Fact: 20 percent of all students are diagnosable for a mental, emotional or behavior health issue.

This seminar will help classroom teachers, counselors, administrators and other school personnel understand how to support this high-potential, neuro-diverse portion of the student population while avoiding an unmanageable classroom environment. 

In a single classroom, it is quite conceivable that
a teacher might be dealing with five or more differ- ent disorders. Some of the most common challenges mainstreamed in the classroom are:

• Anxiety Disorders
• Trauma & Stress
• Early Onset Bipolar Disorder
• Depression
• Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
• Asperger’s Syndrome
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder 

These issues are often undiagnosed and easily misunderstood – and may be responded to as simple discipline issues. Behaviors that tend to be common to students who are Wired Differently include: disorganization; perfectionism; trouble dealing with change; performance and testing anxiety; social anxiety and over- and under-reacting to adults and peers. 

The second half of this seminar focuses on students who exhibit more hostile behavior – temper tantrums, fighting, cruelty and defiance. Typically educators slip into a pattern of coercion and punishment and peers start to reject these students — often leading to academic difficulties, poor relationships, substance abuse, delinquency and crime. But these students may actually have a Disruptive Behavior Disorder – Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder and/or Intermittent Explosive Disorder. This session provides effective practices for working with, and reducing confrontations with, these students. It examines each disorder and connects the dots between the three. Attendees will learn why get- ting tough and zero tolerance do not work and how educators can steer away from power struggles.