PVC Parent Training Series 2025
At Palm Valley Child Development, we understand the challenges that come with supporting children who have behavioral issues. To empower parents and caregivers, we offer specialized workshops and training designed to provide practical strategies, tools, and insights for managing and improving children’s behavior. Our expert-led sessions cover a variety of topics, from understanding behavioral triggers to creating effective routines and positive reinforcement techniques. With a focus on collaboration and support, these workshops aim to strengthen the connection between home and school, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive in a nurturing and structured environment.
2025 SCHEDULE
Location: V’s Pizza, 4:00-5:00pm
Presented by: Alexandra Hahm, M.S., BCBA
Supporting Independence Through Chores: Tailored Strategies for Kids with Special Needs
Description:
This workshop is designed specifically for families with children who have special needs, providing tools and strategies for teaching independence through age-appropriate chores tailored to your child’s individual needs. It will cover the challenges of customizing tasks to suit your child’s abilities while promoting life skills and confidence.
What You’ll Learn:
- Age-Appropriate Responsibilities: Learn how to adjust expectations to match your child’s developmental stage and abilities, providing clear tasks that promote gradual independence.
- Customizing Chores for Your Household: Discover how to break down complex tasks and use visual supports, step-by-step instructions, and other strategies to fit your family’s needs and your child’s learning style.
- Setting Reasonable Expectations: Gain tools for setting achievable goals that take into account your child’s strengths and challenges, while still encouraging growth in a positive, pressure-free environment.
- The Big Picture: Learn how fostering responsibility through chores helps your child gain life skills that contribute to long-term independence, self-esteem, and confidence in their ability to contribute to the family.
Why This Matters:
For families with children with special needs, there’s often a need for extra support and tailored strategies to help children succeed in completing chores. This class provides solutions for common challenges, offering ways to promote self-sufficiency without overwhelming the child or parent.
Interactive Features:
- Customizable chore charts and visual supports you can take home.
- Role-playing scenarios with modified tasks for different abilities.
Registration Available Soon!
Presented by: Amber Smith, M.A., BCBA
Understanding Boundaries for Kids with Special Needs: Navigating Arguments and Stubbornness
Description:
This track is designed for families with children who have special needs, focusing on strategies for managing stubborn or argumentative behaviors in a way that acknowledges your child’s unique developmental needs and learning style. You’ll learn how to create a supportive environment for conflict resolution, set clear and achievable boundaries, and empower your child to express themselves while respecting the family structure.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why Kids Push Back: Gain insight into the specific developmental and sensory factors that may contribute to stubborn or argumentative behavior in children with special needs.
- Setting Clear Boundaries: Learn how to set boundaries that are both realistic and compassionate, considering your child’s individual strengths, challenges, and communication styles.
- Strategies for Conflict Navigation: Discover de-escalation techniques that can help your child manage frustration, and strategies to prevent power struggles by providing structure and predictability.
- Empowering, Not Controlling: Explore how to promote independence in your child while teaching them accountability, respect, and how to follow expectations in a way that feels empowering and achievable.
Why This Matters:
For children with special needs, managing boundaries may require additional strategies, such as visual supports, extra patience, or adaptations to expectations. This class provides the tools necessary to teach your child how to navigate boundaries effectively, reducing conflicts while promoting growth and independence.
Interactive Features:
- Tailored role-playing scenarios with strategies to manage unique behavioral challenges.
- Communication techniques for defusing tension, especially for children with sensory sensitivities or communication difficulties.
- Open Q&A to explore your family’s specific challenges and receive targeted advice.
Registration Available Soon!
Presented by: Ali Sotolongo, M.S., BCBA
Calming Strategies for Kids with Special Needs: Managing Emotions and Reducing Meltdowns
Description:
This track is designed for families with children who are neurodivergent, focusing on how to model and utilize calming strategies while balancing the needs of siblings with different emotional and sensory requirements. The class offers strategies for managing emotional regulation challenges and supporting siblings in a harmonious household.
What You’ll Learn:
- Understanding Big Emotions: Explore how neurodivergent children experience and process emotions differently, and learn how to recognize emotional cues and respond appropriately.
- Calm Down Tools and Techniques: Discover a range of calming strategies tailored to neurodivergent children, including sensory-based techniques, visual supports, and emotion regulation routines.
- Building Emotional Awareness: Learn activities that help children identify their emotions and teach them to use communication tools to express themselves, reducing frustration and physical behaviors.
- Managing Sibling Dynamics: Learn how to balance the emotional needs of siblings, providing strategies for supporting neurodivergent children while also meeting the emotional and developmental needs of siblings.
- Creating a Supportive Environment: Understand how to model emotional regulation, set expectations, and create a household routine that supports emotional regulation for all family members.
Why This Matters:
Supporting emotional regulation in neurodivergent children is essential for fostering independence and reducing frustration. This class will also help parents manage the unique dynamics of a household with children who have varying needs, fostering a calm and supportive environment for all.
Interactive Features:
- Demonstrations of calming activities such as breathing exercises, sensory tools, and visual aids.
- Guided practice on how to use emotion charts, journals, and other communication strategies for children with different needs.
- Take-home resources, including sensory kits and sibling-support guides, to help you implement strategies at home.
Registration Available Soon!
Presented by: Jenny Fisher, BCaBA
Supporting Dual Diagnoses (e.g., ADHD + Autism, ODD/ ADHD + Learning Disabilities)
Description:
For families with children who have ADHD alongside another condition (such as autism, learning disabilities, or depression), this class offers tailored strategies for managing dual diagnoses. Parents will learn how to balance the needs of their child with ADHD and another diagnosis, creating a structured and supportive environment that promotes success across various areas.
What You’ll Learn:
- Understanding ADHD and Co-occurring Conditions: Explore how ADHD interacts with other conditions like autism, learning disabilities, or depression, and how to address these complexities within daily routines.
- Supporting Dual Diagnoses: Learn strategies to manage ADHD alongside another diagnosis, such as autism, through individualized approaches and adaptations. Understand the impact of sensory processing issues, communication difficulties, and learning challenges.
- Creating a Balanced Routine: Learn how to structure daily life to meet the needs of your child with dual diagnoses. This includes balancing schoolwork, therapy sessions, social activities, and self-care routines to prevent overwhelm and promote success.
- Behavioral Strategies for Complex Needs: Tailor ADHD management strategies to account for co-occurring conditions, focusing on understanding your child’s unique needs and providing consistent, structured support.
- Social and Emotional Development: Address social skills, emotional regulation, and communication challenges. Learn how to support your child’s development while fostering positive peer interactions and reducing isolation.
- Supporting Siblings and Family Dynamics: Learn how to manage household dynamics with children who have diverse needs. This includes strategies to ensure that siblings feel supported and that all family members’ emotional needs are met.
Why This Matters:
Children with dual diagnoses face unique challenges that require specialized approaches to behavior management, emotional regulation, and social skills development. This class equips parents with the tools to effectively support their child’s growth and navigate the complexities of living with multiple diagnoses.
Who Should Attend:
Parents of children ages 4–12 with ADHD and another diagnosis (e.g., autism, learning disabilities, or depression) who want:
- Customized strategies to manage the complexity of dual diagnoses.
- Tools to create a supportive and balanced environment for their child.
- Practical advice on fostering emotional resilience, social skills, and self-confidence in their child.
Interactive Features:
- Role-playing scenarios to practice strategies for managing both ADHD and another condition.
- Guided discussions on how to structure daily routines and provide emotional support.
- Take-home resources, including specialized behavior charts, communication aids, and emotional regulation tools.
Registration Available Soon!
Presented by: Brittany Long, M.Ed., BCBA
Maintaining Routines Through Summer for Children with Special Needs
Description:
For families with children who have special needs, maintaining routines through the summer months is crucial for consistency and stability. This class will provide tailored strategies for parents of children with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, or other neurodivergent conditions, ensuring that summer routines support your child’s development while promoting a calm and structured home environment.
What You’ll Learn:
- The Need for Structure in the Summer: Learn why maintaining routines is even more important for children with special needs, and how structure provides comfort and reduces anxiety.
- Creating a Summer Schedule that Works for Your Child: Understand how to adapt schedules to meet the unique needs of your child, balancing therapy sessions, recreational activities, and family time.
- Sensory and Emotional Regulation: Strategies for incorporating calming routines and sensory-friendly activities into your summer schedule to help your child regulate their emotions.
- Support for Siblings: Tips for maintaining balance and consistency for all children in the family, considering the different needs of neurodivergent children and their siblings.
- Building Independence and Life Skills: How to use summer routines as an opportunity to teach life skills, such as personal hygiene, meal prep, and daily chores, while offering structure and independence.
Why This Matters:
Children with special needs often thrive on routine and consistency, especially during periods of change like summer break. This class will provide parents with strategies to create a summer routine that minimizes stress, promotes development, and supports the unique needs of their child.
Who Should Attend:
Parents of children ages 5–12 with special needs, including ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, or other neurodivergent conditions, who want to:
- Maintain consistency and structure throughout the summer.
- Learn strategies for managing sensory needs and emotional regulation during the summer months.
- Foster their child’s independence and life skills in a summer-friendly routine.
Interactive Features:
- Sample summer schedules tailored for children with special needs.
- Communication strategies to help your child understand and engage with routines.
- Take-home resources for adapting routines to fit your child’s sensory and emotional needs.
Registration Available Soon!
