Jay Berk – High-Functioning Autism: Proven & Practical Interventions for Challenging Behaviors in Children, Adolescents & Young Adults

Outline

• DSM-5® and ICD-10 Updates
  • Social-Pragmatic Communication Disorder
  • Impact on service delivery (school/community)
  • Successfully link home, school and therapy
  • IEP/504/Do they qualify for school services?
  • Co-morbid disorders: Why the difference is important
• Social Skills Interventions
  • Improve social skill deficits
  • “Kid Cop” behaviors and why other kids get angry
  • How to get peers to recognize them in positive ways
  • Group activities
  • Early intervention programs that can deliver long-term success
• Communication Interventions
  • Conflict resolutions that are effective in multiple settings
  • Help peers and family members relate
  • Verbal interventions that overload processing
  • Pragmatic language and other abstract issues
• Sensory Interventions
  • Self-stimulation (appropriate & inappropriate)
  • Sensory strategies to avoid
  • Coping/calming techniques that reduce meltdowns
  • Sensory diet
• Anxiety Interventions
  • Anxiety-reducing activities
  • How anxiety impacts rigidity
  • Help them “self-regulate”
  • Successful transitions
• Depression Interventions
  • Impact on flexibility and change
  • Therapy that works for people with HFA
  • Emergence in adolescence
  • Solitude vs. loneliness
• ADHD Interventions
  • ADHD vs. hyper-focus
  • Commonly prescribed medications and possible benefits and side effects
  • Specific triggers and what fuels the rage
  • Reduce aggressive and disruptive behaviors
  • Mistakes that escalate defiant behaviors
  • Overcome refusals to comply with even simple requests
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Interventions
  • What to do when they become stuck on high interest areas
  • Specific medication interventions
  • Impact on socialization and behaviors
• Interventions for Specific Difficult Behaviors
  • Reduce Internet and electronic addictions
  • Changes in technology, school systems and mental health delivery
  • Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) for mood and anxiety
• Psychopharmacological Interventions
  • Differentiate among common medications
  • Medications that mimic difficult behaviors
  • Side effects and off label use
• Case Studies, Demonstrations & Activities
  • Case studies that demonstrate specific interventions for aggressive and non-compliant behaviors
  • iPad® apps for social success, behavioral changes and speech and language
  • Staff training techniques to experience what an individual on the spectrum might