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The Brain

Neurological Factors that Affect

Behavior and Learning

Hello!I am Layne Pethick+ Consultant for ASD and Behavior

at Region 10 ESC

+ You can contact me at

layne.pethick@region10.org

Expectations for our time together…

+Blanket Apology

+Talking

+Learning

Two Main Rules for Spending Time with Me:

+#1 - Enjoy yourself

+#2 - You must have a sense of humor

Parents and Gardeners

Basic Agenda

+ The Brain

+ Something to Think About

+ Food For Thought

Let’s Begin

It’s

Me

Let the Layers Begin

“Labels…labels…labels”

The Layers Build

BIP

IEP

visuals

LRE

programming

antecedents Labels

…and Build

BIP

IEP

visuals

In-home

LRE

programming

antecedents More labels…

EBPs

Through All the Layers and

Labels…

vocalization

No

n-c

om

plia

nt

FBA

BIP

IEP

traumaaggression

visuals

In-home

LRE

programming

antecedents Even more labels…

EBPs

…remember there is a child under there.

ABA

So…How Do We Begin to Look

Beyond the Labels?

• Looking beyond the labels and seeing the individual child is vital

for decisions made regarding interventions, practices,

strategies…life…

• Today we will look at the BRAIN…the very thing that holds the

key to all of our children!

Experts and Specialists…

• Are you paying attention to the expert (the only expert

that exists)?

It All Starts with the Brain!

• How is the child’s brain processing information?

• How do you begin figuring out the child’s brain?

• Parents and teachers need to carefully select and

“tweak” interventions, strategies, and practices to match

the individual child.

First…

The Brain

Brain Development+How our brains develop tends to be opposite of our education system and some parent expectations…

+The human brain develops from the back to front…the education system and sometimes parenting is largely set up as front to back…

+Educators and other adults have the ability to off set some of this opposition simply by the way they interact with children…

You are the

surrogate

frontal lobe!

The Brain and Attention

+It is IMPOSSIBLE to “not pay attention”; the brain is ALWAYS paying attention

+Attention is selective

+Sustained attention to something you can’t understand is not only boring, but almost impossible…(think about instructional practices in classrooms)…human beings do not attend to or store meaningless information

The Brain and Emotion

+Emotion drives attention and attention drives

learning and memory

Fixations…AKA

“The window in…”

So What is REALLY Happening???

The Brain and Stress

+Anxiety increases cognitive rigidity (my term:

Stress makes you stupid)

+Stressed adults = stressed children

+BREATHE!!!

A Day in the Life

And now…

+A TEST!!!

How Do You Feel?

+What are your initial reactions to “the test”?

+The more stress…the harder it is to deal with

“life”

Spelling Test!!

+Are you ready???

““Children have never been very good at

listening to their elders, but they have

NEVER failed to imitate them.”

~James Baldwin~

Something to Think

About…

Exclusive = Exclusion

Peers…The real world…

+Peers

Food for ThoughtIf We Have Time…

Function vs. Form

+Addressing the FORM is only temporary

+Addressing the FUNCTION is life changing

+The function of the behavior is the motivation behind it or what is maintaining it…it is the answer to the question “WHY?”

+The form of the behavior is the topography: what does it look like, sound like, how intense is it, how long does it last, how often does it occur

**IMPORTANT – A behavior can have multiple functions

It’s All About the Data

Data

Data MUST be:

Simple – easy, quick, and to the point

Accurate – done with fidelity, honesty, and integrity

Collect baseline data for minimum of 3 weeks

(consider time of year also)

Use data to make hypothesis on the FUNCTION of the

behavior (Why is the student doing what they are doing?)

What does the data show?

BEHAVIOR

No Patterns (Automatic)

Patterns

(Socially Mediated)

Behavior Explained…Socially Mediated Positive

(External)

*Someone else provides something that is preferred

Socially Mediated Negative (External)

*Someone else removes a non-preferred or aversive

Automatic Positive (Internal)

*You provide something that is preferred

Automatic Negative (Internal)

*You remove a non-preferred or aversive

Behavior

Behavior Needs to be

Taught…Not just rewarded and punished…

(move your clothespin…here’s your

Skittle)

REMEMBER…

It’s

Me!!We don’t treat

labels, we help

the child!

Why I Do What I Do

+Story

Thank You!