The Center for Leadership in Disability (CLD) is leading a series of Parent Academies that are focused on caregivers of children, ages three to five, who demonstrate persistent challenging behaviors. The goal of the Academies is to teach participants about positive behavior and visual supports strategies that will prepare them to address their child’s challenging behaviors and improve developmental outcomes.
The approach uses a range of strategies to address the challenging behaviors that are often observed in children with learning, social, and communication delays. Within the five sessions of the Parent Academy, content will range from interventions and problem solving, to visual supports and the use of data.
Positive Behavior Support is widely recognized by behavior specialists, psychologists, educators and other clinicians as an effective process for reducing challenging behavior and increasing positive behaviors in children. Over the past four years, the CLD have conducted a highly successful training program of individualized positive behavior supports with teachers and related service providers that has resulted in school-level adoption of Individualized Positive Behavior Supports.
“Positive behavior Support has more than 30 years of research supporting its effectiveness at preventing and reducing children’s challenging behaviors,” said Lillie Huddleston, PhD and Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. “As a result of the work of Positive Behavior Support through the Parent Academy, more than 125 families of children receiving services through the Georgia Department of Public Health’s Babies Can’t Wait program have realized improvements in communication and behavior in the children, and increased self-efficacy in the parents,” said Dr. Huddleston.
Currently, CLD is leading three Parent Academies in Georgia; Gainesville, Norcross and Columbus, and seven additional Parent Academies are scheduled to begin in 2017.