulness practices have been found to create positive brain development in the prefrontal cortex (related to attention, planning, problem solving, mood) the insular cortex (understanding other people's perspectives, mirror neurons), and the temporal/parietal junction (learning and memory). This suggests that Mindfulness is an important part of learning and especially helpful for people with executive functioning problems.[3] At camp we use a variety of activities to facilitate Mindfulness.  We consistently facilitated a relaxation group to teach deep breathing, imagery, and progressive relaxation for  and utilize bonus points when children use these skills in times of stress.  While these components will remain cornerstones of our program we plan to expand our mindfulness activities to include new programming.  Specifically we will incorporate mindfulness into  yoga, art, music, and time in nature. [1] Williard, Christopher, Ph.D., Mindfulness Strategies for Children and Teens. Continuing Education Training on April 22, 2015 for PESI. [2] Dweck, Carol, Ph.D., Mindset. 2006. Ballantine Books. USA. [3] Williard, Christopher, Ph.D.,, Mindfulness Strategies for Children and Teens. Continuing Education Training on April 22, 2015 for PSI.