Promoting Positive Behavior Using Effective Preventative and Teaching Strategies

9 PD hours

Cost: $90

Presenters: Heather Bartholomew & Debbie Thompson

Due to popular demand and recommendations from past participants, we are re-offering this two part workshop series to provide participants with a framework for better understanding the function of challenging behavior. Previous participants said, “It really helps you figure out how to prevent behaviors from happening and what techniques work” and, “It was very useful for learning how to deal with problems in the classroom in a positive way.” Participants will be asked to record information on what is currently challenging within their own classrooms & will be supported through interpreting that information to determine why the behaviour is occurring. Facilitators will then share a variety of tools that can be used as part of a comprehensive plan for preventing the behavior and responding to the behavior when it does occur. Cultural influences, in the context of interpreting behaviour and strategies to build collaboration with all team members will be discussed. This workshop focuses on the prevention of challenging behaviors & how small changes within your routines & programming can make all the difference.

Three learning outcomes:

1. provide preventative strategies to support children with challenging behaviour
2. teach the process to identify functions of behaviour
3. learn how to incorporate this information into a framework to develop a complete plan to support children to use prosocial behaviours to meet their needs.

Presenter Biographies:

Heather Bartholomew graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Child & Youth Study) & in the twenty plus years since then, has been working with preschoolers. Additionally, she has recently begun working part-time with adults with developmental delays, giving her a broader, across the lifespan perspective on supporting diverse individuals at any age. She has worked as an Early Childhood Educator, one-to-one support staff & as a resource teacher. For five years, she served as Resource Teacher at the Mount’s Child Study Centre, supporting children with identified special needs &, in particular, delivering programming to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Heather has worked as a Program Implementer in Halifax’s Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention program for the past seventeen years. She has developed & facilitated workshops on a variety of topics, most frequently relating to Inclusion. Heather is passionate about facilitating positive inclusion experiences & finding effective & efficient strategies to support individual & classroom-wide learning.

Debbie Thompson is a graduate from Mount Saint Vincent University with the Degree in Child & Youth. Debbie started her journey in ECE at Wee Care Developmental centre working as a Developmental teacher in an integrated setting. It was there that she knew she wanted to focus her attention on working with children with special needs. Debbie also developed the Resource position at Wee Care & was responsible for developing & implementing plans for children with special needs. Debbie now works at the IWK as a Program Implementer for the Early Intensive Behaviour Intervention program (EIBI) working with children with Autism. Through her job at the IWK she continues to work closely with preschool teachers consulting & providing feedback in various programs. Debbie also teaches regularly at Nova Scotia College of Early Childhood Education & Mount Saint Vincent University on various topics including challenging behaviour & Inclusion.

Registration for our MSVU workshops, along our PD brochure with full workshops details, descriptions and presenter bios is found online www.msvu.ca/earlychildhoodworkshops