The South Carolina Council for Exceptional Children Conference

Please visit our website for Conference information

http://community.cec.sped.org/sc/home .

2020 Annual SCCEC Conference Registration-Vision is Everything

Mark your calendars for February 28-29 for our annual conference. 

Conference Registration: Registration form is attached.

Paper registrations must be postmarked by February 13, 2020

Eventbrite registrations (see SCCEC Website) taken through 2/27/20. Only ONSITE registrations accepted after 2/27/20.  NO DINNERfor onsite registrants This year we are hosting an Awards DINNER on Saturday so please plan to stay. 

EventBrite Electronic Registration Information:

Conference attendees may register by mailing in the registration form with a check, emailing a purchase order, or by accessing the EventBrite page:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2020-annual-sccec-conference-tickets-66041825879

Pre-Conference

Pre-conference sessions, sponsored by the subdivisions, will be held on Thursday, February 27, 2020.  More details will be provided in the coming weeks.  Keep in mind that registration (as well as payment) for the pre-conference is SEPARATE from the registration/payment for the conference. 

We are hoping directors, teachers and para-professionals would join CEC this year (this will also allow them to get a reduced rate on registration as well) Basic Membership is $65.00 visit https://www.cec.sped.org/Membership  or call 703-264-9453 to join.

Converge Autism 2017 Conference Day 2

Click here for pictures.

Yesterday’s post was about day 1 at the Converge Autism Conference hosted by Springbrook Behavioral Health. Today was the second day and it was just as awesome! I was happy to see that there were some teachers in attendance.

There are also 4 blog posts on the Springbrook Behavioral Health site that are worth checking out:

Activities That Build Oral Motor Skills

Using Deep Pressure Stimulation to Improve Sensory Processing

Enhance Sensory Processing Skills With At Home Vestibular Activities

Activities That Support Sensory Integration for Children with Autism

The first session of the day was Autism Spectrum Disorders with Dr. Fisher.

1.     Dr. Fisher likes the definition of Autism under DSM4.

2.     Autism Spectrum Disorders covers Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegration Disorder, Retts Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) – not otherwise specified.

3.     DSM5 has taken out Aspergers and PDD

4.     Affects mostly boys; 5-1 ratio

5.     3 Primary areas of Impairment: social deficits, communication problems, repetitive behavior

6.     Other frequent findings in ASD: Obsessive compulsive/repetitive behaviors, Visual/Concret learners, hypersensitivity to stimuli

7.     Brain Abnormalities in ASD

a.      increased head circumference between 6 and 9 months of age due to an increase in overall brain mess

b.     As you grow, brain “prunes” dendrites, but autistic patients have less “pruning.”

c.     More pruning, the more efficient your brain gets (walking through the park vs. the jungle)

8.     Causes of Autism

a.     No single cause of autism

b.     Symptoms due to an abnormality in the brain

c.     Research indicates a genetic/hereditary lik to the disorder

d.     Some research points to a trigger

e.     Similar to a Two-hit hypothesis of cancer and other disorders

9.     Medicine

a.     It works

b.     SSRIs – anxiety medicine

c.     Atypical Antipsychotics

d.     Anti-seizure medications

e.     ADHD meds – makes anxiety worse.

10.  Resources

a.     SC Autism Society

b.     Autism Society of America

c.     Youtube Video – The Womean Who Thinks Like a Cow

The next session I attended was Autism Spectrum Disorder, Treatment Strategies and Understanding Love Languages with Jennifer Ammacher.

1.     You can never love too much.

2.     Keep your love language tank full.

3.     Natural instinct to touch things.

4.     The 5 Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman.

5.     Physical Touch such as sit close together, pat back/shoulder, play Twister, sing a song, hold hands, help with hand over hand assistance, dance, side hugs, high fives, apply lotion

6.     Physical Touch for parents: hugs and kisses, comb hair, stroke head or back, ask if they want to be held or cuddled, bear hugs, hug them after applying discipline, tickling, hold a special toy, family group hug, hold on your lap

7.     Words of Affirmation

a.     powerful way to communicate

b.     Affection, praise, encouragement, guidance

c.     Nurtures child’s self-worth and security.

d.     Teach children to develop positive self help.

8.     You can change your world by changing your words. Remember death and life are in the power of the tongue. – Joel Osteen

9.     Words of Affirmation in school

a.     Verbally affirm their actions

b.     Cards and notes

10.  Words of Affirmation at home

a.     record your feelings of love for your child to listen to when you are absent

b.     talk about their accomplishments

c.     lunch box notes

d.     encouragement jar

e.     notes/emails/cards each day when you are gone

11.  Quality Time

a.     Giving undivided attention

b.     Focused attention = feelings of love

c.     Time spent together = loving memories

12.  Quality Time in School

a.     Being a reliable presence

b.     Undivided attention

c.     Allow “wait time.”

d.     Share thoughts and feelings         

e.     Follow their lead

13.  Quality Time at Home

a.     Daily chores together (modeling)

b.     Pleasant loving eye contact

c.     Cook and eat together

14.  Acts of Service

a.     Perform a service the child views as valuable

b.     Modeling love when we do for others

15.  Acts of Service in School

a.     Show hospitality

b.     Fix a toy

c.     Practice a favorite skill

d.     Provide stickers they like

16.  Acts of Service at Home

a.     Tying their shoes

b.     Perform daily duties with a loving heart

c.     Show charitable acts to others

d.     Select one specific act to do daily

17.  Gifts

a.     Undeserved gift as payment

b.     More than just a tangible object

18.  Gifts in School

a.     Cards with pictures

b.     Stickers

c.     Wishing stone

d.     Materials to make a gift

e.     Arts and crafts

f.      Friendship bracelet

19.  Gifts at Home

a.     Special presentation

b.     Small gifts

c.     Personalized gifts

d.     Song or letter

e.     Scavenger hunt

20.  Quiz – http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile

21.  The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell

After lunch (which was provided for us), I attended Dr. Killion’s session on The 4 T’s: Tantrums, Timeout, Toileting, and Talking.

1.     Choice vs. orders – best technique to prevent a tantrum.

2.     First protect from harm by any means.

3.     Consistent warning is followed through

4.     Time out is most misused strategy

5.     Time out pad – symbol of time out

6.     Show no emotion when putting in time out – no explanations or lecture

7.     Gentle persistence – same way every time

8.     Take away from something that is good

9.     First –Then is better than If-Then

10.  Keep sentences short

11.  Toileting – Task analysis

12.  Talking – task analysis

The last session we attended was I Want to Move It Move It with Jeffery Cohn.

1.     He shows a lot of tools to use for movement such as a scooter, jumping stones, bean bags, bouncing ball, stomp rocket, hula hoop, and isometrics. You can sing songs and have them add different movements.

2.     Gross Motor Bingo

3.     Hula Hoop Circle

Converge Autism Conference 2017 Day 1

For pictures, click here.

Last week I attended a two day conference on autism hosted by Springbrook Behavioral Health. This was their first annual conference and it was a big hit! There was quality sessions by qualified speakers and the conference was well attended! I was so glad I went and I look forward to attending this next year. I hope after you read about the sessions that I attended and things that I learned, you will think about attending this conference next year if you live in the area. The facility where it took place was very comfortable easily accessible.

The first keynote was by Dr. Killion on Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. Killion is the author of The Functional Independence Skills Handbook (or FISH) Developmental Program.

1.     Autism was not clearly identified as a developmental disability until 1943.

2.     A person with autism demonstrates the ABCs:

·      Asocial behavior -  may not want cuddling, difficulty interacting with others, may prefer to be alone, may avoid eye contact. Asocial is not antisocial.

·      Behavior – burst of aggression, noncompliance, stereotypic behavior (don’t try to stop it because they need it to feel normal)

·      Communication  impairments

3.     Autism doesn’t occur randomly.

4.     Transition – give cues at least 5 min. before and then 1 min. before.

5.     Literal – be careful about using idioms (shrimp on the Barbie, cat out of the bag).

6.     Keep it visual.

7.     Keep a consistent schedule.

8.     Use Task analysis.

9.     When speaking:Keep sentences short.

10.  Don’t repeat until after 30 seconds.

11.  Use concrete words.

12.  Use gestures with your speech.

13.  Communicate – point to a picture if necessary or use sign language.

14.  Antecedent Control – changing things that may lead to problems.

15.  Affect – your impact on the environment and the environments impact on you.

16.  Learn a lot from giving a touch on the shoulder. Some with autism may find it offensive.

17.  All behavior has function!

18.  3 reasons for behavior: get something, avoid something, or sensory stability.

19.  Postive reinforcers – things the person likes

20.  Negative reinforcers – take away things the person likes; doesn’t last, temporary change

21.  Punishment – doesn’t work

22.  Schedules of reinforcement –

·      ratio (given per number of correct responses)

·      interval (given for periods of time where something does or does not happen)

·      fixed (given for an identified number of suceses)

·      variable (given in a random way for an average number of times) – most powerful

23.  Sometimes the moment has to pass before we can address it.

24.  Bribes vs. operant conditioning – insuring the act and not the reward is the motivator (reward after the appropriate behavior and not before)

25.  Threats – say what you mean and mean what you say.

26.  Choice vs. orders – most directives can have a negotiable part along with the non-negotiable.

27.  LEAF – listen, empathize, act, follow up

The second Keynote was by Jeffery Cohn on Finding Exceptional Abilities Not Disabilities.

1.     Many people on the Autism Spectrum have difficulty managing sensory input.    

2.     Auditory problems – may be due to improperly functioning stapedius , which is the middle ear muscle that contracts in response to loud noise. When it isn’t working, sounds may seem louder.

3.     How to help a child prior to being overloaded to avoid shutdown

·      Modulate room sounds and voice tones.

·      Create sensory space for calming and organizing thought.

·      Give time for response when asking questions.

·      Reduce white noise in room.

·      Use more visual prompts over verbal.

4.     Lights (blue and green on the walls to calm people.

5.     Squeeze ball under chin to help stress

During lunch (which was provided), there was a panel discussion and the audience was able to ask questions. I found this was very informative and educational.

After lunch, there were 2 breakout sessions and I chose Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP): Both Behavioral and Mental Health Models by Melanie Watt.

1.     Hope Remains Ranch

2.     Horses can sense a person’s heartbeat.

3.     Horses have fight or flight so if someone is acting up, the horse will move away.

4.     They will be having an open house where you can demos and take a tour.

The last session of the day was by Dr. Janice Young on “Do You Know What I Know? An Insider’s Guide to Meeting the Needs of Students with Special Needs.”

1.     13 disability categories under IDEA

2.     Progress monitoring – MAPS, Woodcock Johnson, DIBELS, Easy CBM (www.easycbm.com)

3.     RTI

4.     IEPs

5.     Differentiated Instruction

6.     Instruction: Presentation (how is it being taught), Process (how students will learn), Product (how students will demonstrate what they learned).

2016 SCCEC Conference Day 2

In the morning I attended a session called Teaching Preservice Teachers A Systematic Procedure for Creating a Criterion-Reference Test. Here is the slide presentation.  It was very informative and I hope it will enable me to help my teachers make more meaningful tests in order to gain pre- and post-test data.

Next was the Policy Panel that I organized and Ann Moore and Mary Etta Taylor gave an update about the State Department and the Read to Succeed Initiative. A lot of new information is on the SC Dept. of Education website. Here is their presentation.  Then Tria Grant talked about the new teacher evaluation tool that is coming out. It was a great session and well attended (almost 100 people!).

The last presentation I attended was Improving accuracy in writing through collaborative writing tasks.  Here is the slide presentation.

Next I went to a session on Preparing pre-service teachers for co-teaching.  Here is the slide presentation.

After lunch we had the Representative Assembly where we elected a new Vice President (Constance Mays), and re-elected our recording secretary (Amanda Walkup) and treasurer (Darlene Stowe).

It was a great conference with wonderful sessions and opportunities to network and connect with friends. I look forward to next year here at the Embassy Suites in Myrtle Beach.

Original Photo by Pat Hensley