Professional Workshops

• Effectively Dealing With Special Education Issues In Our Classroom.-We examine different areas of
development; how children are impacted by different types of disabilities. We will focus on dissecting what we observe about the child, what does that tells us about the child’s neurological processing and learning abilities, and how we can shape the environment so that the child is able to learn and grow in our program.

• How Do We Get These Kids to Listen? Communicating More Effectively with Students.
We discuss the two major aspects of communication: sending a message and receiving a message. When we are having difficulty with students following our directions, there is a problem with one or both of these. Either we are not being as clear as we think or the child is not receiving the message. We examine a variety of situations that typically go badly. Like the cafeteria, or talking with autistic students, then we fine tune our body language, vocal tone, and language so that we are sure our message gets across.

• Communicating With Parents About Difficult Subjects. We begin with the understanding that parents
take everything about their children very personally. We will analyze the when, where and how of talking to parents and when are some conversations not worth having. Each situation is unique and each program has to know what are the bottom line issues and what is negotiable.

• Developing a “Child Honoring” Curriculum.-Discussion of Piaget, and new information regarding brain development that confirms what has always have been true about a quality early childhood program.
We will examine each area of child development and how to weave a curriculum that respects
the total child. Problem solving will focus on building a strong curriculum in spite of budget constraints.

• Behavior Management-We will discuss the many factors that contribute to good classroom management: furniture arrangement, curriculum choices, developmental levels and impairments, teacher’s affect and communication style, and specific behavior management strategies.

• Bridging the Gap: Improving the Inclusion Model of Instruction Working with both classroom teachers and special educators, we examine the skills and expertise of both groups. We improve our understanding of our coworkers position and concerns, improve communication, and develop strategies to deliver the best possible program for our students.

 

Parent Workshops

• Why Does He Do That, And How Can I Help? Understanding our Autistic Child and Developing Strategies For Real Life. Let’s move past the labels and look at the behavior we see and what that means about the way our child experiences the world. How do we use their strengths to help them face their challenges and live their best life.

• Living Our Values And Passing Them On. Often we are disappointed at the choices our children make. How can we ensure that our children grow up to be the best that they can be? Come learn how to make sure that we are helping our child to get on the right path for a successful life.

• Can I Run Away Now? Real Life Behavior Management at Home For most of us raising children has turned out to be much more difficult than we imagined that it would be. Let’s get past the buzzwords like consistency and self esteem to the nitty gritty of what we have to do to get control of our children’s behavior.

• Communicating and Working With Your Child’s Teachers We know that it is best for children if we work as a team with their teachers, but that can be difficult to do when the relationship feels adversarial.
Come learn what we can do as parents to make the relationship the best that it can be for the benefit of our child.

• Special Ed Jargon : What in Heavens Name Are They Talking About? We know that we have to be our child’s advocate but we have to function within a system that has it’s own lingo and we are operating at a disadvantage. Bring your questions and let’s learn some practical definitions for we read in those reports and be able to better express our recommendations to the team.

• Surviving Marriage, Surviving Parenthood We fell in love, got married and everything was great until we had kids. Combining two different sets of family values into one new family can get even more stressful after children come on the scene. First we need to become aware of what dynamics are at play (besides the fact that our partner is making us crazy and is totally unreasonable) and then we can figure out how to proceed with a clearer head.

• Dealing With our Difficult Child Some children are born with an easygoing personality and they seem to almost raise themselves. Many other children present challenges that we as parents were not prepared for. Let’s take a look at temperament, neurological development and environment and what we can really do to help our child develop to their fullest potential.

• Being the Mother In Law This is the most complicated of all family relationships. There are plenty of jokes, but where can a woman go to find some support and direction? Join us for a conversation about the
special challenges faced in this relationship and look at how we can make it the best that it can be.