What kind of class is this?

The other day, I took a "workshop" (I call it a class). My case manager is always looking for things like this for me. I also am very interested in the subject of behavior, so it works out. This class was called, "Is it Sensory? Or is it Behavior?" To me that was pretty obvious as to the subject matter and I thought this is so the class for me. It's something I've been struggling with for a while with Eden. For example, with my previous post about Occupational Therapy and if the therapy actually works or not. The post is here so if you want to read it, I find it fascinating, the amount of OT a child gets and if and how it works.

Going on, I walked into the classroom and found a seat next to the only person I knew there. It happened to be Eden's lead teacher. The class was at least 30 people and maybe 5 of them were parents. The rest were Educators of some sort getting educational credits and more than 1/3 were Occupational Therapists. The first hour of the class discussed the sensory system and Sensory Integration and Sensory Modulation Disorders.

For the next 1/2 hour (or less) they did a super basic behavior blurb. I call it a blurb because they didn't go into any detail on behaviors or a lot of explanation antecedents(what happens right before the behavior) and nothing of the actual consequences (All are part of the ABC's of behavior). I thought these things were the most important things about the class. I was looking for explanation into what the antecedents said about the behavior. If it explains anything about the behavior, whether it is sensory related or more behaviorally driven. They only pointed out that most times it's both. DUH

 I know Eden does the same behavior (the B part), but sometimes it starts out a little differently (the A part). What I was looking for is if there is a pattern in the A part. And then the end point is different, it all depends on if she needs sensory input or something else (behaviorally). I know it's about taking info (data) processing it and then coming up with a plan, but what if there is a pattern to all of this stuff? I'll be checking this out while I'm on this adventure.

But the question, I had was if the actual antecedent would help tell why the behavior happens. By either a lack of some sensory information (or too much in some cases as well) or is it an actual learned behavior that is driven solely by the consequence of the behavior. I know I'm getting into a lot of ABA and BCBA stuff, but with so many professionals in the room during this class, I'm sure more than half already knew all of the things these people were saying. Why spend our time with things we already knew?

After all these explanations, the leader of the workshop, went over a few behaviors to look at both Occupation Therapy approaches and Behavioral strategies. They asked if anyone else had behaviors to add. I mentioned PICA  (basically ingesting non-food items) as it has been a significant issue in our house as of late. The psychologist there said it was an OT issue not a behavioral one. I totally disagree, there are so many reasons why people have PICA and not all are sensory. I was actually surprised by this. Not mentioning it could be an anxiety driven behavior (Which I'm thinking Eden's is), no mention of vitamin issues or medical issues as is a pretty common problem in people who have PICA.

They mostly talked battle stories about self-injurious behaviors and such with some others in the room but no real information that I haven't heard before. This class would have been very helpful with parents or daycare providers who have never been to behavior classes or even known a lot about sensory issues before they walked through the door because they explained them thoroughly. But to parents looking to answers to the questions they have about actual behaviors and how they can prevent them from happening, it wasn't that helpful to me.

I would love to have a class where there were professionals that pre-received questions from parents and then break them up into categories and help with practical approaches on how to find out why our kids do these things and strategies to help change it. Understand with parents we are just looking for tools to put in our tool box, not a quick fix. Or even a good comprehensive class on behaviors, how they can present, how they can be modified or changed. Then have the parents do the ABC homework then go over it in class to see if they understand how to break down behaviors. Then from there, you can figure out what the parent actually needs, either it be training a parent not to give attention or to teach the parent replacement strategies to use at home to make life easier. It would be a great way to market BCBA's to parents who need them and are looking for help. I didn't even know they existed until last year. Most of the solutions are very simple ones and just the basics of behavior. There are so many ways professionals can help parents by giving them the littlest bit of helpful information.

I know it's hard wanting to fix everything all the time, but most of my life is about little changes. The littlest changes in our life are usually the most helpful. Parents are desperately wanting information on how to make their lives and the lives of their children better and easier. It shouldn't have to be done with an in-home behavioral expert that charges about $100 per visit (not covered by any insurance either), when the solutions are simple and most of the time the parent is doing it almost right anyways. It's these things that drive me nuts about our society and the way we have to beg to get help, even if we know where to look for it.