Clinical Reasoning and Practice for Early Intervention Providers: When In Doubt, Blow Bubbles!

Life can be hard for both kids as well as their caregivers. The research on the effects of stress on the developing nervous system is compelling. As child development service providers we need to be sensitive to the experience of those we serve. In this workshop we will briefly review our collective understanding of the ways in which stress and threat influence behavior and development. We’ll identify the observable indicators of stress. And, then we’ll discuss very practical ways to modify what we do and how we do it in the service of decreasing the child and/or caregivers stressful experiences. The use of a sensory processing framework as a means for designing intervention strategies that foster a calm and alert state. The importance of working with the child in the context of a primary relationship will serve as an overarching theme for this workshop. Participants are encouraged to come with specific challenging clinical case examples to share as well as success stories from which the participant group will be able to learn.

Participants will be able to:

identify ways in which stress influences the architecture of the developing brain
identify observable stress indicators
employ a clinical reasoning model to determine intervention strategies
discuss the importance of working with children in the context of a primary care giving relationship
practice strategies to decrease the harmful effects of stress
connect their discoveries immediately to their practice