CANCELED: Blended Interventions and Promoting Parental Buy-In: A Webinar in Two Parts 2/25/18 1:00 pm eastern

Part I. Blended Interventions: Parents and practitioners are tired of being required to choose a highly structured early behavioral intervention, e.g. “Lovaas” or a more loosely organized approach (e.g. “Pivotal Response Training”).  Blended intervention combines structured and incidental naturalistic strategies to suit the needs of individual children based on an initial assessment.  They are both based on behavior analytic principles, which have been extensively researched.  In 2011 Travis Thompson and his colleagues published “Individualized Autism Intervention for Young Children: Blending Discrete Trial and Naturalistic Strategies”(Paul H. Brookes, Inc.) describing the approach and reporting findings from their application of these principles. This webinar describes intervention options and how to decide which children can benefit from which combination of approaches.

Part II:  Promoting Parent Buy-In:  Parents have a great deal at stake in selecting an early intervention approach for their children with autism.  This presentation will focus on some of the reasons parents have reservations about adopting behavioral interventions, and how behavioral practitioners can address their concerns.  Some issues are lack of accurate information and unrealistic expectations, while others are due to ineffective ways of some practitioners in interacting with parents and responding to their worries.  At times practitioners ask parents to adopt procedures that seem counterintuitive, without careful consideration of parents’ perspectives.  The last part of the presentation will discuss several specific strategies for promoting more parental participation and acceptance of concepts and procedures that can be very helpful to their children.

Learning Objectives:

Dr.​ ​Travis​ ​Thompson​ ​completed​ ​a​ ​doctorate​ ​in​ ​psychology​ ​with​ ​subspecialties​ ​in​ ​behavior
analysis,​ ​neuroscience,​ ​child​ ​psychology​ ​and​ ​developmental​ ​disabilities.​ ​He​ ​has​ ​worked​ ​in
medical​ ​settings​ ​as​ ​well​ ​as​ ​psychology​ ​departments​ ​and​ ​behavior​ ​analysis​ ​clinics​ ​most​ ​of
his​ ​career​ ​(at​ ​Univ​ ​of​ ​Minnesota,​ ​Vanderbilt​ ​Univ.​ ​and​ ​Univ​ ​of​ ​Kansas​ ​Medical​ ​Center).​ ​ ​As
a​ ​doctoral​ ​student,​ ​he​ ​completed​ ​most​ ​of​ ​the​ ​first​ ​year​ ​of​ ​medical​ ​school​ ​course​ ​work​ ​and
later​ ​directed​ ​a​ ​psychopharmacology​ ​training​ ​program​ ​at​ ​the​ ​Univ​ ​of​ ​Minnesota.​ ​ ​He
co-directed​ ​a​ ​major​ ​multiple​ ​disability​ ​research​ ​program​ ​at​ ​Vanderbilt​ ​University​ ​dealing
with​ ​genetic​ ​contributions​ ​to​ ​disabilities.​ ​ ​He​ ​worked​ ​in​ ​the​ ​Pediatric​ ​Clinical
Neuroscience​ ​Autism​ ​Clinic​ ​at​ ​the​ ​University​ ​of​ ​Minnesota​ ​and​ ​directed​ ​a​ ​private
community​ ​based​ ​early​ ​behavioral​ ​intervention​ ​program​ ​in​ ​Minneapolis,​ ​MN.​ ​ ​His
expertise​ ​includes​ ​working​ ​with​ ​complex​ ​cases​ ​of​ ​multiply​ ​caused​ ​severe​ ​behavior
challenges​ ​in​ ​autism​ ​and​ ​other​ ​developmental​ ​disabilities.​ ​ ​He​ ​is​ ​a​ ​licensed​ ​psychologist​ ​in
Minnesota.

Dr.​ ​Thompson​ ​is​ ​author,​ ​co-author​ ​and/or​ ​editor​ ​of​ ​books​ that are ​mentioned​ ​during​ some of his ​
presentations for ABAC.​ ​He​ ​receives​ ​royalties​ ​from​ ​the​ ​sale​ ​of​ ​the​ ​books.​ ​He​ ​also​ ​receives​ ​speaker
fees​ ​for​ ​presenting​ ​for​ ​ABAC.