July 26, 2019 / Uncategorised / Comments Off

Congratulations Karen presenting at the AGOSCI Conference next month

Karen’s presentation titled, Alphabet Stew: SLPs and BCBAs working together for Functional Use of SGDs, is around building connections and changing practice which is something we are continually striving for at Woodbury. We do this through skilled teachers, a behavioural team (BCBA),a speech pathologist, (and countless others involved including, parents, administration, outside therapists, and junior therapists). In the field we often hear of SLPs and BCBAs disagreeing and/or having difficulty collaborating. This presentation will discuss the specific connection between BCBAs and SLPs from the perspective of meeting student needs using our specific skill sets. The discussion will center around 2 case studies of 2 different student profiles (both with ASD) and discuss how we approach teaching both types of learners collaboratively, by incorporating and intertwining strategies from our separate tool kits to ensure our students get the best outcomes. As professionals, we work hard to remain open to change our practise and learn from one another. The use of speech generating devices (SGD), the verbal Behaviour Milestones and Placement Program (VB-Mapp), speech pathology strategies, and applied behaviour analysis (ABA) will be discussed.

All these acronyms provide the title of Karens talk – Alphabet Stew!

Established in 1981, AGOSCI is an inclusive group interested in enhancing the participation of all people with complexcommunication needs. AGOSCI also aims to build the capacity of society to achieve their vision, which is that people with complexcommunication needs participate fully in all aspects of life. AGOSCIs membership includes individuals with complexcommunication needs, family and community members, teachers, speech pathologists and other professionals.

June 21, 2019 / Uncategorised / Comments Off

LAUREN CHAPMAN PRESENTING AT ABAI CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO, USA

Welcome Home to our Clinical Director Lauren, who presented at the ABAI (Applied Behaviour Analysis International) conference in Chicago, USA. ABAI is one of the largest worldwide advocates for the application of ABA. ABAI is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to contributing to the well being of society by developing enhancing and supporting the growth of the science of behaviour analysis through research, education and practice. ABAI has over 7000 members worldwide and is well recognised as a provider of good quality dissemination of research and professional development within the field of ABA.

Not only was Lauren presenting, it was a great opportunity for Lauren to meet others working in similar fields across the globe, and the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of talks presented by other ABA professionals, and learn new and exciting research and sharing knowledge, learning from them, and essentially building a better teaching practice for a wide variety of students.

Lauren was chosen to present research on a group curriculum which has been developed here, at Woodbury through years of research, practice and implementation. Over the past 4 years, Lauren and her team have worked to put together a checklist of the skills necessary to participate and learn in a group setting, and the presentation is the culmination of this project. She has taken data on our students progress to assess the effectiveness of our curriculum in teaching the skills necessary to transition on to a more inclusive setting.

This provides our students with the necessary skills to transition on to other school environments and our continued effort to ensure we do this effectively and efficiently by creating individual goals of the highest quality for each student.

May 6, 2019 / Latest News / Comments Off

* OPEN DAY * Rubens Place School Readiness Group

Do you have a child with autism who will be starting school in the next 12-18 months?
Do you want your child to attend a specialised service that will help to provide them with the necessary skills to successfully transition to a new school placement?
A service that will address the specific needs of a child with autism?
A service that will nurture your child and work on developing their level of independence?
A service that will provide the additional support your child needs to shine?

If you answered yes to the above questions, then you should consider attending the information session for placement in the 2020 school readiness intake group.

Ruben’s place is part of Woodbury; the only school in New South Wales to provide education for children with autism using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) as its teaching methodology.

The school readiness program provides intensive group instruction, tailored to your child’s individual needs. Skills are carefully targeted to maximise your child’s ability to transition successfully to a school environment. Area’s of focus include communication, behaviour, independence, play skills, social skills and pre-academics with a strong focus on group participation.

The transition from early intervention to a school setting is a momentous occasion, let us help bridge the gap.

Details:

When:Wednesday 30th October – 9.30 – 11am

Where: Building 11, Balcombe Heights Estate, 92 seven hills road, Baulkham Hills

RSVP: office@woodbury.org.au or phone 02 9639 6152. We will provide a light morning tea.

Please Note: This information session is for parents/carers only and children are not permitted to attend. If after attending the session you wish to apply for placement, a formal intake assessment process will be scheduled.

We do hope you can join us!

Visit our school readiness page or contact the office for more details

December 11, 2018 / Latest News / Comments Off

Exciting Training Opportunities

Woodbury is pleased to announce the official launch online training centre.

We have six new webinars available for purchase.
The webinars cover a variety of topics aimed at teachers and behaviour analysts.

All trainings are NESA and ACE approved meaning you can get your professional education credits for participating in them

August 22, 2018 / Latest News / Comments Off

Professional Development

Do you work with children as a teacher, special educator, early intervention provider, therapist or learning support assistance?
Do you wish you knew more about how to support the children you work with to navigate challenging situations and deal with stress?
Do you find as an educator you spend more time managing behaviours than actually teaching?

If the answer to any of these is yes then our professional development could provide some support and solutions.

At Woodbury we are approved by NESA and the BCBA to provide accredited training to teachers and behaviour analysts.

We have a wealth of knowledge and experience in managing behaviour challenges with the classroom, supporting individuals with special learning needs and promoting and improving student success.

Check out our Facebook page for upcoming training’s or contact our office for more details.

May 3, 2018 / Latest News / Comments Off

NESA approved training coming soon….

“Classroom success through behaviour management; positive strategies to prevent challenging behaviours”

As educators we all have days where the behaviour of one, or more, student/s challenging behaviour not only disrupts and minimises their learning but limits learning opportunities for those around them. Days where we struggle to maintain control and battle to “stay afloat”. While these problems may seem insurmountable in the moment there are, research based, simple interventions that can be put in place to minimise the behaviour occurrence and set the classroom up for smooth, effective learning.

This course is aimed at educators, support staff, special educators and early educators.
Completing “Classroom success; positive strategies to prevent challenging behaviours” will contribute to 3 hours of NESA Registered PD addressing standards 4.1.2 (supporting student participation), 5.1.2 (assessing student learning) and 6.2.2 (engaging in professional learning and improving practice) from the Australian Professional Standards for teachers maintaining proficient teacher accreditation in NSW.

Dealing with challenging behaviours after they happen can be costly in both time and resources further removing teaching opportunities from the class as a whole. In addition to the logistical issues surrounding this type of behaviour management, reactive responses to challenging behaviour are only short term solutions; they do not focus on why the behaviour is happening, how to prevent it or how to teach an appropriate alternative. Instead the implementation of a few, carefully selected, positive behaviour supports can prevent the behaviour from even occurring in the first place.

May 7, 2014 / Latest News / Comments Off

ACE Behaviour Analyst training coming soon

“Consistency is the key”

One of the biggest barriers to intervention success is the ability of all those involved to accurately and consistently follow the plan as written.

We all know that to learn a new behaviour it needs to be consistently reinforced, to change an old behaviour it needs to be consistently consequated and to successfully have a positive impact on client outcomes we need everyone involved “on the same page”.

As a program supervisor you frequently field questions and queries from junior therapists around intervention procedures that “aren’t working”. When working in a large team, with minimal chance for collaboration across multiple clients and settings, it’s hard to ensure everyone is doing the same thing; people misinterpret the written instruction and procedures shift as the intervention goes on. With multiple professionals, care-givers and family members involved in each child’s life and intervention, it can become very difficult to manage the consistency and accuracy of procedures.

Woodbury Autism Education and Research has just completed a two year research grant on the implementation of ABA within a classroom setting, focusing on the effective implementation of procedures by a general educator under the supervision of a certified behaviour analyst.

With a limited number of certified behaviour analysts here in Australia there is a necessity for dissemination of knowledge and hands on training for the application of basic behaviour analytic tools.

This 3 hour course will provide attendees with an overview of our research project and findings. Attendees will leave the training with a staff performance management checklist which can be individualised/ adapted to assess the treatment integrity and procedural fidelity for behaviour analytic strategies implemented by general educators.

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