Celebrate the Children Staff Training Outline

• Policies and Procedures

○ Professional Standards
• Job Descriptions and Responsibilities
• First Aid/Safety
○ CPR and First Aid Certification
○ Emergency Procedures
○ Fire Drills
○ Daily Surveillance Procedures
○ Lost Student Procedures
○ DYFS
• Celebrate the Children Philosophy and Program Components
• Autism (Temple Grandin, Sean Barron, Jasmine Lee O’Neal, Donna Williams,
Ross Blackburn, Douglas Biklen)
• Sensory Integration/Individual Differences (Ayers, DeGangi, White, Greenspan,
Wieder, Kranowitz, Williams, and Others)
• Basic Theoretical Training of the DIR Approach (Greenspan and Wieder)
○ Developmental Levels
 Understanding the Levels
○ Principles and Strategies to Support the Levels
 How interactions push a child up the developmental ladder
○ 3 to 5 Case studies of children pre-K through high school with a range of
abilities (Types 1,2,3 & 4)
• DIR in the Classroom (Greenspan, Wieder, Osgood, Blaszak, Seminaro and
Kalmanson)
○ Classroom Schedule
 Follow the Child’s Lead Floor Time
 Semi-Structured Instruction
 Traditional Academic Work
 Social Skills Groups/Lessons
 Sensory Motor Work
○ Regulation
○ Engagement/Relationships that Support Learning
○ Intentionality
○ Problem Solving/Sense of Self/Independence
○ Symbolic Thinking/Elaborating on Ideas/Emotions/Play
○ Emotional Thinking/Reasoning/Critical Thinking
○ Theory of Mind (Barron-Cohen)
○ Multi-Causal, Comparative and Triangular Thinking
○ Emotionally Differentiated Gray-Area Thinking
○ Intermittent Reflective Thinking, a Stable Sense of Self, and an Internal
Standard
• Your Role in the Classroom (Osgood and Blaszak)
○ Believing in the Child
○ You make a difference
 ○ Working as a team/Attitude
○ Data Collection
• Parents and DIR (Osgood and Blaszak)
○ Listening
○ Coaching
○ Balancing Demands
• Behavior Management (Osgood)/Discipline Policies (Blaszak)
○ What are the developmental weaknesses responsible for the behavior?
○ What is the function of the behavior?
○ We must change our behavior first!
○ Proactive strategies to support the child’s needs and prevent behaviors
○ Consistent responses to behavior
○ Teaching alternative behaviors/Social skills instruction/Social Stories
○ Strengthening the developmental weaknesses through DIR intervention to
change behavior long term
○ Working with the team (including out-of-school supports such as the
child’s doctor)
○ Working with the family
• Crisis Intervention (Filchak)
○ CTC’s Crisis Management Protocol
 SAFETY
 RESPECT
○ Working as a team
○ Working with the family
○ When the intervention isn’t working
• DIR and Communication/Language Development (Sima Gerber)
○ Affect-Based Language Curriculum (Greenspan and Lewis)
○ The Hanen Program
• DIR and Sensory Integration (Rosemary White)
• DIR and Motor Planning and Visual Spatial Work (Thinking Goes to School-
Harry Wachs and Serena Wieder)
• DIR and the Academic Curriculum/Teaching to the CCCS Using DIR (Karen
McDowell)
○ Experience-based Learning
○ Learning and Emotions
○ Independence
○ Visualizing Academic Concepts (V/V, On Cloud Nine-Lindamood/Bell)
○ The Thought-provoking Curriculum
○ Independent Thinkers and Problem Solvers
○ Supporting Reflective Thinking
○ Multiple Intelligences (Gardner)/Differentiated Instruction
• Social Skills Instruction (Osgood, Blaszak, Gray, Baron-Cohen, Gutstein,
Shapiro, Levine, Shure, Oser, Baker and Others)
○ Structured Social Skills Groups/Lessons
○ Individualized Social Skills Instruction
○ DIR and Social Skills Instruction (Greenspan)
  Working through competing ideas
 Scripts with more than one solution
 What else could you, or would you want to do?
 Making the scripted solution harder (Teacher throws in a problem)
 Facilitating innovation and creativity

Continued Training for Staff Who Work with Non-verbal Students or Students with
Minimal Language:

• Apraxia Techniques (Breakstone)

• Augmentative Communication/Assistive Technology (Breakstone)
• Specialized Academic Programming
• Medical Interventions
• Peer Facilitation/Friendships
• Steps to Independence (Baker and Brightman)
• Life Skills

Continued Training for Staff Who Work with Verbal Children who May Have More
Challenging Behavior:

• More on Behavior and Crisis Management

○ Functions of Behavior
○ Sensory Sensitivities and Behavior
○ How Self Esteem Impacts Behavior
○ Motor Planning and Behavior
○ Stress and the Older Student/Related Behaviors and Obsessions
• OCD and Autism
• Tourettes and Autism
• Bi-polar Tendencies and Autism
• Post Traumatic Stress and Autism
• Expanding Thinking
• Developmental Levels 7 through 9
• More on Theory of Mind
• Friendships

Understanding the Transition Process:

• Currently being developed

September Training for Teachers Only:

• Room Layout and Requirements
• Managing Your Staff
• The CTC Curriculum
• Lesson Plan Requirements
○ CCCS
○ Using the Students’ IEP’s
○ Bloom’s Taxonomy
○ The Essential Question
 ○ Using Our Curriculum
○ The Multi-Sensory Lesson Plan
○ The Emotional Connection
○ Make it Experience Based and Dynamic!
○ Multiple Intelligence (Gardner)/Differentiated Instruction
• Assessment
○ Observation
○ Testing
○ Progress Reports/IEP Goals
○ Standardized Testing
• Start Your APA’s NOW!

Additional Requirements of Staff:

• Weekly Readings
○ Articles by the Masters
○ Excepts from Books
• Professional Development Meetings/Classroom Meetings
• Additional Case-based Study
• Local DIR Professional Groups
• Regional and National Conferences
• DIR Certificate Program
•
Assessment of Staff Understanding and Utilization of Intervention Strategies:

• Testing on Mastery of Material Taught

• Observations and Evaluation of Staff by Administration on Implementation of
Intervention
• Individual and Small Group Reflective Supervision