Teresa Garland – “Break Through” Self-Regulation Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD, Sensory or Emotional Challenges

Outline

The Many Challenges of Self-Regulation

• Balancing the needs of the body, brain, senses, emotions and the social self
• Emotional regulation and sensory regulation
• Neurotypical children v. atypical children
• Differences with ASD, ADHD, and other challenges
• How well are we doing the research?

A Little Bit of Neuroanatomy

• Cerebellum: The prediction machine
• The ASD, ADHD, sensory connection
• Mapping emotions
• The vagal nerve’s job in all this

Let’s Talk about Infants and Toddlers

• Early predictors of ASD, ADHD and sensory challenges
• Infants, temperament, crying and social attention
• Facial expressions and emotions in ASD
• Parent video feedback with infants makes a difference!

Self-Regulation for All Age-Groups and Behavior Types

• Calming and gradual exposure and desensitization
• Rethinking the classroom, office, and/or home environment
• Strategies for pre-school and the kindergarten classroom
• Play, play, play! Inside/outside the classroom
• Classroom aerobics and other activities
• Heavy work, exercise, deep pressure and play

Eating and Sleeping Can Co-opt Good Effort

• Effect of poor sleep on repetitive behaviors and negative affect in ASD
• Effects of sensory processing on sleep
• Bedtime Fading with Response Cost (BFRC) Intervention
• Melatonin, elimination diets and supplements for ASD and ADHD
• Sensory intervention at mealtime

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Techniques You Should Absolutely be Using

• Engaging lists, stories and transitions (Make them fun!)
• J. Shauls’s Conversation Train (and more!)
• Making consistency as your modus operandi
• Play engagement, DIR, ABA, Discrete Trials and more
• Restrictive, Repetitive Behaviors (RRBs) Interventions
  • High order v. low order
  • Exercise and aquatic movement
  • Ayer’s Sensory Therapy®
  • Mixed method interventions
• Help kids with ASD handle peer rejection
• Video feedback for social scenarios: Do’s and don’ts

ADHD: Effectively Intervene with This “Moving Target”

• How imaging studies have challenged our ideas of ADHD
• A new look at combined ADHD and Concentration Deficit Disorder
• Innovative organization techniques
• Creating simple habits and keeping it simple
• Grounding activities: Mindfulness, karate, HIIT
• Self-management intervention and “getting to center”
• Check impulsivity meta-cognitive group games
• Revisiting feedback and timing in the cerebellum

Special Interventions for Teens and Tweens

• Video feedback: Create appropriate expressions, reactions and interactions
• Social skills programs to develop real-life empathy
• Regulation techniques for social situations and avoiding peer rejection
• Sensorimotor Therapy to cut through trauma

It’s a Team – Going for the Championship

• Partnership of teachers, therapists and specialists
• Interlace the team’s self-regulation goals to make them effective
• How to include parents: Highly effective at-home interventions