One thing that makes JRA unique is that we will take children with behavior problems. Not all of our kids have these issues, but they certainly don’t scare us. There is a culture of fear and blame circulating around these kids, one that is not helpful to anyone. If a teacher has a child in […]
learning to live independently
While many of our students will go on to college, academic education may not be the best route for all of our graduates. With that in mind and with a great new building to use, the 2014-2015 school year will debut our Life Skills track for students ages 15 to 21. This program is designed […]
Social Thinking at JRA
Social Thinking is a term coined by Michelle Winner to wrap our heads around the mysterious way that human beings communicate with each other. People who have a high “emotional quotient” or E.Q. (Check out Daniel Goleman’s popular book, Emotional Intelligence) don’t have “social skills,” they just intuitively read other people accurately and respond in […]
helping the future self
Recently we had an incident where Jeff felt insulted and, in retaliation, bonked another child with a cardboard box. The second child wasn’t hurt, but was highly indignant. I took Jeff inside and we sat down to fill out a behavior map, which we use to explore the ramifications of a child’s behavior in the […]
Social skills deficits
Prospective parents are often surprised by how quickly we are willing to accept their children. We encourage the child and the parents to visit, and we want to make sure that we can keep the new child safe, along with all of our students. But we believe that most children will fit well into a […]
