DAY ONE
Treating Behaviors that Make Us Crazy
- Tantrums
- Meltdowns
- Running Away
- Noncompliance
- Anxiousness
- Lack of follow through
- Not following directions
- Screaming
- Bullying
- Nagging
The Most Challenging Disorders
Be A Jedi Master at Telling Them Apart!
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression with irritability
- Bipolar Disorder
- Mood disorders
- Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
Functions of Behavior Assessments
Know Whether the Behavior Is Rooted In
- Fear, escape, pain, control
- Attention, connection, sensory seeking
- Neuropsychological and direct approaches!
Mental Health Disorder or Behavior Problem?
Unpack the Most Difficult to Treat Childhood Disorders
- Is ODD nature or nurture?
- ADHD and ways to overcome the heterogeneity problem
- The ubiquity of sensory processing dysfunction
- DMDD versus bipolar disorder versus clinical depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Disorders of trauma
- The spectrum in autism spectrum disorder
- Physiological underpinnings of challenging behavior
- Using motor memory to treat the most challenging behaviors
- Overactive versus the underactive amygdala: 20 strategies for each!
- Gray matter versus white matter problems and solutions
- The role of neurotransmitters in childhood pathology
- Sensory processing dysfunction
The Best Strategies for School Staff!
- Ways to stop classroom tantrums and meltdowns
- Muscle memory strategies for lower functioning children
- Create task analysis for any behavior!
- The ultimate self-report card for any disruptive behavior
- Proven ways to label emotions to reduce volatility
- Teach social skills through microexpression interpretation
- Self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility
The Best Clinical Strategies for Home!
- Teach personal responsibility using the “accountability pie”
- Self-report cards to bridge home and school
- Ways to stop tantrums and meltdowns at home
- Clinical assessments for schools to create IEPs and 504 plans
- Artful thinking routines for perspective taking and reasoning
- Self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility at home
The Best Clinical Strategies for Special Populations & Circumstances!
- Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder
- Divorced parents
- Pandemic fueled abuse and trauma
- Foster care and adoption issues
- Ways to work with parent dysfunction
DAY TWO
Executive Functioning (EF) Overview
How the Brain Contributes to Behavior, Cognition, and Emotional Regulation
- Harvard’s three-types of brain function
- Development and neurophysiology of executive functioning
- Treating “hot circuits” versus “cool circuits”
- How to manage the upstairs brain versus the downstairs brain
- The neurobiology of thinking and belief systems
- Role of nutrition and neurotransmitters in behavior and learning
- How and why we move to think!
Executive Function Assessment:
5 “Must-Knows” for Clinicians and Teachers
- The Mini-Neuro Assessment for EF, Gifted, LD and ADHD
- When does the child require an IEP versus 504 plan?
- Learn which accommodations work best for which EF symptoms!
- What we assess and why we assess it
- Which EF deficits are linked to which disorders
Top 10 Executive Functions in School and at Home
Age and Developmental Specific Strategies to Promote
- Self-regulation
- Emotional control
- Sustaining attention
- Cognitive flexibility
- Initiation
- Working memory
- Planning
- Organization
- Self-monitoring
- Time management
Executive Function Across Ages and Stages
- Developmental assessment of EF
- How EF develops differently in neurodiverse children
- Know the reasonable EF skills for a 7-year-old; 16-year old
- Intervention strategies for EF dysfunction from age 3 to over 35!
- The impact of EF dysfunction in high school & college
- New ways to get those grades back up!
Global Interventions, Strategies and Skill Building
- Integrate motor movement, cognitive skill development, and cognitive-behavioral approaches
- Build a hierarchy of EF skills and scaffold behavioral and academic skills
- Naturally regulate key neurotransmitters without medication
- 10/24/7 method of studying: Straight A’s guaranteed!


