Conference Archive 2021
VCU ACE COLA SUMMER CONFERENCE Archives
June 24 - 25, 2021
Main Conference Sessions
June 24, 2021
The 10th Anniversary of the Communities of Leaders in Autism Conference Keynote
June 25, 2021
VDOE State of the State
June 25, 2021
Division Spotlight Speed Share
Breakout Sessions
Promoting the Components of Self-Determination through School, Home and Community
This session will discuss the various components of self-determination and how one school division is working to implement these components across school, home and in the community. Target audience: This session is for division leaders, admins, and autism specialists as well as general education and special education teachers who are looking for ideas on how to support families staff and individuals in implementing best practices across school, home and community.
Introduction to the IISCA and Skill Based Treatment (BCBA CE)
Developed by Dr. Greg Hanley, the Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) and Skill Based Treatment (SBT) is an advanced behavior technology that identifies the “why” of a student’s behavior which serves to inform individualized treatments. The central goal is to eliminate problem behavior while building essential skills such as functional communication, tolerance behaviors and contextually appropriate behaviors. This session will serve as a primer to this approach and will lay the foundation for participants to understand the methodology and goals of the practical functional assessment (PFA) and skill based treatments. The target audience for this session is: BCBAs, BCaBAs, mentor or lead teachers, autism specialists and other behavior support staff (all with advanced training in ABA). BCBAs and BCaBAs can earn 1 continuing education credit for attending this session.
Is Your Reading Rope Frayed?
Even frayed ropes have some solid strands. Come learn how to enhance your current literacy curriculum to effectively use the good strands and strengthen the frayed ones. Building a strong reading rope helps educators to provide solid literacy instruction based on the science of reading. Participants will walk away with organizational tools to help them evaluate, supplement, and strengthen each strand of literacy instruction in their division, building, or classroom, based on Scarborough’s Reading Rope.
Technology Tips & Tricks: learning from the past and thinking toward the future!
During the pandemic, we faced many challenges but we also learned many new skills in figuring out how to meet student needs in the virtual world we were thrown in to. Join us for an action packed session where we will share our favorite tech strategies we have learned this past year and how we can use them moving forward. We will explore strategies that can be used to support teachers, students and parents in their collaborative efforts. This will be a give and take style presentation where we invite participants to share their favorite tech tips and how they will use them in the future as well. So, bring your ideas and be ready to join the conversation!
Using Virtual Platforms to Support Educators and Provide Quality Professional Development
For educators across the state, the transition from a traditional school environment to a remote setting has uncovered a wealth of previously untapped learning opportunities – certainly for students, but notably, for staff and educators, themselves. In this session, VCU-ACE and Campbell County Public School staff will discuss creative and inclusive ways to use virtual platforms and web-based technologies to support school staff, as well as provide quality continuous professional development for educators. A model for virtual professional learning will be shared with attendees during this session. By the end of the session, participants will be asked to think about plans for implementing their own virtual model of professional development to help expand their own knowledge, improve instruction, and develop stronger partnerships with students and their families.
Practical Application of IISCA, Practical Functional Assessment, Skill based Treatment and Case Studies (BCBA CE)
This second session on the IISCA, PFA and SBT approach will enable participants to dig deeper into the practical functional assessment and skills based treatment. The branches of contextually appropriate behavior will be discussed in detail as well to understand how to choose and instruct skills. Case examples will be utilized to show how customizable this approach is and how it’s effective with a variety of students with different needs. Our Hanover Public Schools colleagues will join us for this session as they have used the PFA and SBT with students on the spectrum and those with other disabilities. The target audience for this session is: BCBAs, BCaBAs, mentor or lead teachers, autism specialists and other behavior support staff (all with advanced training in ABA). BCBAs and BCaBAs can earn 1 continuing education credit for attending this session.