Professional Development on Challenging Behavior for Teachers
Students with the most complex needs (for example, a combination of factors such as limited communication, sensory issues, cognitive challenges, social competence challenges) sometimes present confusing and challenging behaviors that cause educational teams to struggle with developing a plan of support. The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) can provide professional development to help teams learn how to examine the situation and create a proactive plan. Learning the process will begin with functional behavior assessment that will include looking at factors and underlying issues that may trigger or reinforce the challenging behaviors. The presentation will include examining strengths and skills of the student and reviewing a tool that will help match evidence-based strategies to students with complex needs. Examples and case studies will be used to demonstrate the concepts and process.
At the completion of the training, participants will be able to:
- Identify and define observable behaviors of students with complex needs
- Determine underlying issues that may be causing observable behaviors
- Utilize functional behavior assessment process to determine appropriate supports for students with complex needs
- Select evidence based practices that align with identified antecedent behaviors and/or consequences of behaviors
Teams/individuals must bring information (possibly behavior data, behavior plans, current FBA, ETR, IEP with identifying information removed) about a student with complex needs and challenging behaviors that will be used by the team or participant to begin working through a functional behavior assessment and start developing a plan.
Possible follow-up may include: time to share team progress and challenges with all participants; feedback from OCALI staff members; and a presentation of many evidence-based and promising practices that can support the underlying issues identified in the positive behavior plan.
Contact Megan Trowbridge for further information.
Email: megan_trowbridge@ocali.org
This training is also available as a webcast training series. It is suggested that someone with an understanding of functional behavior assessment and disability specific knowledge facilitate the series. The accompanying forms are available to download.