Both centers will have a Valentine's Party on Friday, February 12. We have a number of fun activities planned for the kids that day! There will be special art projects, games, exchanging of Valentines, and a sugar cookie for a treat.

As parents, we have just a few requests of you to help make the day a success:

• If your child has any food allergies, please send in an alternate treat. We are getting frosted sugar cookies from Kroger's for the kids. If you need to see the ingredient list, please reach out to your BCBA.
• If you choose to send Valentines in with your child for his friends, avoid adding any edible treats.
• We are happy to help your child sign his name to his Valentines if you send them in early (at least the Monday before the party.) You can send in the whole box, or send in the right number for the group.
• There are 5 children total in Burton and 7 total in Brighton.
• If you want to have your child sign his Valentines at home, please have him just write or trace his own name in the "from" spot and leave the "to" spot blank. This makes passing them out easier.

We will have the children decorate "mailboxes" for their Valentines earlier in the week at the center, so you don't need to send in anything for that! We also have extra Valentines on hand at the center, so don't worry if you're not able to pick those up. We'll try to take plenty of pictures to share with you here and via TheraWe. Thanks for your help!

Sometimes you'll hear educators or professionals in our field talk about "Activities of Daily Living" or "ADLs." These are skills that people do on a daily basis to take care of themselves; they are the type of skills that help our children grow up to be more independent.

We address ADLs every day at the centers, and we hope that you see the improvements at home. Here are some of the simple things we do that help to improve ADLs for the children:

• Independent use of the bathroom, including hand washing
• Putting on winter gear - which leads to playing outside!
• Allowing children time to take care of their own gear - carrying their backpacks, hanging up their coats, and stowing their boots away.
• Leaving lunch boxes zipped up at the table - allowing the children to unzip and remove their own snacks or lunch.
• Giving children a chance to open the ziploc bag or other containers you send in their lunch - we'll always help if they need it, but giving them the space to try is important.
• Using Routine Factory for our daily schedule - the children interact with the schedule on their tablet, checking off the activity they've finished, and looking at the next item to determine what to do.
• More in depth programs like haircut tolerance - many children struggle with having their hair cut, and we can practice a haircut through pretend play to lessen the struggle.
• Brushing teeth - all we ask is that parents send in a toothbrush and toothpaste - and we can practice this every day!

If you have any questions about your child and his ADLs, please reach out to your BCBA - we're here to help! Your parent training sessions with your BCBA are a great time to get tips and tricks for working on these things at home too.

Email: info@sc-centers.com
Website: www.sc-centers.com
Location: Burton and Brighton, MI
Phone: 810-344-8082