Origami Social Thinking Groups Summer, 2008 “When the paper folds the mind unfolds” When: Two Sessions July 28 - August 1st in Falmouth August 18- 22 in Freeport Instructors: Barbara Baum Freethy, M.Ed., Educational Therapist Karen Lambert, CCC-SLP, Speech Pathologist Who Should Attend: These programs are designed for children and adolescents with visual spatial strengths and social cognitive challenges. Cost: $300 per session (each session is 2 hours/day for five days) For more information contact: Barbara Baum Freethy at transdis@verizon.net or 846-8643 Karen Lambert at 712-9101 This Program will also be posted on Transdisciplinary Workshops, Inc. web site: www.transdis.com See the next page for more information on the Program! Emphasis of Program: Along with teaching origami skills, the focus will be placed on social thinking skills developed in MIchelle Garcia Winner’s “ILAUGH” Curriculum. This is includes: • Initiating novel activities: learning how to start behaviors necessary to have social communication • Listening actively: improving auditory processing deficits • Abstracting and inferencing: working on the non literal aspects of language • Understanding perspective: thinking about others and how others are thinking about you • Gestalt: getting the big picture • Humor: using humor to break the barriers of insecurity and establish a level on which all can relate Therapeutic benefits of Origami The Theragmi™ method, developed by Hagit Shalev, is based on the use of Origami to achieve vital academic, cognitive and therapeutic skills. Below is a list of partial academic and cognitive skills involving Origami. Listening Skills Reading Skills Writing Skills Mathematics Spatial Relationship Social Studies Sequential Memory Concentration Eye-Hand Coord. Fine Motor Skills Visual Memory Visual-Spatial Motor Skills Verbal and Visual Memory Logical Reasoning Problem Solving Creating origami, whether it be one piece simple sculpture or 30 piece complex geometric shapes, has a therapeutic effect on children. Many folders have found Origami to be an inherently relaxing activity and its use as a stress reduction technique. It is an ideal milieu for building social thinking skills in small groups as children and adolescents master a new shapes together. About the Instructors Barbara Baum Freethy is an educational therapist at Touchstone Psychotherapy Associates. She has 35 years of experience working with children and families. Currently, the focus of Barbara’s work is on individual and group social thinking programs for children and adults with ADHD, Learning Disabilities, and Autistic Spectrum Disorders. She provides training on the use of the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach for explosive/noncompliant children and adolescents. Barbara has been making origami for the past 12 years and uses the art of paper folding in her sessions with clients. Karen Lambert has worked as a speech/language pathologist for the past 20 years. She brings a wide range of experience from working in the field of early intervention for then years, and specializing in providing evaluation and intervention services for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Over the past five years, she has worked with school-aged children with language learning disabilities, Asperger's Syndrome, and Nonverbal learning disabilities. She is eclectic in her therapeutic approach employing a variety of strategies that support social cognition and personal growth including therapeutic yoga, art, music, and drama.