Fact: 20 percent of all students are diagnosable for a mental, emotional or behavioral health issue.

Fact: 43 percent of students have sufficient trauma in their lives to impact every aspect of school and social success.

Fact: 100 percent of students have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic (increases in anxiety, mood disorders, social isolation, trauma, academic challenges).  

This seminar will help classroom teachers, counselors, administrators, and other school personnel understand how to support students who come to school with these significant challenges to success, happiness and expected behavior. Some students are neuro-diverse (“Wired Differently”) by nature, while all students’ brains are subject to “re-wiring” by poverty, stress and trauma. This training will help educators work effectively to support these students while avoiding unmanageable classroom environments.  

In a single classroom a teacher is likely to be dealing with several diagnosable disorders and the effects of trauma and poverty. Some of the most common challenges mainstreamed in the classroom are:

• Anxiety Disorders
• Trauma & Stress
• Depression/Mood Disorders
• Early Onset Bipolar Disorder
• Asperger’s Syndrome
• ADHD
• Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders: Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Intermittent Explosive Disorder 

These issues are often undiagnosed and easily misunderstood – and may be treated as “ordinary” discipline issues. Behaviors that tend to be common to students who are Wired Differently include: disorganization; perfectionism; trouble dealing with change; performance and testing anxiety; social anxiety and over- and under-reacting to adults and peers. 

The second half of this seminar focuses on students who exhibit more disruptive and hostile behavior – temper tantrums, fighting, cruelty and defiance. Typically, educators slip into a pattern of coercion and punishment in reaction to these students — often leading to academic difficulties, poor relationships, substance abuse, delinquency and crime. But these students may actually have a “Disruptive Behavior Disorder” – Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder and/or Intermittent Explosive Disorder. This session provides effective practices for working with, and reducing confrontations with, these students. Attendees will learn why getting tough and zero tolerance do not work and how educators can steer away from power struggles.

Learning Objectives: 

In this information-packed professional development session, you will learn to:

• Restructure traditional practices that often fail
• Implement do’s and don’ts for supporting students with dignity and respect who are Wired Differently
• Implement effective strategies and accommodations that reduce student misbehavior and improve class climate
• Create a climate that balances between challenge and support
• Reduce stigma and create a respectful climate in the classroom and school