Conference Description

Friday, November 13

Renee Attaway

Superflex & Friends Take on Social Emotional Learning and The Curriculum Standards

We HEAR you! You have been asking about how to use some of our core ideas across different types of learners and ages. We all know about the importance of Social attention and Self Regulation in the home and school day and three of our most popular curricula address these key areas. This workshop day will focus on how to use strategies related to You are A Social Detective, Superflex® and The Zones of Regulation®. We will explore how to use these and other tools in a developmental manner to address the different needs of kindergarteners through middle school. We will describe the connections between Social Thinking concepts and the Curriculum Standards, how these concepts integrate with Social Emotional Learning, and the interrelationships with Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports (PBIS). This interactive workshop day will be filled with creative ways and group activities to help our students move from being ‘Me’ thinkers to ‘We’ thinkers!

PLEASE NOTE: This conference day focuses on the use of the books Social Detective, Superflex and Zones of Regulation to teach concepts related to Superflex. Our goal for this day is NOT to market the products, but instead teach how to use Detective, Superflex, and Zones in the manner they were designed. Our hope is to increase the consistency and fidelity in the ways in which all of us are teaching these concepts. If you (or your district or place of employment) are uncomfortable with a full day focusing on strategies related to a product(s), please select another conference day to attend.

More specifically we will be exploring:

• The related research and core concepts we are teaching through these curriculums that weaves throughout the school age years.
• Linking learning to the Curriculum Standards and examples of how our Social Detective and Superflex have been used in the mainstream classroom in literature, written expression, conflict resolution and learning effectively as part of a group.
• How we adapt our teachings for Kindergartners, young elementary school, older elementary school students and how the core message of this teaching transfers into middle school and high school.
• How to help children assume the responsibility to be social detectives to figure out the hidden rules
• Creative ideas to help students learn to self-regulate through self-discovery of one’s own development of self-awareness, self-monitoring and self-control through the teachings of Superflex’s Five-Point Power Plan
• How these lessons are used as part of a Social Emotional Learning, Positive Behavior Supports and Response to Intervention.
• Engage in activities to foster your own superflexible creativity when planning to teach these lessons to your own children/students.

Objectives

1. Define the concept of ‘hidden rules’ and its importance for self-monitoring and related, behavioral regulation.
2. Explain why we modify the Superflex Curriculum for K-2nd graders so that they are not asked to defeat their Unthinkables.
3. Describe how Superflex helps to teach self-awareness, self-monitoring and self-control to 3rd-5th graders.
4. Explain how the use of You are A Social Detective and Superflex can be utilized in social academic lessons that relate to the Curriculum Standards (e.g. Speaking and Listening, Reading Literature and Written expression) for all elementary school grades.
5. Explain how Superflex’s Five Point Power Plan helps to foster deeper social learning for 3-5th graders
6. Describe how using Social Thinking Vocabulary to teach all students (school wide), utilizing the books You are A Social Detective and theSuperflex Curriculum, help to forward the mission of Social Emotional Learning.

Renee Attaway, M.S., CCC-SLP is the founder and director of Social Thinking^® at Parish, a program at The Parish School that offers social cognitive services in the Houston, Texas. For over 5 years, her program provides group and individual therapeutic services for children from preschool to high school, an overnight social learning summer camp called Camp Social Superheroes, and a parent group.

As a Speech Language Pathologist, Renee has offered Social Thinking^® groups since discovering Michelle’s work in 2003. She has completed both the mentor training and internship at the Social Thinking clinics in San Jose, CA.

Renee’s career has included working in private schools, the university setting, and private practice. She has focused on the school setting for over 14 years through work with the public schools as a supervisor, consulting with private schools and her position at The Parish school, a private school for children with language and learning differences. Renee’s passion for language and cognition came from her many roles there, including working as a lead preschool teacher, pull-out therapist, and administrator for Speech Pathology services. Program development is another of Renee’s strengths and she has been instrumental in creating or supporting language programs and summer camps at The University of Houston, The Parish School, and founded Camp Social Superheroes. She also served as a program chair the Texas Speech and Hearing Association.

Renee is an enthusiastic speaker who enjoys sharing her own clinical experiences with audiences across North America. She has traveled as a speaker all over North America and has over 10 years of speaking experiences in her community and to many different kinds of professionals. In addition, Renee speaks about social cognitive development, preschool play skills, group language therapy, and creating effective social groups.

 

Saturday, November 14

Kelly Mahler

Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System: Practical Considerations and Strategies for Improving Emotion Regulation and Other Related Skills

Interoception is an extremely important sensory system that helps us to ‘feel’ the internal states of our body. For example, the interoceptive system helps us feel many different internal sensations including: hunger, thirst, needing the bathroom, pain, body temperature, sexual arousal, heart rate and muscle tension. Additionally, interoception is a key component to our emotional experience. Research indicates that interoception, or our ability to clearly sense body signals, like an increase in heart rate or tingly stomach, enables us to accurately identify, understand and control our emotions.

Many individuals with High Functioning – ASD have an underlying disconnect with their interoceptive system. In fact, brain research has revealed the brain’s ‘Interoceptive Center’ as an area that is consistently impacted in people with HF-ASD, making interoception a crucial consideration when addressing skills in these individuals. Not only can difficulties with interoception cause significant challenges when regulating emotions and regulating body functions (such as hunger, thirst and pain), it has far reaching effects to skills such as perspective taking, problem solving and empathy.

This presentation will provide teachers, therapists, parents and individuals with HF-ASD a firm understanding of interoception including an overview of what research tells us about interoception, and how to apply this research when developing programming for individuals with HF-ASD. Discussion will focus on the link between interoception and many important skill areas including emotion regulation, perspective taking, problem solving and empathy. Many practical strategies for assessing and improving interoception will be shared. Finally, a special segment will provide new and unique emotion regulation ideas, developed by individuals with HF-ASD, that highlight their extraordinary way of thinking and viewing the world.

Kelly Mahler, MS, OTR/L, earned a MS in Occupational Therapy, as well as a Post-Professional Pediatric Certificate from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. She is an occupational therapist and autism consultant who supports school-aged individuals and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. In the evenings, Kelly is co-founder of Destination Friendship, an organization providing fun opportunities targeted at developing friendship skills in young people with ASD. Kelly has presented numerous seminars and workshops at the international and national levels. Kelly is the author of three books: Sensory Issues and High Functioning Autism (with Myles and Robbins)—winner of 2015 National Parenting Publications Bronze Medal; Destination Friendship (with Benton, Hollis, and Womer) and Hygiene and Related Behaviors for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders–winner of Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal 2011. She currently resides in Hershey, Pennsylvania with her husband, Nicholas and her 2 daughters, Olivia and Madeline.