Children with Special Needs

1
Dr. Don Welch Moderator
Tonight
Special Needs Kids
Pamela Luschei
Dr. Joe Price
645 to 800 pm Skyline Auditorium
Jeff Reinke
Dr. Dan Jenkins
2
My Therapist Sez

• Children with Special Needs
• Presented by Dr. Joe Price

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Areas of Special Needs

• Physical
• Physical disabilities
• Poor coordination of motor skills (gross and
  fine)
• Elimination problems (encopresis, enuresis)
• Cognitive/Intellectual
• Mental Retardation
• Attentional problems
• Learning difficulties (math, reading, writing).
• Language/Communication

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Areas of Special Need (cont.)

• Emotional
• Hyperactivity (impulse control)
• Anxiety/depression
• Problems with emotional regulation
• Behavior
• Oppositional/defiant
• Conduct/behavior problems (aggression.
  delinquency)
• Social
• Social anxiety/withdrawal
• Social rejection/loneliness
• Peer victimization/bullying

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Understanding Needs

• Needs can overlap, and some can be pervasive
  (e.g., autism, mental retardation)
• Specific needs are best understood along a
  continuum.

Mild
severe
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Addressing Special Needs Diagnosis

• Many professionals use diagnostic categories for
  classifying special needs.
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders, 4th.
• Diagnoses can help with understanding the nature
  of the need.
• Diagnoses can help with determining the best
  course of treatment.
• Diagnoses do not define the child or teen or
  his/her worth.

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Addressing Special Needs Treatment

• Interventions focused on changing the social
  environment
• Family Therapy
• Parent Management Training
• Classroom based social-skill training
• Interventions focused on helping children to
  develop competencies
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (anxiety/depression)
• Behavioral interventions
• Educational remediation (e.g., direct
  instruction)
• Social skill training
• Pharmacological Treatments
• Combination of Approaches

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Basic Needs of All Children

• Loving, caring, supportive parents/adults
• Age-appropriate structure and rules
• Monitoring and supervision
• Safety from physical/emotional harm and the
  threat of harm.
• Manageable life challenges/changes
• Opportunities to develop competencies and succeed
  at developmental tasks

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Developmental Tasks and Competencies

• Physical skills (necessary for caring for self,
  contributing to family, school, and community,
  and playing games)
• Cognitive skills
• Reading, writing, calculating
• Problem solving
• Creativity
• Emotional skills
• Affective regulation (positive and negative
  emotions)
• Impulse control

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Developmental Tasks and Competencies

• Social skills
• Cooperation
• Perspective taking
• Resolving conflicts
• Group entry skills
• How to form and maintain friendships, and other
  types of relationships
• Development of a health sense of self-worth.
• Developing competencies
• Experiencing successes
• Warm/supportive relationships
• parents, mentors, friends
• God

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Developmental Tasks and Competencies

• Developing a sense of autonomy, while maintaining
  connectedness and cooperation with others.
• Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of
  values
• Learning about God, His character, His laws and
  rules, and how to form a relationship with Him.

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Parents and caregivers play an important and
critical role in meeting both the special and
basis needs of their children. And, we are not
alone.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present
help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way        and the
mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
 though its waters roar and foam        and the
mountains quake with their surging.        Psalm
46 1-3
13
Dr. Don Welch Moderator
Tonight
Special Needs Kids
Pamela Luschei
Dr. Joe Price
645 to 800 pm Skyline Auditorium
Jeff Reinke
Dr. Dan Jenkins
14
Dr. Don Welch Moderator
Next month
Male and Female Communication Styles
Dr. Luis Vargas
Donna Dennis
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 645 to 800
pm Skyline Auditorium
Karen Lenell
Elaine Martens Hamilton