Workshops

:: UPCOMING WORKSHOPS ::

Half-Day Workshop

Seminar: Intervening With The Student Who Has Aggressive Or Explosive Behaviours:
                  Interventions That Get To The Root Of The Problem

Schools are struggling with students who are aggressive and who have frequent and intense explosions or meltdowns. In order to more effectively intervene, we must first understand the origins of this challenging behaviour whether the student is in Kindergarten, Elementary or High School. Based on the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, this presentation will reveal the underlying emotion of frustration, and then explain why certain students have a difficult time managing their frustration. We will delve into the neuroscience surrounding this emotion. Finally, we will look at ways of intervening that allow us to avoid certain pitfalls and that have proven to be effective.

Speaker: Eva de Gosztonyi

Eva de Gosztonyi, MA, psychologist, OPQ has worked for over 45 years in schools across Canada. For the past 20 years she has been the provincial resource person for the English School Boards of Quebec through the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Management, helping adults in the school setting provide effective developmental interventions for students with behavioural challenges. Her guiding principles are that we must value the natural maturational processes of our children and youth, respect their immaturity and vulnerability, and understand that safe and caring attachments with adults are essential for their optimal growth. Grounded in a robust theory, the interventions that she recommends to schools are practical and doable and go deeper than just managing symptoms. Her interventions are being applied in regular school settings, regular classrooms and also in specialized classrooms and schools with great success. Those implementing these strategies affirm that they lead to long-lasting changes that only come about when we understand the “why” behind the behaviour and respect the student’s developmental needs in our interventions. Her understanding of child development is primarily informed by the attachment-based developmental paradigm of Dr. Gordon Neufeld. Interventions are also guided by neuroscience, are trauma-informed and trauma-responsive, and are attachment-based and developmentally friendly. Eva is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and is an authorized presenter of the Neufeld paradigm.

Course Outline

1. Where aggression, explosive behaviours and meltdowns originate
   • Introducing the emotion of frustration
   • How the Limbic System works
2. Neufeld’s Traffic Circle of Frustration
   • The role of tears and sadness in adaptation
   • The role of the prefrontal cortex in tempering frustration
3. Why aggression and meltdowns happen
   • The flight from vulnerability and defenses
   • The effect of adverse childhood experiences on the brain
   • The displacement effect in aggression
4. Why conventional approaches backfire when dealing with aggression and meltdowns including:
   • Timeouts
   • Consequences
   • Reward systems
5. Interventions
   • Guidelines for managing the incident
   • Working with frustration and reducing attachment frustration
   • Allowing for safe eruptions
   • Priming adaptation
   • Addressing Impulsiveness
   • Using play to reduce frustration
6. Planning for the student with explosive and aggressive behaviours
   • Analysing an explosive or aggressive event
   • Developing an individual plan for the explosive or aggressive student

Course Objectives

On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the many sources of frustration
2. Describe how frustration can manifest itself prior to resulting in an explosion
3. Choose an appropriate intervention to intervene during an explosive episode
4. Accompany a student in the process of adaptation to frustration
5. Assist a student in finding their mixed feelings to temper their frustration
6. Create conditions within a school setting to minimize the likelihood of future aggression, explosions or meltdowns
7. Analyse an explosive or aggressive event
8. Create an individual plan for a student with aggressive or explosive behaviours

Who Can Benefit?

This workshop is appropriate for all grade levels (pre-k to secondary) special education and general education teachers, social workers, counsellors, psychologists, administrators and mental health professionals.

Course Fees & Closing Dates

Registration Type	Closing Date	Fees (S$) /pax
	30 Jul 2022	160
Normal	Till Full	190