AASR Live

Learn why so many behavior plans don't work and how to create one that will work with Diane Gould LCSW. Ms. Gould has worked for the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization and the Niles Township District for Special Education. She has served as a consultant and been a guest lecturer for many area school districts. During her twelve years working in schools, Ms Gould developed new p...

A special presentation with Julie Roberts, a neurodivergence-affirming therapist, and founder of the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective: “Shifting Therapies towards an empathetic and respectful Neurodiversity Paradigm”. Why does therapy need to change? (Whole body listening, social communication expectations, compliance-based therapies, and outcomes, pathologizing natural autistic ways of interac...

Restorative Justice and its implementation is often misunderstood in schools. However when done correctly, it can be the golden panacea to building a relational school. In this presentation I will share my successes and challenges of implementation in various school settings as well as sharing how it can be successfully used with all students, including those from a trauma background, ADHD and ASD...

How can you move past teaching compliance towards teaching self-determination and self-advocacy? Many programs that specialize in education for Neurodivergent children are rooted in compliance-based techniques and behavioral control. This talk explores the history of behaviorism in schooling for neurodivergent kids and will offer alternative ways to think about and respond to student behavior.  Ro...

Mike Hipple is a man with cerebral palsy and uses Augmentative Alternative Communication. He was misplaced in a behavioral classroom known as EBD for 8 long years, just because he couldn't communicate his needs and wants. Somehow he got out and now he is on the mission to educate and to advocate for families, students, and professionals that children who is nonverbal and " having challen...

Our special guest will once again be Mona Delahooke, Ph. D. for this special interview. Mona Delahooke, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience caring for children and their families. She is a senior faculty member of the Profectum Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting families of neurodiverse children, adolescents and adults. Dr. Delahooke hold...

Robbyn describes the neurodevelopmental effects of early abuse and neglect, the process of dissociation and hyper-arousal and its effect on the development of the four main areas of function in children (sensory processing, self regulation, relational skills, cognitive capability). She will discuss the continuum of harsh punishment and overt child abuse and the dose rate relationship to negative m...

The Keeping All Students Safe Act, introduced by Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08), Sen. Chis Murphy (CT), Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Chair Patty Murray (WA), and Rep. Donald McEachin (VA-04) would make it illegal for any school receiving federal funds to seclude a child or use dangerous restraint practices that restrict breathing, such as prone or supine restraint. The bill would also prohibit schools fr...

Kelly Sarah and Rachel Polacek are two educators from Wisconsin. Rachel has been school psychologist for 19 years and is currently in a K-5 elementary school. Kelly has served students as an elementary school counselor for 7 years. Kelly and Rachel will provide an overview on how to incorporate the CPS model into a PBIS system; something they have done successfully in their elementary schools. For...

Dr. Stuart Shanker (D.Phil) is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Psychology and the CEO of The MEHRIT Centre, Ltd.. His latest books “Reframed: Self-Reg for a Just Society” (University of Toronto Press 2020) and “Self-Reg Schools: A Handbook for Educators” (Pearson 2019) co-authored with Susan Hopkins is a follow-up to “Calm, Alert and Learning: Classroom Strategies for...

Susan is a passionate advocate for children, families, schools and communities, Dr. Susan Hopkins is the Executive Director of The MEHRIT Centre. Over Susan’s two decades of experience in education, she has worked in roles in the early years, K-12 and post-secondary across contexts from Italy to the Northwest Territories (NWT) including classroom teacher, program support teacher, vice-principal, d...

A special interview with Lori Petro an author & child advocate. Teach Through Love: Helping adults & kids build stronger relationships with conscious communication. We'll discuss: What is Conscious Communication/Parenting? Who benefits most from conscious parenting and communication (everyone but kids with trauma/neurodivergent thinkers/giftedness etc demand it). How does conscious co...

Harrison Hill Elementary is in Lawrence Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Lori Desautels began co-teaching two days a week in August of 2020 during the pandemic in third and fourth-grade classrooms. In February she moved to a second-grade classroom and sixth-grade classroom implementing, modeling, and sharing the framework of Applied Educational Neuroscience with the staff and students. This...

Every bit of information that we learn in this world comes in through our senses. When sensory processing is efficient, we can navigate our everyday life comfortably. When someone is hypo- or hyper- sensitive to sensory input, daily experiences many of us often take for granted can become stressors, and as a result, our behavior will change. Transitions become more difficult. Focusing becomes more...

Black, Brown, and disabled students are experiencing adverse interactions with School Resource Officers (SROs) at disproportionate rates, feeding the school-to-prison pipeline. U.S. public schools have a duty to students to create a safe school without lifelong harmful effects. As a nation, we must re-envision what public school “health and safety” means in the 21st through ESSA and federal police...

Join us for a special interview with Lori Kirkland.  Lori Kirkland is a 3rd grade teacher and Advisor Lead in MSD of Lawrence Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has held numerous positions in her 25+ years of teaching but her heart and passion are working directly with and advocating for children. Educational Neuroscience is not a program, but a framework and discipline that combines neuroscie...

Join us for a special interview with Karen Blacher. Karen is a Long Island based writer, artist, teacher, and mom to three amazing, neurodiverse children. She currently teaches secular studies to a small class of 3rd and 4th grade students at the Chabad Cheder in Coram, New York, where her constantly-evolving classroom design is informed by her experiences with her own neurodiverse children, her y...

In March of 2018 Victoria Johnson son was restrained by a school resource officer (SRO). Today Victoria is the founder of Families United for Self-Empowerment, a nonprofit organization in North Dakota. She helps mentor families and youth on how to become self-advocates. Victoria has a background in Business management, leadership, and Healthcare. Families United for Self-Empowerment is a nonprofit...

Join us for a special conversation with Elly Chapple, Founder #flipthenarrative, TEDx Speaker. Elly graduated with honours in Human Resource Management and the Psychology of Human Communication. She has always been fascinated with human communication and behaviour, both verbal and non-verbal. She spent her early career working in businesses, managing and developing strategy for solutions focused a...

Join us for this exciting interview and learn about the Polyvagal Theory and autonomic physiology. In 1994 Stephen W. Porges, Ph. D. proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. The theory is leadin...

Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline an interview with Lori Desautels, Ph. D.  Children who carry chronic behavioral challenges are often met with reactive and punitive practices that can potentially reactivate the developing stress response systems.  This book deeply addresses the need for co-regulatory and relational touch point practices, shifting student-focused...

Join Shain Neumeier and Lydia X. Z. Brown in conversation about the connections between youth rights, disability justice, and racial justice movements in addressing coercive and forced treatment, institutionalization, and mass criminalization. They will discuss the connections between applied behavior analysis and conversion therapy, the history of the Judge Rotenberg Center's electric shock...

In this presentation, Cheryl Poe will review the key regulations and laws that offer protection to students with disabilities. We will discuss how to use these protections when advocating for Black and Brown with disabilities. Cheryl Poe is the Director of Diversity Issues at the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. Cheryl Poe is the founder and owner of Advocating 4 Kids, Inc a Special Educa...

Join us for a special interview with Ron Garrison. Ron will discuss how to use civil litigation against the use of restraint and seclusion. Beyond alternative dispute resolution and due process complaints, litigation proceedings against school district officials can become an injunctive alternative when harmful restrictive forms of restraint and seclusion are used against students. Employing the t...

The Reflective Journey is a practitioner’s handbook to the low arousal approach, written by Studio 3 CEO Professor Andrew McDonnell.  Professor Andrew McDonnell’s new practitioner guide really is a reflective journey. A strong theme throughout all of the chapters is that we must look at our own behaviour first in order to manage highly stressful situations. We spoke to him about what to expect fro...