Cara Marker Daily – Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence-Based Interventions for Improving Challenging Behaviors in Children, Adolescents & Young Adults

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence-Based Interventions for Improving Challenging Behaviors in Children, Adolescents & Young Adults – Cara Marker Daily

Join autism expert and author, Cara Daily, PhD, and learn how to integrate the latest research on brain development in your work with children with autism (0-25 years old). Youwill walk away with up-to-date behavioral strategies to teach new skills and behaviors related to co-occurring deficits related to:

• Social-Communication
• Sensory
• Meltdowns
• Anxiety/Rigidity
• Psychotropic Medications
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• ADHD/Executive
• Functions
• Depression
• Obsessive-Compulsive
• Disorder
• Self-Help Skills

In this hands-on seminar, you will discover what it is like to have a brain with autism. Once you experience the difference between a typical brain and a brain with autism, you will be able to design more effective and successful interventions that lead to successful independence into their adult years!

Through dynamic discussion using dozens of case studies, video examples and experiential exercises and activities you will learn new strategies for treating autism, maintaining and generalizing positive behaviors, the ins and out of functional behavioral assessments and how to problem solve challenging behaviors with this population.

1. Research and diagnose autism using DSM-5® and ICD-10 updates.
2. Differentiate between abilities that are intact versus impaired in the brain with autism.
3. Compare and evaluate empirically validated strategies for children with autism.
4. Identify the best time to teach a new behavior.
5. Determine the 2 major functions of a behavior using case examples.
6. Utilize appropriate social-communication strategies to teach new behaviors.
7. Design effective strategies for treating autism spectrum disorder and challenging behaviors.
8. Research certain punishment techniques and the ethical dilemmas in using them.

Diagnostic Criteria

• ICD-10 updates vs DSM-5®
• Social (pragmatic) communication disorder
• Comorbid disorders
• Conceptual framework
• Screening and assessment tools

Brain Function: How the Brain with Autism Works

• Latest research in ASD brain development
• Enhanced vs impaired abilities
• Information processing: Typical brain vs brain with autism
• Key analogy to understanding autism
• Activities: Experience what it is like to have autism

Evidence-Based Interventions: Video Demonstrations

• Teach self-help skills: Hygiene, toileting, getting dressed, feeding
• Decrease aggression, self-injury, perseveration and sexual behaviors
• Functional behavioral assessments simplified

Social-Communication Interventions

• Visual systems to improve communication
• Programs to assist in generalizing social skills
• Video modeling and role play to teach social rules
• Teach pragmatic language and other abstract issues
• Social stories™, social autopsies, power cards and the hidden curriculum
• Sensory Interventions
• Appropriate self-stimulatory behaviors
• Exposure therapy
• Coping/calming techniques that reduce meltdowns
• Sensory Diets

Depression, Anxiety, and OCD Interventions

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• What to do when they become stuck on high interest areas
• Self-regulation strategies
• Tools to recognize emotions
• Relaxation techniques for stress management

Interventions for ADHD, ODD and Other Challenging Behaviors

• Staying on-task and motivation through schedules, time-lines, web diagramming
• Noncompliance and oppositional behaviors
• Reduce aggressive and disruptive behaviors by setting them up for success
• Mistakes that escalate defiant behaviors
• Overcome refusals to comply with even simple requests

Psychopharmacological Interventions

• Commonly prescribed medications
• Medication efficacy
• Risks versus benefits

Ethical Challenges in Autism

• Welfare of the individual
• Informed consent
• Use of restraints
• Time-out vs. seclusion