Mental Health Issues in the Classroom: Practical Strategies for Helping Children and Adolescents Succeed – Jay Berk

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Child/adolescent behavioral professional, Jay Berk, PhD, will help you learn how to best manage the students at your school diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), mood disorders, anxiety and depression. You will walk away with concrete, yet practical, strategies to intervene with their serious behavioral issues, such as:

• Anger and outbursts
• Meltdowns and tantrums
• Cutting and self-injury
• Obsessive compulsive
• Defiance
• Truancy
• Impulsivity
• Rigidity
• Sensory issues
• Electronic addiction

Through case studies, video clips and dynamic class discussion you will learn:

• 30 second teacher strategies to manage challenging and disruptive behaviors
• New ways to reduce the costs of out-of-district placements
• How to engage students in class, increase productivity and reduce truancy
• Behavioral assessments and strategies for the IEP team
• Side-effects of common psychotropic medications
• How skill deficits from mental health conditions create behavioral difficulties
• Characteristics of at-risk students’ mental health problems
• Strategies to gain collaboration with clinicians

1. Articulate how behavioral-driven choices differ from mental health-driven behaviors and characterize how these differences inform your choice of intervention.
2. Communicate the effective uses of medications and potential side effects that can appear as misbehaviors in clients.
3. Implement various school-based strategies, used in collaboration with community clinicians, to intervene when behavioral issues arise from mental health conditions.
4. Determine effective positive behavior support strategies as part of a multidisciplinary team to improve the level of functioning in the special needs child.
5. Analyze the efficacy of IDEA as it relates to discipline within the client.
6. Apply communication techniques to improve client engagement inside and outside the classroom.

Students with Mental Health Issues

• Characteristics of at-risk students’ mental health problems
• Mental health issues vs. intentionally disruptive behaviors
• How skill deficits from mental health issues create behavioral difficulties

Strategies for ODD and Conduct Disorder Behaviors

• Choices everyone can live with
• What adults should never say, but usually do
• Arguments with defiant kids
• Getting to the core issues of ODD
• Kids who don’t feel bad
• School-wide management program

Strategies for ADHD

• Decrease impulsive behaviors with what YOU do
• Drawing out the behaviors you want
• Decrease disruption to other students
• Know the accompanying behaviors
• Techniques to self-regulate

Strategies for ASD

• It’s all about social skills growth
• Sensory solutions
• Self-regulation techniques for ASD
• Most misinterpreted behaviors
• Manage high interest areas
• Move them past “kid cop” behaviors

Strategies for Anxiety

• What to do about separation anxiety
• Help their panic attack pass quickly
• School phobia…not always a fear of school
• Compromises that work
• Deep breathing and relaxation techniques

Strategies for Depression

• School-wide program to promote compassions and a supportive culture
• Getting them past their sense of helplessness
• When they think they have nothing to live for
• Goal oriented plans for schoolwork and school day

Strategies for Other Challenging Behaviors

• Cutting and self-injury: What you really need to know to effectively intervene
• Electronic addiction: Which kids are most susceptible and why
• Psychotropic medication side-effects vs. behavioral issues
• Electronic bullying: What adults tell kids that fuels the problem

Disciplining the Special Needs Child/Adolescent

• How IDEA relates to discipline
• Rules for disciplining special education students
• Techniques for positive behavior support
• “Pro-social” punishments

Strategies for the IEP Team

• Functional behavioral assessment simplified
• Facts and data to make tactical decisions
• Effective collaboration among educators and clinicians
• What most administrators do that burn out their staff
• What to do about non cooperative/ reluctant parents