This 3-hour workshop will provide an overview of ABA principles and strategies that can be implemented in the classroom to help enhance learning. An emphasis will be placed on strategies for classroom modifications, building relationships (pairing), creating motivation, visual supports, reinforcement, naturalistic teaching, data collection, and antecedent-behavior-consequence strategies. By the end of the workshop, participants should be familiar with basic principles and strategies of ABA and how to apply them into the classroom setting.
This workshop offers a structured approach to navigating the challenges and complexities of conducting psycho-educational assessments with students who have a diagnosis of autism. Participants will also deepen their understanding of BC’s autism assessment standards and guidelines, and consider how the guidelines might apply to their own assessment practices. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice with case study examples that reflect the challenges of conducting assessments in remote districts with fewer resources. By the end, attendees will feel more confident and better prepared to conduct a psych-ed assessment with students with autism.
Many adolescents struggle to work independently, and they may even dread homework. Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in particular, often lack the necessary organizational and self-management skills to complete homework assignments without extra support and/or supervision. A student’s inability to meet homework expectations can be frustrating and stressful for them, their families, and their school team.
This half day (three hour) workshop will review aspects of successful homework tasks and related strategies for assigning, motivating, training, and communicating. The workshop is intended for school staff (resource teachers, classroom teachers, education assistants) who work with autistic students at the middle school and high school level.
Participants will:
•Discuss benefits and challenges related to homework completion for students with ASD
•Review factors related to successful homework assignments
•Examine pro-active measures to increase compliance and participation
•Learn strategies to build students’ own motivation
•Consider evidence-based approaches for supporting students in goal-setting
•Identify the underlying skills necessary for students’ independence in homework
•Learn strategies for directly teaching these essential skills
•Discuss various strategies for improving home-school coordination and communication
Most people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) report sensory processing difficulties. Understanding how ASD impacts sensory systems can help you support autistic children. Workshop participants will review the basics of the sensory system and sensory processing. They will learn to recognize the effects of over-sensitivity and under-sensitivity in different areas (e.g. sights, sounds) and will learn appropriate strategies to help kids cope at school. This half-day (three hour) workshop is intended as an introduction to the topic for school staff (e.g. educational assistants, student support workers, and teachers) working directly with autistic students.
Literacy for all students across BC is the focus for many school teams this year: students with autism who have learning and behaviour challenges present with their own unique set of barriers to being successful readers. Educators from across BC report particular challenges to literacy with their autistic students include executive functioning, self-regulation, and lagging skills. In this workshop, participants will learn to identify the most common barriers to literacy for autistic students, understand how they relate to the learning challenges frequently experienced by these students, and how to select effective and evidence-based strategies to support them.
Participants will develop a basic understanding of setting events, the ABCs of behaviours, principle of reinforcement and functions behaviour and their importance in developing a behaviour intervention plan. Participants will be introduced to a planning template tool to incorporate a variety of appropriate preventative strategies, teaching strategies, and consequent strategies based on the hypothesized function for behaviour management.
In this workshop, educators will explore a variety of ways to incorporate student’s IEP goals into their day-to-day programming. The workshop will also touch on a number of evidence-based instructional strategies, such as discrete trial training, behaviour skills training, as well as natural environment teaching. By the end of the workshop, educators should feel comfortable in designing and implementing a lesson plan to work on their student’s IEP goals.
Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) apps are becoming more available to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) each year. Teaching or supporting an autistic student using an AAC app? Feeling overwhelmed or not sure where to start? Or perhaps your student is using the AAC app only to request? Whether you are a classroom teacher, resource teacher, educational assistant or other educator, this workshop can help you discover ways to increase interaction and student engagement through the use of the student’s AAC app. Come join this 3-hour virtual workshop centered on how to help students who currently have a device with an AAC app learn to use the device to communicate.
This introductory workshop will provide an overview of Autism Spectrum Disorders, with time spent discussing the key diagnostic features of ASD, and the range of characteristics that may present in individuals with ASD. The workshop will then provide an overview of various classroom strategies for providing support to individuals with ASD, with an emphasis on the basics of understanding behaviour, collaborative development of a plan involving antecedent, teaching and consequence strategies, and an evidence-based framework for teaching a variety of skills.
How to capture an effective student profile for substitute and external professionals in the school environment ; a variety of external professionals (ex: SLP, OT, PT, BCBA) and substitute professionals (ex: EA, teachers) work within the school environment with limited guidelines on how to work with students on the autism spectrum within that specific environment. This three-hour workshop will provide a guideline on how to create an easy transition with working with new faces and information on foundational skills that will be useful before entering the school environment. This will include how the classroom/school team can create a toolkit that is broken down into sections with important information pertaining to that specific student.
Learning Objectives:
• Understanding the core characteristics of autism and recognizing challenges
• Discussing foundational skills such as rapport building, implementing visual supports, prompting, preference assessments and their importance
• Building a student profile with specific accommodations, modifications, preferences, learning styles, communication styles, strengths, weaknesses, sensory needs, and triggers (activity – think of a student you work with)
• How to support individuals with autism during structured and unstructured times
This workshop will talk about the rationale behind data collection, how to use it to track IEP (Individual Education Plan) goals, and how to create simple data collection systems. During the workshop, participants will also have the opportunity to create data collection systems for their student’s IEP goals.
Building and maintaining effective communication and successful partnerships between school staff and parents is key to supporting students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
In this workshop, we will:
•Discuss collaboration benefits and barries
•Outline elements of effective collaboration
•Review roles and responsibilities of school staff
•Consider strategies for setting communication expectation and boundaries
This half-day (three hour) workshop is intended for school staff (e.g. educational assistants, student support workers, and teachers). Participants will be invited to join discussions in small “breakout” groups. There will also be an opportunity for interactive Q&A with the presenter.
Generalization helps learners transfer knowledge and skills from one context to another. It is a critical aspect to consider, as it enables students to apply what they have learned in one situation to new, unfamiliar situations. In this half-day workshop, educators will explore the concept of generalization, understand its importance, and learn practical strategies for fostering generalization in their teaching methods.
Workshop Objectives:
•Understand the concept of generalizing skills
•Explore the reasons why generalization is crucial for stuent learning
•Learn practical methods and strategies for promoting generalization in the classroom
This workshop equips educators and support staff with a deeper understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the unique challenges autistic students encounter in forming peer relationships at school. Participants will explore autism and friendships, gaining a deeper understanding of why prioritizing support for peer connections is essential. The workshop will highlight barriers and challenges that autistic students face, which can hinder their ability to form strong peer relationships. It will emphasize the importance of peer relationships for social, emotional, and academic growth, and the vital role that supportive environments play in nurturing these connections. Participants will be introduced to practical strategies for helping students with ASD develop meaningful peer relationships and foster friendships. By the end of the workshop, participants will have actionable strategies to effectively support peer connections for elementary students with ASD.
Does this sound like you? You have a diverse classroom, some students are excelling, some are struggling and now you’re supposed to do some UDL thing with no extra time? Fear not, Myra and Doug are here from POPARD and SET BC to show you how to leverage AI tools to help you, help students. We’ll look at efficient ways to differentiate lessons, create a behavior strategy, and level activities and resources for your entire class from your complex needs learners to your kiddo who needs assignments extended.
NOTE: The confirmation email (sent to you as soon as you register) will include a link to a Google form where registrants can submit an example of a case they are having challenges with. During the workshop one or more of these examples may be chosen to show how AI can help teachers ‘work through’ the case, from general ed to specialized populations.
Autism spectrum disorder is a disability characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior or activities. Individuals with ASD have a variety of learning characteristics that can provide challenges to teachers within the classroom. Fluency-based instruction is a teaching model that encourages educators to teach specific elements of behavior in repetition until the behavior becomes fluent and mastered. When a skill is fluent, that skill is retained, applied, stable, and endures.
Research has shown that incorporating fluency-based strategies can help teachers enhance educational outcomes for students with autism. For example, fluency acts as a bridge between reading a story (decoding) and understanding the story (comprehension). When a student is unable to read the passage fluently, they will most likely need to go back and reread the passage and don’t have the ability to pay attention to what the text means. With fluent readers, they are able to recognize words and comprehend at the same time.
Some fluency programs suitable for elementary instruction that will be discussed in this workshop include: Headsprout, Language for Learning, Reading Mastery, Mathletics, Typing Club, and Keyboard – Learning Without Tears.
Increasing motivation and engagement is an important area of focus for those who support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This 3-hour workshop will address the following: reasons why student motivation and engagement may be impacted, how to plan positive experiences to increase successful school experiences, and strategies to promote a student’s meaningful participation in school.
With so many unique learning and behavioural challenges faced by students with ASD, educators are required to provide higher-level supports tailored to individual students. These supports may include strategies to reduce the barriers to literacy, such as executive functioning, behavioural, and self-regulation difficulties, and may extend as far as curriculum modifications towards functional reading goals. This workshop delves into the specialized strategies and interventions necessary for supporting students with autism who require more than the Tier 1 supports offered to all students, and will cover which strategies should be explored, when, and how to select the right ones for your students. This workshop aims to equip attendees with practical tools and insights to enhance the educational experiences of students in their literacy goals.
Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS) is an assessment tool developed by Dr. James W. Partington and Dr. Michael M. Mueller in 2012. The assessment looks at functional, practical, and essential skills of everyday life, such as daily living skills, community skills, and independent living skills among many others. The workshop will introduce AFLS to the participants and guide them step-by-step on how to assess and create individualized programs for their students.
The Eden Autism Assessment is a series of assessment tools that measure a student’s current skill levels across multiple domains, including cognitive, speech and language, vocational, self-care, and recreation. The assessment allows the team to determine each student’s strengths and areas for improvements and to develop a plan to address those areas of needs. The Eden Autism Curriculum contains a number of teaching programs corresponding to the items listed in the assessment tools that support professionals in teaching those skills. Each program lists its prerequisite skills, criterion for advancement, measurement, materials, procedure, and prompting techniques. The workshop will introduce both the assessment and the curriculum closely and help participants become familiar in using them as part of their practice.
An Individual Education Plan (IEP) is an important document in schools that serves as a roadmap to student success. The BC Ministry of Education provides two IEP formats for the purpose of documenting services provided to students to support their education – the traditional IEP format and the Competency-Based IEP format. Regardless of the IEP format that your school district is using, all IEPs should take into consideration the framework and features of BC’s Redesigned Curriculum. This workshop will help Learning Support Teachers to:
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of the school team and parents/caregivers in the IEP process
• Reflect on important aspects of the BC’s Redesigned Curriculum that help inform the IEP process
• Understand components of the Competency-Based IEP Framework
• Engage in tools and resources that support planning, goal-writing, and collaboration during the IEP process
Participants are asked to come prepared to reflect on IEPs that they have written so far this school year, as well as consider how information learned in this workshop can support their IEPs moving forward. Note: This workshop will not cover formatting or data entry on the MyEducationBC interface.
As many as 30%-50% of individuals with ASD do not develop full, functional speech repertoires. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems are frequently used to support and improve engagement and communication for these individuals, and with an increasing number of students with severe ASD and related complex communication needs entering schools, educators may have difficulty programming for these students in the inclusive classroom. Literacy skills are required for a significant amount of educational participation, and integration of a student’s AAC with literacy instruction is an important part of a student’s meaningful inclusion. In this workshop, participants will receive an overview of how literacy instruction can be achieved or supported with different AACs and see examples of some in use.
This workshop aims to explore the key components of meaningful and functional programming for elementary students with ASD in the classroom. Participants also will be introduced to some commonly used curriculum-based assessments for functional programming, as well as evidence-based teaching strategies that staff can use when supporting students with ASD.
Programming for high school students with ASD and an intellectual disability can be challenging, especially with the new BC Competency-Based Curriculum. This workshop will introduce participants to strategies for functional and meaningful goals for students with ASD.
Pairing and building rapport is the first step to developing a strong working relationship with our students. This introductory workshop will provide an overview of the process of pairing and rapport building with students of all ages. By the end of the workshop participants will be equipped with the knowledge of what rapport building is, why it is important and a framework for how to begin and maintain building rapport with students.
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a growing topic of interest for education professionals working in the field of autism. Some clinicians and researchers describe it as a profile on the Autism spectrum. In this workshop, participants will:
• Explore the described relationship between Autism and PDA.
• Recognize key features of the PDA profile.
• Learn strategies to support students exhibiting demand avoidance.
• Review current research on PDA and future research directions.
• Become familiar with relevant resources
What is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)? Why does it help? How is it practiced?
In this practical ½ day workshop, you will learn and experience the technique of PMR—an evidence-based strategy for achieving physical and mental relaxation as a way to manage stress and anxiety. Participants will learn by doing: you will be guided through the process of PMR so that you can use this technique in the classroom with students with autism and other diverse learners.
Students with diverse learning needs can benefit from additional learning supports. Errorless Learning is a teaching tool to help increase the likelihood of correct student responding. Errorless Learning incorporates prompting procedures to eliminate mistakes and sure success, leading to faster skill acquisition and student access to reinforcement. As students build success in their learning, prompting procedures are systematically faded to allow students to work independently. This workshop will be to introduce education assistants, teachers, and other professionals to the application of Errorless Learning and prompting to be used with students to teach academic, motor, social, and functional skills.
The Ministry of Education in British Columbia has put forward several important documents to support inclusive and responsive learning environments for all students in BC schools. Learning more about inclusive education resources, policies, and guidelines can help educators in supporting students and providing the best possible access, opportunities, and outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities and diverse abilities.
In this workshop, you will learn more about the Ministry of Education resources such as the BC School Act, Ministerial Orders, and the Special Education Services Manual. We will dive deeper into key topics in inclusive education such as access to education, accommodations, IEPs, and the process of appeals. Finally, we will discuss ways that educators can support parents through information-sharing and effective collaboration. We promise, this will not be a boring workshop!
All kids need attention in large amounts, and students with autism are no different. Most of the time we are happy to give our attention to these students looking for it, but in classrooms, attention-seeking behaviours can become disruptive or overwhelming for staff, especially if they come in the form of challenging behaviours. This mini-workshop is designed to help educators reframe the idea of attention-seeking behaviours, while offering them ideas (sometimes silly ones) on how to treat these without making the disruptive or challenging behaviours worse.
What common safety skills do students with ASD need to learn? Why and how do you provide explicit instruction on how to be safe? Given that autism covers a spectrum of ability levels, this ½-day workshop takes a developmental approach to teaching safety skills. Participants will learn ways to assess safety skills and evidence-based instructional strategies. Case study examples will support participant learning. The workshop will conclude with a review of school safety plans.
Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can have different sensory needs. This can significantly impact the student’s learning and social relationships. It is not only crucial for educators to recognize the students’ needs to self-regulate but also to teach them how to recognize their needs to self-regulate independently. By the end of this workshop, you will be able to identify the importance of self management in the classroom and will be equipped with a toolbox of skills and strategies to support and teach students with ASD to self-monitor/manage in the classroom.
This workshop is an introduction to structured work systems and is appropriate for school staff supporting students with ASD (i.e., teachers, EAs, district support staff, administrators.) Structured work systems were developed by Division TEACCH® at UNC Chapel Hill as part of the structured teaching programmatic approach to working with individuals with ASD. Structured work systems emphasize a systematic and organized presentation of tasks and materials that visually communicate information to a student and help build independent work habits.
POPARD’s three hour workshop will cover the following information:
• What is a structured work system?
• Examples of structured work systems.
• Examples of work tasks that can be completed within a structured work system (often called ‘basket work’).
• Ways to integrate a structured work system into a student’s programming.
• Sample goals that relate to a structured work system.
• Ways to integrate transition supports and create visually supported environments beyond the structured work system.
• Additional resources for implementing a structured work system.
Females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are underdiagnosed and are commonly diagnosed at a later age compared to males with ASD. This significantly impacts the future outcome of the individual, as intervention starting at a young age has been linked to better outcomes in adulthood. The differences between males and females also requires females with ASD to acquire a different set of critical skills to support their daily living, such as social skills and personal hygiene. By the end of this workshop, you will be able to identify the characteristics of females with ASD and will be equipped with a toolbox of skills and strategies to support females with ASD at different ages.
This three-hour workshop will target supporting individuals with ASD to reach their full potential in employment opportunities. The workshop will target prerequisite skills that the school system can emphasize in the curriculum for these individuals to reach success in employment opportunities. This workshop will highlight how the school systems can plan for preparation in employment opportunities, teach transitional skills before leaving the school system, review vocational training and opportunities for employment, a guide for transitioning into adulthood, and general information and ways to support coworkers/employers who may be working with the individual with ASD in understanding their strengths and weaknesses and how they may apply to that workplace setting.
The learning outcomes for this workshop include:
1. teaching how core related skills to acquire a job
2. discussing life skills and social skills required
3. providing strategies for general knowledge of ASD and customizing strategies and tools to the workplace
4. providing suggestions and tips for a positive work environment
5. working on transitional skills into adulthood and vocational opportunities to seek out employment opportunities
6. preparing the school system to develop curriculum based on teaching these skill
This three-hour workshop will provide school staff with strategies to support meaningful inclusion for students with ASD in their classroom. We will look at the difference between integration and inclusion, inclusive strategies, adaptations and modifications to the environment and the BC curriculum, and how we can adapt our expectations to better suit the needs of our students. By the end of this workshop, participants should feel more confident implementing various strategies to help create a more inclusive environment that best supports their students.
The transition from high school to adulthood is an important time for students and their families. While many students are looking forward to new opportunities, change can also be difficult as there will be a lot of new environments, new people, new responsibilities, and new routines to get used to. Autistic students may experience heightened stress around this transitional period compared to neurotypical peers. When thoughtful planning and preparation happen collaboratively, our students can reduce the stress of this transition period, adjust to upcoming changes, and experience more confidence and comfort during this time. This workshop will provide educators with a Transition Planning Tool to help guide assessment, goal-setting, and implementation of programming to build skills that are important for adulthood; as well as provide connections to community resources to enhance our students’ support networks outside of the school system.
The intended audience for this workshop is Resource Teachers, Case Managers, Administrators, and/or Itinerant Staff who support secondary-age students.
Many autistic teenagers have the desire to connect with peers but struggle with the how to. In this 3-hour workshop, educators will be introduced to the PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals, an evidence-based social skills curriculum for middle and high school students that focuses on skills related to making and keeping friends and managing peer conflict and rejection. Questions answered during this workshop will include: Which students could benefit from the PEERS program? How do I run a PEERS group? What resources and supports are needed?
Students are often taught to make requests such as asking for a break or asking for a preferred item as a replacement to challenging/disruptive behaviour. After successfully teaching this, it is often necessary to introduce delays to these requests. This is important to support students to engage in their academic goals and to be able to tolerate delays or even denials (accepting no) that naturally occur in a classroom setting. It is necessary to teach this in a structured and gradual way so that students continue to make requests without resorting back to the challenging/disruptive behaviour. Workshop participants will learn how to do this within the classroom setting.
This half day workshop aims to support school staff working with students with ASD who will be transitioning from elementary to high school. Autistic students can experience difficulty with many changes (e.g., environmental, staffing, academic and social-emotional expectations) during this important transition. As educators supporting these students, how can the adults collaboratively plan for a smoother transition? This workshop will provide relevant information that will help school teams plan for their student’s transition from elementary to high school. By the end of the workshop, participants will:
• Identify the key principles guiding a transition planning process
• Understand the roles/responsibilities of the stakeholders in a transition planning process
• Prioritize the skills to prepare the student for transitioning to high school and learn about the different evidence-based strategies to use when teaching the skills
This three-hour workshop will provide school staff with the underlining principles associated with visual supports. We will look at different visual supports used in the classroom and how we can alter them to better suit the needs of our students. By the end of this workshop, participants should feel more confident implementing various visual supports to help increase independence and communication at school.
Learning objectives:
• Understand the underlying principles associated with using/implementing visual supports.
• Understanding the importance of visual supports and how they can be used in a school setting.
• Discussing and familiarizing participants with commonly used visual supports used in the classroom.
• Learning how to alter visual supports to better suit the needs of students.
What is video modeling? How can it be helpful for students with ASD? What sorts of things could you or should you be using video models to teach skills to your students with ASD? Is it hard to create a good video model? These questions and more will be answered in this mini-workshop on video modeling. Essentially video modeling is making a video about a skill that your student needs to acquire so that they have a clear visual representation of that skill on hand as a reminder for their learning. So video models can be used in many different ways and for a myriad of skills. There are a number of tips and tricks that we’ll cover so that you learn a little bit about the art of making a good video that your students will want to watch again and again. Be ready for some hands-on learning – it can happen even in the virtual world!
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