2021 BRIGHT START CONFERENCE
Conference Track 1: For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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THURSDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2021
DATE: Thursday, 18 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
TYPE: Practical Workshop
TOPIC: Applied Behavior Analysis and Special Education
Description: Blending approaches to meet the needs of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) applied behavior analysis is hands down the most effective treatment for young children with ASD. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how private Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and school personnel can work together to meet the needs of young children with ASD. Dr Schwartz will describe a school based early intensive behavioral intervention that has sustained in Washington state for over 20 years and provide strategies that can be used to ensure that all children with ASD receive the quality of services to which they are entitled. In this Practical Workshop participants will gain: a beginning understanding of the differences and similarities of special education and applied behavior analysis service delivery systems understanding of the types of skills and behaviors and instructional strategies that can be used to support student learning across environments understanding about the social contexts of the different environments in which students spend time.
Speaker: Ilene Schwartz University of Washington, USA, PhD, BCBA-D, Professor in the Area of Special Education.
DATE: Thursday, 18 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
TYPE: Practical Workshop
TOPIC: Empirically-Based Decision Making for Parent Coaching Plans
Description: This workshop is designed to provide participants with an empirically based decision-making rubric for designing, implementing, and evaluating the effectiveness of parent coaching plans. Understanding a family’s key barriers implementing effective behavior change strategies in their homes requires a knowledge of not just the function(s) of all household members’ behavior, but also the setting events that can negatively affect parents’ abilities to be contingent with both positive and negative consequences for their children behaviors. Participants will evaluate sample family dynamics with respect to environmental arrangements, timing, the appropriateness of goal setting, and consistent use of contingent behavioral strategies. Potential barriers to success across these domains will also be discussed in the context of a data-based rubric for providing parents with supportive, yet efficient, parent coaching.
Speaker: Stacey Shook, Northwest Behavioral Associates, USA, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA Director.
DATE: Thursday, 18 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
TYPE: Presentation
TOPIC: Evidence-based Approaches to Facilitate Early Learning for Children with Autism in EC Settings
Description: With sustained increases in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is a concomitant need for the delivery of early intervention to maximize learning opportunities during the period of maximal brain plasticity. This presentation will cover evidence-based practices to facilitate early learning and socialization for young children with ASD in inclusive early learning and care settings. We will focus in particular on Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention approaches (NDBIs), which use scientific knowledge on early learning and early development to improve cognitive, adaptive and social outcomes for children with ASD by capitalizing on children’s interests and strengths, amplifying the social affective and communicative elements of social interactions, and embedding learning opportunities in meaningful and motivating everyday routines. We will cover both practices and research documenting that intensive participation in socially rewarding shared experiences leads children with ASD to become more attuned to their social environment, thereby increasing natural learning opportunities and improving developmental outcomes.
Speaker: Giacomo Vivanti, A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, PhD, Associate Professor.
DATE: Thursday, 18 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
TYPE: Panel Discussion
TOPIC: Moving and Learning! Physical Activities for Young Children with Disabilities
Description: Young children need physical activity to help prevent childhood obesity, promote brain development, and develop the habit of a physically active lifestyle. But how can physical activities be designed to enable young children with disabilities to participate with their peers? Join the panel to discuss modifications to meet the needs of children with a variety of physical, sensory, intellectual, or learning disabilities. Gather practical ideas for inclusive physical activities that are developmentally appropriate, age-appropriate, use inexpensive equipment, can be done in small spaces, and are FUN for children to play together!
- Speakers: Cathy MacDonald, State University of New York Cortland, USA, Associate Professor Physical Education.
- Diane H.Craft, State University of New York Cortland, USA, Professor, Physical Education Department.
- Richard Rairigh,Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, USA, MS, Program Director and Physical Activity Educational Advisor.
FRIDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2021
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 07:00 a.m. to 09:00 a.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: First Steps: Empowering the Autistic Child with the Foundations for Self-Advocacy and Life Skills
Description: This presentation will outline the intricacies of autism from a strengths-focused and rights-based standpoint. Attendees will be equipped with practical strategies to ensure the child’s autonomy and wellbeing are central, while garnering an understanding of how important it is to include and listen to the child’s perspective always. Ultimately, in doing so, this will equip participants to ensure that every autistic child in their care will be afforded equitable opportunity to realise their potential.
Speaker: Sharon McCarthy, Autism Journeys, Ireland, Founding Director.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 07:00 a.m. to 09:00 a.m.
TYPE: Practical Workshop
TOPIC: Supporting Children with Sensory Needs
Description: Many children (in particular those on the autism spectrum) have sensory sensitivities that make daily situations very difficult for them, and can result in very challenging behaviours. For children who have particular sensory sensitivities, the world can sometimes be overwhelming. During this session we will explore our different senses and what hyper (over) and hypo (under) sensitivity looks like in each area, and how to determine the sensory issues children might be experiencing. We will consider ways to respond to sensory needs and share some recipes/ideas to respond to different sensory needs. This will include a range of practical and inexpensive suggestions of ways to modify the environment, and resources to make that might support children within your services.
Speaker: Jane Warren, School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia, Lecturer, Early Years, Faculty of Social Sciences.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
TYPE: Practical Workshop
TOPIC: Documenting Student Progress Over Time for Students with Special Needs
Description: Have you ever found yourself surrounded by millions of binders and clipboards attempting to capture your learning support students' progress over time? I sure have! There is a large body of research that tells us that when we document student progress over time students learn more, teacher decision making improves, and students become more aware of their own performance. Yet putting this into practice still eludes many of us. I created STEP: Strategic Tracking of Educational Progress to help solve this specific problem. Join me for an interactive conversation about the theory behind monitoring student progress, especially those with special needs and on the Autism spectrum, how STEP can help save your school time, involving the whole student team including the parents, and my prefered method for sharing information to reduce transition time. Along the way, you'll have the opportunity to see STEP from the inside.
Speaker: April Remfrey, Mundo Pato Inc./ UnitusTI, Author of STEP - Strategic Tracking of Educational Progress.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: Supporting the Development of Emotional Awareness and Regulation in Young Autistic Children
Description: This presentation will look at recent advances in our understanding of how sensory inputs impact on autistic individuals and on the development of autistic children’s awareness and understanding of their own emotions. It provides some strategies for supporting autistic children’s development of their own bodily and emotional awareness and strategies for supporting their regulation. Micaela will also offer a means to successfully support an autistic child’s transition from early years settings to primary school.
- Speakers: Sharon McCarthy, Autism Journeys, Ireland, Founding Director.
- Micaela Connolly, University College Dublin, Ireland, Senior educational and child psychologist, Lecturer.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
TYPE: Keynote Presentation
TOPIC: Voices of Children International Project: Honoring Children’s Right to Influence the World
Description: The Voices of Children International Project draws on artworks, photographic images and written responses contributed by children all over the world and from diverse backgrounds and circumstances. Children can and should influence the world around them. Through art children are empowered to share what is special about their lives, producing and creating individual and unique responses to share with other children across the world. This session will describe the project and its objectives, share available resources and explain how schools and educators can get involved.
- Speakers: Dimitri A. Christakis, Chair Bright Start Foundation, Editor in Chief, JAMA Pediatrics, Director, Center for Child Health at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
- Ian Brown, Honorary Professor, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
- Christopher Bailey, Arts and Health Lead, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: Early Autism Intervention: Parent Coaching
Description: Parent Coaching in the Early Start Denver Model: Tools and Tips for Family-Centered Planning, Practice, and Problem-Solving This workshop is for early intervention providers or educators looking for strategies to expand their coaching skills and session style with families. Some coaching in early autism intervention can take a “do it like this,” expert-driven style that unintentionally leaves parents always looking to the provider for answers or solutions. Learn how the parent coaching practices of the Early Start Denver Model (P-ESDM; Rogers, Vismara, & Dawson, 2021) instead look to parents and caregivers as partners in deciding children’s learning goals and how to best support them with the coaching topics and ideas we share.
Speaker: Laurie A. Vismara, Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), USA, PhD, BCBA-D, Therapist, Researcher, and Author in early autism intervention.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Research Presentation
TOPIC: An Ounce of Prevention: Proactively Addressing Challenging Behaviors in Children with ASD
Description: Both research and practice suggest that it is much more effective to try to prevent problem behaviors from occurring in children with ASD than to react to the behaviors after they have happened. This presentation will present a toolbox of evidence-based strategies that can be used to effectively prevent a variety of challenging behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other disabilities.
Speaker: Nancy Rosenberg, University of Washington, USA, Professor in the Special Education department, Director Applied Behavior Analysis program.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Workshop
TOPIC: How do Children with Autism Learn?
Description: Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are capable of learning vast amounts of material in specific areas - yet, they often show learning delays across multiple domains. Additionally, they show an intact ability to learn from the outcomes of their own actions, but difficulties learning from others’ actions and communication. What is the nature of these puzzling phenomena? This workshop will address this question by examining recent scientific research on early learning processes in children with ASD. Using innovative methodologies, research is unveiling the mechanisms through which early learning in typical development is built on the child’s self-directed engagement with their social environment, and how in young children with ASD this process is complicated by differences in early emerging attentional, motivational, and cognitive processes that support engagement with people and objects. Implications for adapting clinical and educational interventions to the unique learning style of children with ASD will also be discussed.
Speaker: Giacomo Vivanti, A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, PhD, Associate Professor.
DATE: Friday, 19 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Workshop
TOPIC: How to Systematically Increase Toddler and Children’s Tolerance for Direct Intervention Schedule
Description: This workshop is designed to provide a framework for systematically increasing toddler and young children’s (to age 6) tolerance for direct intervention sessions. Developmental appropriateness of direct intervention schedule length and locations will be discussed in the context of identifying barriers to learning availability. In addition the frequent recommendation for intensive early intervention hours will be discussed in relationship to a developmental scope and sequence framework. Participants should come prepared to learn more about schedules of reinforcement and functions of behavior with regard to both intervention scheduling and goal arrangement.
Speaker: Stacey Shook, Northwest Behavioral Associates, USA, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA Director.
SATURDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2021
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 07:00 a.m. to 09:00 a.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: Navigating the Parent/Family Relationship in Early Years Education Within an Autism Household
Description: This presentation will focus on interactions between family members and early years professionals. This will be delivered using both professional and parental perspectives. On completion, participants will have a greater understanding of the dynamics within an autism household. They will also be equipped with practical ways to discuss and share strengths focused insights into the child’s development.
- Speakers: Sharon McCarthy, Autism Journeys, Ireland, Founding Director.
- Nourah Al-Majed, University Lecturer, Kuwait, parent of a girl on the Autism Spectrum.
- Michelle Lynch, Cork City Childcare, Ireland, parent to a neurodivergent child, development worker.
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 07:00 a.m. to 09:00 a.m.
TYPE: Workshop
TOPIC: Supporting Children on the Autism Spectrum to Follow Routines and Transitions
Description: For children who are on the autism spectrum, following routines can be difficult, as many parts of the routine contain situations or expectations that can be hard for them. Transitioning from one task to another or one situation to another can also be challenging. During this workshop, we will look at a range of visual supports that can be embedded in your daily practice to assist children in transitioning from one thing to another, and support them in expectations of routines. We will also learn what social stories are, how to develop them, and how to use them effectively to help children with understanding expectations, following routines and transitions, and learning appropriate social behaviours.
Speaker: Jane Warren, School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia, Lecturer, Early Years, Faculty of Social Sciences.
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: The Ins and Outs of Autonomous, Autistic Communication
Description: This presentation will provide background to the ways in which autistic communication has been supported in the past (such as P.E.C.S.) and highlight why these forms of communication have been denounced by the autistic community. It will go on to provide a variety of practical strategies a support person can use to make communication fun and interesting for the autistic child, and that will let them showcase their own unique strengths.
Speaker: Caolán McCarthy
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Workshop
TOPIC: Merging Technology for Reducing Stress and Emotional Dysregulation in Children with Autism
Description: Merging Technology with Evidence-Based Strategies In this workshop, Dr. Nuske will describe her work in developing the KeepCalm app, a National Institutes of Health-funded smart phone application that pairs with heart rate trackers to track children’s physiological stress, give teachers real-time individualized alerts of best strategies to use, and share best strategies across educational teams. She will also cover the strategies that have the most substantial evidence for addressing stress and emotional dysregulation in children with autism and how her technology can be merged with these evidence-based strategies for keeping children with autism calm, regulated and ready to learn in the classroom.
Speaker: Heather Joy Nuske, Penn Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, USA, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry.
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Best Practice Presentation
TOPIC: STEM for one, STEM for all: Strategies to Ensure All Children Have STEM Learning Opportunities
Description: STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Come learn about why it is important to include young children with disabilities in early STEM opportunities, and learn evidence-based practices and strategies to ensure each and every child is engaged in STEM learning opportunities.
- Speakers: Megan Vinh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, Ph.D., PI of the STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMIE) Center.
- Chih Ing Lim, FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Senior TA Specialist.
DATE: Saturday, 20 November 2021
TIME (GMT): 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TYPE: Interactive Workshop
TOPIC: Supporting Neurodiversity in the Gen-Ed Classroom
Description: An interactive workshop that helps create a classroom culture of calmness, inclusion, and productivity for all students, including those students on the autism spectrum. Participants will gain an overview of the ways the Neurodiverse learner presents in the classroom (and at home), develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and strengths of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the supports and accommodations that help build a harmonious learning environment. Learning about the possible environmental conditions and behavioral triggers that can lead to more challenging behaviors for our students on the spectrum, participants will learn evidence-based practices that can redirect challenging behaviors, alleviate anxiety and support all student learners. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Participants will: 1) Gain an understanding of the strengths and challenges of those on the autism spectrum and how autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) can present itself in the classroom. 2) Develop proficiency in creating and supporting a learning environment that best supports our children on the autism spectrum. 3) Create a “toolbox” of supports, tools and evidence-based practices that support the ASD learner. 4) Understand the most important and essential guiding principle in alleviating challenging behaviors in the classroom.
Speaker: Alan Aymie, Teach The Spectrum, Los Angeles, USA, SEL/Autism Support Specialist, CA Credentialed Educator, Author.
