School Training
Parent Training

THE TALKING PLAYHOUSE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR A BALANCED WORLD:
A New Way of Thinking, A New Way of Teaching: Children with Social-Cognitive Challenges Need a Different Kind of Plan

-The Manual-

Teachers, para-educators, principals, playground staff, counselors and school personnel will find this manual useful in conjunction with “THE TALKING PLAYHOUSE SCHOOL TRAINING FOR A BALANCED WORLD: A New Way of Thinking, A New Way of Teaching -- Children with Social-Cognitive Challenges Need a Different Kind of Plan” --  A facilitator-lead training program.

Our goal is to provide a scaffolding plan that:

…allows children to achieve success in their school environment,

…provides school personnel with an understanding of the new way of thinking to foster the optimum environment for children who are socially challenged.

Highlights From the Areas Covered in the Training and Manual:

Instructional Modification Strategies Made Easy

Our goal is to help school team members be more successful in working with children with social-cognitive issues. Our curriculum modification techniques reduce the time needed in managing a child with these challenges during academic time, buddy time, school group activities and social-play-recess time.

Our work with your staff will also focus on preparing them for the NEW WAY OF TEACHING their students the skills they do not have such as problem-solving skills, self-monitoring and self-modulation skills, using appropriate social language, helping build self-esteem, teach flexibility, modifying behaviors and help foster decision-making. As well as understanding that the way they teach other students these skills is not the same for children with social cognitive challenges.

• Understanding why the shift is needed and how the methods are different than anything you’ve ever taught before.
• Reading the right message from the child’s behavior—it’s not what you think!
• Why Pre-Teaching (in partnership w/ RSP, Counseling, or Speech) will enhance teachers & students experience!
• The New Way of Thinking/Teaching instructional top 10 list
• Coping with Dyscalculia (A big time hogger)
• Provisions made easy for History, Sports & Math
• Avoiding melt-downs & managing them too!
• More Successful Partnerships – matching is everything

“I think in Pictures” –Temple Grandin

I. A Picture Says a Thousand Words – Creating a Visual World that Works! Includes a brief definition, history & understanding of Social-Cognitive Deficits

II. Facilitating Quick, Easy and Effective Team Communication & Goals

III. Interpersonal Management (team efficiencies & parent process)

IV. Social Pragmatic Language That Facilitates Success Throughout the Day!

V. Classroom and Playground Staging for Optimized for Socialization

VI. The Classroom Social Skills Toolkit: Coping & Empathy

VII. Overcoming Challenging Academic Subjects  

VIII. Visual Aides that Assist in Hard-to-Manage Tasks (Schedules, Tests, Change in Plans, Math, History, etc.)

IX. Behavioral Issues: Your Most Intuitive Good Gestures May be Backfiring

X. Safety Plans – Overcoming the Panic; Moving Past the Tantrum Quickly

XI. Optimizing Social Times (lunchtime, sports, recess)

XII. Building Talents

XIII. Managing Auspicious Occasions

XIV. Understanding Different Testing Accommodations

XV. Transitioning with Success—This can be (one of) the Root(s) of All Evil

Parent collaboration is a key ingredient for the success of any child's language program. Including parents, family members and significant caregivers as language facilitators is a significant part of our program. We recommend that you join our Playhouse sessions on specific occasions in order to help generalize the skills your child has learned in the clinical setting to real life, home and other social settings.

A large portion of our one-to-one therapy may also include parent training. Once the training at our office is complete we will begin observations and training with other allied professionals who will be working with your child including school personnel (teachers, aides,) occupational, behavioral and physical therapists to ensure carryover in a variety of settings. Our training includes Analysis & Thoughtful Adaptation (see web page “Approach” for more detail) which includes video taping in more natural environments such as the home.

We help parents learn to be the “continuity gatekeeper” for services provided by different disciplines for their child. This includes working with the school environments. We provide forms and checklists to make this task easier.