The Balance Program Live Course

Description:

A set of skills, including functional communication, delay tolerance, and cooperation with adult instructions, has been shown to reduce severe problem behavior among children with autism. Teaching these skills to typically developing preschoolers has also been demonstrated to reduce problem behavior and prevent it from developing. From this foundation comes the Balance Program, a skill-based curriculum delivered in the home by parents to their young children recently diagnosed with autism, with the goal of preventing the development of severe problem behavior. Our empirical evaluation of the program showed decreases in emerging problem behavior across all participants and increases in social and cooperation skills.

This course will consist of an on-demand portion to be completed before the first class meeting and weekly class meetings. In the on-demand portion, participants will review data from the empirical evaluation of the Balance Program, learn about the program content and format in detail, and view video examples. If you’ve already completed the on-demand portion, please contact Alex Beckwith at abeckwith@ftfbc.com. During class meetings, attendees will have the opportunity to design an individualized application of the Balance Program for a child and to receive feedback and implementation assistance. The course will consist of 15.5 hours of instruction, including 3.5 hours of prerecorded video instruction by Dr. Ruppel and Dr. Hanley. Successful completion of the course will yield 10 BACB CEUs.

Participants

This course is designed for Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Special Educators, Speech-Language Pathologists, Psychologists, and related professionals. Professionals are encouraged to sign up with the parent or caregiver of a child with whom they will do the Balance Program. During the 9 weeks of the course, the parent or caregiver will implement the Balance Program with the professional’s support. The professional and the parent/caregiver will attend weekly class meetings to review progress and ask questions. Class is capped at 4 participants/dyads.

Note: Parent/caregiver attendance in class meetings is encouraged but not required. However, professionals must have a client with whom they are ready to begin the Balance Program on the first day of class.

All classes will be conducted via video conferencing software (Zoom), free to download and use. Dropbox will be used to share weekly content.

Instructor:

• Kelsey Ruppel, PhD, BCBA-D
• Email: kruppel@ftfbc.com

Course Time & Location:

• 10-11:15 am EST (United States)
• Zoom (instructor will send invite)