There Is No Catch. It's All for the Good.

I have been dragging my boys with me all day, meetings, houses, conference calls, errands. There has been plenty of shushing and hushing, but for my last meeting they are excited. I’m excited too and as we enter the conference room I can sense my counterparts feeling the same excitement combined with the question – Why? Why do you want to do this with us?

Let me explain.

The place is called Game to Grow and I’m sitting in the room with Adam and Adam. No, it’s not a typo. These two wonderful gentlemen teach and believe in using role-playing games to teach and learn social skills. Adam has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and he is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a master’s in family and couple’s therapy.  The other Adam has a master’s in Education and used to be a class room teacher. He is also recognized member of the North American Drama Therapy Association. Both of them are also avid gamers – and this is why my boys were so very excited to meet them.

To help you understand, I want to tell you about social skills classes from my parent perspective. We have a long history in these classes with our daughter. Social skills classes, social skills camps, social skills lunches. You name it. All these classes, groups, lunches and camps had something in common. A smart kid, struggling with social interaction learned how these classes worked and very quickly excelled in something that is still to this day a challenge in the real world. We went from beginner status to: “Oh, she’s so good at this! She always knows what to do. We use her as an example in our classes!” Nice, maybe? But all those right answers never fully transferred to social interactions at school, out in the yard or recess time. It didn’t transfer, regardless of much we grownups reminded her of “superflex”. She knows the skills, she has them but when push comes to shove it is as if she never learned anything at all. My parent impression was that social skills classes do not work for smart high-functioning kids on the spectrum. They do not work because these kids are amazing in recognizing patterns and repeating them, but at least for my child this was a game done in a group, in a class, at a camp. She wanted to please the teacher to graduate, she wanted to excel to get out of there, and so she did.

When I heard about Game to Grow I became super excited. Learning social skills by playing role-playing games without really knowing you are learning social skills. That’s just brilliant. I could so see this working, not only for my child but for so many other like her. So, I’m sitting in this room more as a parent than a Realtor. I’m sitting in this room because there is a great need for something like this in our community and the wait list for Game to Grow Groups is long and growing.

Game to Grow recently earned their non-profit 501(c)(3) status, allowing them to join with organizations that can support their work. Their non-profit status allows company matching for any donations, it allows them to be a part of the Amazon Smile, and it also allows me to form a Community Partnership with the organization.

“The Community Partnership program was formed in 1988, and assists registered, non-profit organizations in developing funds for community activities.”

• Total contributions $1,511,861
• Last year’s contributions $35,747
• Average contribution amount $935
• Number of community partners 32 organizations.

There is no catch. It's all for the good.