On Tuesday, May 30th, Aaron’s Acres held a virtual seminar with Dr. Carrie Bruey.

Dr. Bruey spoke about how to teach coping skills to children and young adults with developmental disorders. With her extensive experience in working with individuals with developmental disorders, she was able to share facts and information as well as detailed examples from her own practice.  In addition to her sharing this information, Dr. Bruey provided many resources to explore following this presentation.  No doubt, she was a wealth of information and feedback from the attendees was extremely positive.

Dr. Bruey first pointed out that there are many reasons why challenging behaviors occur. Some of the more common ones for individuals with developmental disorders are the following: a tendency to misinterpret social situations, to misunderstand others’ communication, there might be an overreaction to minor events, and they might demonstrate increased anxiety over typical daily events. Challenges behaviors often occur when there are changes in daily activities or even with transitions (going from one activity to another).

In discussing various coping skills, Dr. Bruey was sensitive to the fact that families have children and young adults with varying levels of ability and disability. Using colored cards associated with different emotions such as a blue card meaning bored or tired vs. a red card meaning angry and out of control, helps the individual to label his/her feelings and then work towards a different colored card such as green meaning ready to learn, focused, happy, and calm.  Working with these cards can be done with the assistance of an adult, coaching, and supporting the person as they move from one card to another. An individual who is higher functioning might be able to identify what triggers his behaviors and then work on relaxation techniques or introduce automatic thoughts (saying a calming message repeatedly to himself).  Taking deep breaths, removing himself from the situation, asking for a break or counting to 10 or backwards from 10 might be helpful for an individual who is higher functioning. 

This seminar was helpful in providing an array of coping skills along with resources to refer to afterwards. Writing a social story or creating a video of coping skills one might want to introduce to his child are just 2 of the resources provided through this seminar. 

Aaron’s Acres is committed to providing these virtual seminars, selecting topics that attendees have requested from previous seminars. We always want to respond accordingly to the needs expressed by our families.

Join us for our next virtual seminar on Wednesday, July 26th at 7:30PM. The seminar will cover financial planning for families raising children with disabilities, with a focus on ABLE accounts, waivers, and guardianship.