Celebrate the Children Staff Training Outline
• Policies and Procedures
○ Professional Standards
• Job Descriptions and Responsibilities
• First Aid/Safety
○ CPR and First Aid Certification
○ Emergency Procedures
○ Fire Drills
○ Daily Surveillance Procedures
○ Lost Student Procedures
○ DYFS
• Celebrate the Children Philosophy and Program Components
• Autism (Temple Grandin, Sean Barron, Jasmine Lee O’Neal, Donna Williams,
Ross Blackburn, Douglas Biklen)
• Sensory Integration/Individual Differences (Ayers, DeGangi, White, Greenspan,
Wieder, Kranowitz, Williams, and Others)
• Basic Theoretical Training of the DIR Approach (Greenspan and Wieder)
○ Developmental Levels
Understanding the Levels
○ Principles and Strategies to Support the Levels
How interactions push a child up the developmental ladder
○ 3 to 5 Case studies of children pre-K through high school with a range of
abilities (Types 1,2,3 & 4)
• DIR in the Classroom (Greenspan, Wieder, Osgood, Blaszak, Seminaro and
Kalmanson)
○ Classroom Schedule
Follow the Child’s Lead Floor Time
Semi-Structured Instruction
Traditional Academic Work
Social Skills Groups/Lessons
Sensory Motor Work
○ Regulation
○ Engagement/Relationships that Support Learning
○ Intentionality
○ Problem Solving/Sense of Self/Independence
○ Symbolic Thinking/Elaborating on Ideas/Emotions/Play
○ Emotional Thinking/Reasoning/Critical Thinking
○ Theory of Mind (Barron-Cohen)
○ Multi-Causal, Comparative and Triangular Thinking
○ Emotionally Differentiated Gray-Area Thinking
○ Intermittent Reflective Thinking, a Stable Sense of Self, and an Internal
Standard
• Your Role in the Classroom (Osgood and Blaszak)
○ Believing in the Child
○ You make a difference
○ Working as a team/Attitude
○ Data Collection
• Parents and DIR (Osgood and Blaszak)
○ Listening
○ Coaching
○ Balancing Demands
• Behavior Management (Osgood)/Discipline Policies (Blaszak)
○ What are the developmental weaknesses responsible for the behavior?
○ What is the function of the behavior?
○ We must change our behavior first!
○ Proactive strategies to support the child’s needs and prevent behaviors
○ Consistent responses to behavior
○ Teaching alternative behaviors/Social skills instruction/Social Stories
○ Strengthening the developmental weaknesses through DIR intervention to
change behavior long term
○ Working with the team (including out-of-school supports such as the
child’s doctor)
○ Working with the family
• Crisis Intervention (Filchak)
○ CTC’s Crisis Management Protocol
SAFETY
RESPECT
○ Working as a team
○ Working with the family
○ When the intervention isn’t working
• DIR and Communication/Language Development (Sima Gerber)
○ Affect-Based Language Curriculum (Greenspan and Lewis)
○ The Hanen Program
• DIR and Sensory Integration (Rosemary White)
• DIR and Motor Planning and Visual Spatial Work (Thinking Goes to School-
Harry Wachs and Serena Wieder)
• DIR and the Academic Curriculum/Teaching to the CCCS Using DIR (Karen
McDowell)
○ Experience-based Learning
○ Learning and Emotions
○ Independence
○ Visualizing Academic Concepts (V/V, On Cloud Nine-Lindamood/Bell)
○ The Thought-provoking Curriculum
○ Independent Thinkers and Problem Solvers
○ Supporting Reflective Thinking
○ Multiple Intelligences (Gardner)/Differentiated Instruction
• Social Skills Instruction (Osgood, Blaszak, Gray, Baron-Cohen, Gutstein,
Shapiro, Levine, Shure, Oser, Baker and Others)
○ Structured Social Skills Groups/Lessons
○ Individualized Social Skills Instruction
○ DIR and Social Skills Instruction (Greenspan)
Working through competing ideas
Scripts with more than one solution
What else could you, or would you want to do?
Making the scripted solution harder (Teacher throws in a problem)
Facilitating innovation and creativity
Continued Training for Staff Who Work with Non-verbal Students or Students with
Minimal Language:
• Apraxia Techniques (Breakstone)
• Augmentative Communication/Assistive Technology (Breakstone)
• Specialized Academic Programming
• Medical Interventions
• Peer Facilitation/Friendships
• Steps to Independence (Baker and Brightman)
• Life Skills
Continued Training for Staff Who Work with Verbal Children who May Have More
Challenging Behavior:
• More on Behavior and Crisis Management
○ Functions of Behavior
○ Sensory Sensitivities and Behavior
○ How Self Esteem Impacts Behavior
○ Motor Planning and Behavior
○ Stress and the Older Student/Related Behaviors and Obsessions
• OCD and Autism
• Tourettes and Autism
• Bi-polar Tendencies and Autism
• Post Traumatic Stress and Autism
• Expanding Thinking
• Developmental Levels 7 through 9
• More on Theory of Mind
• Friendships
Understanding the Transition Process:
• Currently being developed
September Training for Teachers Only:
• Room Layout and Requirements
• Managing Your Staff
• The CTC Curriculum
• Lesson Plan Requirements
○ CCCS
○ Using the Students’ IEP’s
○ Bloom’s Taxonomy
○ The Essential Question
○ Using Our Curriculum
○ The Multi-Sensory Lesson Plan
○ The Emotional Connection
○ Make it Experience Based and Dynamic!
○ Multiple Intelligence (Gardner)/Differentiated Instruction
• Assessment
○ Observation
○ Testing
○ Progress Reports/IEP Goals
○ Standardized Testing
• Start Your APA’s NOW!
Additional Requirements of Staff:
• Weekly Readings
○ Articles by the Masters
○ Excepts from Books
• Professional Development Meetings/Classroom Meetings
• Additional Case-based Study
• Local DIR Professional Groups
• Regional and National Conferences
• DIR Certificate Program
•
Assessment of Staff Understanding and Utilization of Intervention Strategies:
• Testing on Mastery of Material Taught
• Observations and Evaluation of Staff by Administration on Implementation of
Intervention
• Individual and Small Group Reflective Supervision
