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3 CE Credits

• Members - $90
• Non-members - $140
• Students - $40

Workshop Description:

This presentation will focus on evidence-based interventions for school avoidance in neurotypical and neurodiverse populations. Specifically, this presentation will review the need for diagnostic, dimensional, and functional assessment. We will discuss the importance of understanding the underlying core fear or other obstacles and barriers to reentry. We will discuss a comprehensive protocol that includes comprehensive assessment including the rule out of subtle learning differences that may have escaped the schools attention, including working memory and processing speed challenges. We will outline individual child-focused treatment with an emphasis on psychoeducation, exposure therapy, cultivating self-efficacy, violating expectancies. We will discuss the critical importance of parent training that ficsyes psychoeducation regarding the role of avoidance in maintaining anxiety, differentiating between accommodation that is appropriate and those that enable avoidance, and active skills building in order to use differential reinforcement effectively. We will outline effective strategies and approaches to engage in active school consultation during the reentry process including decreasing uncertainty. Lastly, the structure and process of a school avoidance therapy group of same age peers that enables observational learning, the vicarious development of self efficacy, scaffolded connection, and opportunities for exposure with the same-aged peer group will be presented.

Furthermore, this presentation will emphasize the important differences in working with a neurodiverse population with a specific focus on the important distinction between anxiety and dread, fear, and overstimulation, and the appropriate use of sensory accommodations, among others.

Workshop Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to demonstrate knowledge regarding the diagnostic, dimensional, and functional assessment of youth engaging in school avoidance.
2. Participants will be able to use specific evidence-based skills designed to reduce school avoidant behavior among neurotypical and neurodiverse students.
3. Participants will be able to implement a comprehensive protocol to assist students in their return to learn following school avoidance.

About the Presenters:

Dr. Dalton is a licensed psychologist, public speaker, and author who founded the Center for Anxiety and Behavioral Change (CABC) in Rockville, MD, which is a private treatment center dedicated to using evidence-based treatment for patients with anxiety disorders. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Villanova University, a master's degree in psychology from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Fordham University with a specialization in child and family psychology. He completed two years of pre-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - Kennedy Krieger Institute, and advanced postdoctoral training at the Maryland Center for Anxiety Disorders at the University of Maryland. He specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents with a particular focus on anxiety-based school refusal. He frequently provides training to other mental health professionals and presents to community organizations.