Interested in scheduling an individualized workshop or training for your school or organization?

I’d love to meet you!

If your school/organization is interested in its own specific targeted workshop, please contact me directly and we can arrange dates, times and content that work for you. Trainings could be virtual or in person.

Want to hear how some educators are incorporating these concepts into their setting? Go here!

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF UPCOMING AND PAST SPEAKING EVENTS.

Why are Declarative Language & Co-Regulation important for engagement and learning?

Often, individuals with social learning differences do not feel competent. Many aspects of life, interactions and learning are challenging in a world not built for them, and as a result they shut down, may exhibit challenging behaviors, or do not respond to our communicative bids. When we engage our learners using declarative language and co-regulation, we create a feedback loop where we become better able to read their cues in the moment, and more confident adjusting what we are doing to support their competence and continued engagement.

As a result:

  • our students feel safe

  • our students respond to our communicative bids and join more easily

  • our students stay engaged for longer periods of time

  • we all feel authentically and positively connected

  • we become better able to handle breakdowns and repairs

  • challenging behaviors decrease

  • our students become more open to novelty, challenge, and change

  • our students become more active participants in their own learning journey (i.e., increase in their personal agency)

  • our students become more aware of their own learning style, strengths and vulnerabilities and as a result, are better able to self-advocate

and

  • skills develop because our students feel competent, connected, and understood.

As we take the time to establish this type of positive learning environment, that is inviting and helps our learners experience competence, they engage more fully because they trust challenge will be introduced at a pace they can handle, they learn more about themselves, and they become more open to learning about others and the world.

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF UPCOMING AND PAST SPEAKING EVENTS.

Planning Your Training

  • The structure of your training will be individualized for your setting.

  • Virtual and/or in-person, formal and/or informal trainings are offered.

  • Informal trainings include your own case studies, discussions, and Q&A around how to incorporate these concepts on the ground, in your setting.

  • If planning more than one training, a combination of formal and informal trainings is recommended for optimal success. The individualized conversations that take place during informal meetings are how everyone become skilled, thoughtful and comfortable with these concepts and new communication style. During conversations specific to your team, your educators will learn how to navigate troubleshooting moments, and dynamically scaffold based on a students’ needs in the moment .

Hear from some other educators who have completed trainings!

Formal Training Topics

Training 1: Declarative Language: Using a Thoughtful Language Style to Help Individuals with Social Learning Differences Feel Competent, Connected and Understood

Each time we speak, we have the opportunity to choose our words. Speaking in a thoughtful way means that we are choosing words that will invite and empower individuals with social learning differences to feel connected, feel competent, and feel understood while learning and being guided outside their comfort zone, at a pace that is manageable to them. When we pause to think about what we say and how we say it, our learners in turn stop to think about what they say or do in response. In this training, participants will be shown a speaking style called declarative language that can be naturally used within social interactions to encourage connection and learning across areas of perspective taking, flexible thinking, problem solving, and experience sharing.

Training 2: Co-Regulation: Creating Competence, Balance and Positive Connection Through the Ups and Downs of Learning

In this session, participants will learn about a teaching process called Guided Participation, which uses co-regulation to create authentic partnerships between the teacher and student, therapist and client, or caregiver and child. When practicing co-regulation, the guide thoughtfully crafts competent, contingent roles for their student in an ongoing way, and responsibility is transferred over time, at a pace that is just right for each learner. This leads to positive social connection, true reciprocity, and increased opportunities for engagement, growth, and continued learning.

Training 3: Declarative Language & Troubleshooting: What to Think About and/or Do When it Doesn’t Seem to Work

Declarative Language does NOT work every time you use it! This is expected. In this next session, common reasons for breakdowns will be explored, along with tools to navigate these breakdowns in the moment. Several video clips will be shared to show what this looks like in action.

Training 4: Going Deeper with Co-Regulation: Frameworks and Adjusting Complexity

In this training, we will take the time to explore different co-regulatory frameworks and how to adjust the complexity of any engagement ahead of time, or in the moment, so that the student stays competent and challenged at a level that is just right for them. Adjusting complexity means, considering all the elements of an activity, from the materials used to the number of people involved, in relation to each learner’s attention, processing style, and ability to self-regulate. It is an important consideration when creating competent roles, and one that is often overlooked. These topics are discussed in Chapter 6 and 7 of Co-Regulation Handbook, and as we get comfortable with each, we can better set our students up for success.

Training 5: Creating Positive, Successful Peer Interactions

Now that you have the tools, how can we apply these to help kids have successful interactions with each other, develop positive relationships, form friendships, and learn together? Specific topics covered include a framework for how to approach and think about peer interaction through this relationship-based lens, example natural environment and more structured activity ideas, and ways to introduce and include kids in competitive games so that they stay engaged and successful.

Training 6: Making Mistakes is Okay

Do you have a perfectionist in your life? High expectations and optimal performance are not bad things of course, yet it can be hard to know how to help when making mistakes and imperfections become painful and dysregulating to our kids. In this session to learn fresh ideas around how to think about and approach imperfections with your child or student, so that the idea of “good enough for now” can feel manageable to them when perfection is not possible or realistic.

Training 7: “My Child / Student Doesn’t Do Non-Preferred Tasks.”

Does anyone talk about your child or student this way, including maybe you? Although it can feel hard and frustrating when our kids and students won’t engage in what we hope they will, this statement is not helpful because it can imply there is a line in the sand that we must make them cross. Shifting the way we think about "non-preferred tasks", to instead explore what may be going on for the individual in these moments, can better guide us what to do next. In this session, we'll discuss some of the ways we can meet our kids where they are, while thoughtfully guiding them towards learning opportunities that may not feel as familiar or comfortable to them. 

Thank you for your interest! I’d love to meet you and your team!