Parents as Teachers - "Taking Back Control"
Among the many challenges faced by parents of children with autism and developmental delays is how to take skills taught in one-on-one therapy and transition these into learning opportunities at home. Many parents wonder how it is possible to meet the published empirical and recommended therapy hours (20-40 hour per week) for children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This course is recommended for parents looking to establish a program that meets these guidelines and maximises the number of learning opportunities in a child’s day.
SESSION 1: Therapy & Beyond – Natural evidence based methods for promoting development
AIMS: For parents to understand how learning works and how they can provide an environment for increasing learning opportunities and outcomes. A focus will be on teaching the basic principles of learning and the major evidence based natural teaching packages that have been developed.
- Incidental Teaching
- Pivotal Response Teaching
- Play therapy
- Communication Temptation and Developmental (More than words)
- Environmental Engineering
- Chaining Methods
* Please note that for advanced training on Pivotal Response Teaching and More than Words, the LEARN Parents as Teachers – Advanced Series is recommended.
SESSION 2: Putting the methods into practice
AIMS: for parents to have the planning materials and tools that allow them to identify the correct targets and methods to teach them naturally at home. The focus will be on examples in the major domains.
- How to promote communication
- How to promote play
- How to promote learning skills
- How to promote attachment and coping skills
- How to target goals from your therapy program into daily life.
* Please note that for methods to promote social skills, a 2 week course in how to run playdates, promote social development and target emotional skills is recommended after completion of this course.
SESSION 3: Implementing at home – strategies to get it all working
Aims: This session covers the trickier part of how to implement these strategies into everyday life. It has a heavy problem solving focus with ideas and suggestions on how to navigate the major barriers to being able to run a Beyond Therapy program at home.
- Identify targets and recording success – how to evaluate
- Working with LEARN program – working with other professions
- Including the family
- Communicating with other professionals and agencies
The participants who complete this course will:
- become familiar with the LEARN Parents as Teachers - Taking Back Control program and learn to use the materials that accompany it. A program booklet will also include examples and tip sheets.
- have the tools and instruments for implementing the LEARN Parents as Teachers - Taking Back Control program at home. This skills taught in this program will be of benefit throughout early intervention and into grade 1.
For those wishing to establish a program to work towards extending the number of therapy hours to those recommended by the Australian Government and research that has documented what the best outcome for children with an ASD is, it is recommended that they do the LEARN Parents as Teachers – Advanced Series.
The course runs for 2 hours on a Wednesday evening over 3 weeks, 7.30-9.30pm every second month in 2009, the first series commencing January 7th. Places are limited and taken on a first come first served basis. The course is run by Mandy Mason. The cost is $450 including course materials and refreshments.
The LEARN Teachers as Parents – Advanced Series runs every second month the first series in 2009 commencing February 4th and also runs over 3 weeks. The LEARN Teachers as Parents - Beyond Therapy program is a pre-requisite course for the advanced series.
