Barbara Culatta – Reduce Emotional Outbursts, Shutting Down and Oppositional Behaviors in Social and Academic Settings: Proven Language, Communication- and Attachment-Based Interventions

Outline

Relationship Among Self-Regulation, Language, and Social-Communication

• Self-regulation deficits in children with ASD, ADHD, ACEs, and LLD
• Development of self-regulation, emotion understanding, and Theory of Mind (ToM)
• Language and cognitive processes involved in social-emotional development
• Link among attachment, relationships, and emotions

Language and Behavior Assessments

• Exercises to measure understanding of words for internal states
• Tools to assess comprehension and connection of internal states to plans and actions
• Mechanisms to chart and monitor behavior
• Rubrics to assess social skills
• Checklists to determine factors that influence language and behavior

INTERVENTIONS AND STRATEGIES TO:

Develop Social-Communication Skills and Emotion Understanding

• Apply attachment theory to emotion understanding and social interactions
• Scaffold interactions to achieve topically-related turn taking
• Social narratives to establish social roles and rules
• Co-regulation strategies to build relationships
• Teach language to identify and express internal states
• ”Emotional Thermometer” to match feelings to appropriate responses

Address Dysregulation and Challenging Behaviors

• Personal narratives to process emotionally-charged events
• Self-talk, positive messaging, and labeling of internal states to manage emotions
• Move from tight routines to flexible scripts to ensure participation in group activities
• Calming, mindfulness, and bibliotherapy techniques
• Intrinsic motivation, positive engagement, and self-efficacy to improve behavior
• Movement and sensory experiences to engage children in learning
• Project- and team-based learning opportunities to establish rules for social participation
• Reinforcement system and procedures to manage behavior

Promote Self-Regulation Within Language and Curricular Contexts While Meeting ELA Standards

• Apply Theory of Mind (ToM) to text comprehension
• Connect internal states with plans, goals, and actions
• Tell, map, and analyze personal and social narratives
• Link social, behavioral, and educational goals
• Guide participation in instructional conversations
• Scaffold inferencing and predicting

Faculty

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Barbara Culatta, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an international expert and author on language and literacy interventions. She has been working with children in clinical and educational programs for 45 years. Dr. Culatta is renowned for creating a highly acclaimed language and literacy program (Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy) that utilizes the arts, representational play, and interactive activities as the basis for teaching language and literacy skills; and she has conducted research on the effectiveness of this program with children with ASD. She is well respected for her work in using scripted play, story enactments, and hands-on experiences as contexts for language and literacy instruction and intervention.

Dr. Culatta has written books (Language and Literacy Instruction in the Classroom and Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy), chapters, and publications on language and literacy instruction and interventions. She has received federally-funded professional development and intervention grants to document the effectiveness of innovative instructional approaches. Dr. Culatta’s research revolves around evaluating playful and personally-meaningful language and literacy interventions. She has conducted evidence-based interventions in English and Spanish-speaking settings that included children with challenging behaviors.

Dr. Culatta, professor emerita of Communication Disorders at Brigham Young University, completed her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and a postdoctoral fellowship from Johns Hopkins University.