This is the first course in a three-part series on Functional Behavioral Assessment, and contains an introduction to Functional Behavioral Assessments. This course focuses on the requirements specified in the 1997 Amendments to the IDEA that pertain to Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs) and positive behavioral intervention plans and supports as they relate to the responsibilities of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) team and to the IEP itself.

This is the second course in a three-part series on Functional Behavioral Assessment, and explains in detail the process of conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment. This course examines the rationale for and discusses the process of conducting a functional behavioral assessment and describes the ways schools and Individual Education Plan (IEP) teams can translate this new public policy into classroom practice by means of a step-by-step approach to functional behavioral assessment. This course explains how IEP teams can decide how to collect various kinds of information and how to organize and analyze this information.

This course in the third in a three-part series on Functional Behavioral Assessment, and explores the process of developing, implementing, and monitoring Functional Behavioral Assessments. Today, educators at all grade levels face a growing number of students whose behavior challenges the success of daily classroom instruction. Fortunately, teachers are usually able to rely on standard strategies for addressing classroom misbehavior, such as solid teaching practices, clear rules and expectations, being physically close to their students, and praising and encouraging positive behaviors. Either independently or with the support of colleagues, they are able to find a successful solution to the problem. However, for some students -- both with and without disabilities -- these tactics fail to produce the desired outcome and may actually worsen an already difficult situation.

This is the first course in a three-part series on Functional Assessment, and contains an introduction to Functional Assessments. This course focuses on the requirements that pertain to Functional Assessments (FAs) and positive behavioral intervention plans and supports.

This is the second course in a three-part series on Functional Assessment, and contains an introduction to Functional Assessments. This course focuses on the requirements that pertain to conducting Functional Assessments (FAs).

This is the third course in a three-part series on Functional Assessment, and contains an introduction to Functional Assessments. This course focuses on the process of creating and implementing a positive support plan.

This course is designed to expand upon the skills of interventionists already familiar with Pivotal Response Treatment. Specific Pivotal Response Treatments are reviewed that focus on teaching joint attention and play skills, as well as expanding self initiations in children with autism such as learning to ask questions (e.g., what, where, and who) and making requests to participate with their peers (e.g., cooperative arrangements). Interventionists will find this course particularly helpful for facilitating interactions in social routines within home, community, and school settings to better support children with autism.

Aging can be defined as the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Aging in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of aging grow and expand over time, while others decline. Reaction time, for example, may slow with age, while knowledge of world events and wisdom may expand. Research shows that even late in life potential exists for physical, mental, and social growth and development. Aging is an important part of all human societies reflecting the biological changes that occur, but also reflecting cultural and societal conventions. Human age is usually measured in full years. Caring for someone who is aging is very important, and this course provides descriptions of how to do this effectively.

Alzheimer's Disease can be a complicated and confusing health issue for both the individual diagnosed with it, and for family and support professionals. This course provides a basic guide about what Alzheimer's Disease is, common symptoms, how to support people with Alzheimer's Disease, risk factors, and a brief look at some of the medications that are often given to patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

This course has been designed for anyone who works with an individual who takes medications. The purpose of the course is to help staff understand the effects of medications and how they work in the body. It gives an overview of what people need to be aware of when assisting with the administration of medications and what to look out for. This course is a must for anybody who works with an individual who takes medications.

Autism for Direct Support Staff has been designed to provide a comprehensive overview of Autism for those people who have little or no background of the topic. Modules include topics ranging from the overview of Autism itself to Professionalism and Philosophy. While the course title suggests it is only for support staff, we suggest staff at all levels of an organization would benefit from completing it, particularly supervisors and managers. Remember, "For supervisors to supervise and for managers to manage, they need to know what staff have learned" (Deming, 1974).

No classroom teacher or teacher aide can be expected to be an expert on autism. This course will help you understand some of what you see and some of the more recent information about autism. This will be especially useful to those who have not received autism specific training in their teacher education programs. This course will also provide guidance of positive behavioral supports aimed at helping children with autism develop in both the classroom and their wider community.

When a person has major behavior problems, it is not only helpful but also necessary to address them through the process of a formal Behavior Assessment and Intervention Plan, as outlined in this course. These plans take a great deal of staff time to research, conceptualize and write. In the long run they can lead to solutions to these problems in efficient and effective ways. This course will look at how the information is collected for a behavioral assessment, and how the program should be implemented to best support an individual.

This course has been designed to inform you about the rights of clients. Human rights are the basic rights that people have in all aspects of their lives, and it is important for support staff to recognize and support these rights when working with their clients. Case studies are used throughout this course to emphasize behaviors that violate the client's rights, and inform you on how to effectively resolve any problems that you encounter. This course also contains information about informed consent, and will help you to understand some of the different needs that people have.

As clinicians, it is important to put considerable effort into developing Cultural Competence when working with clients. This means examining our biases and prejudices, developing cross-cultural skills, searching for role models, and spending as much time as possible with other people who share a passion for Cultural Competence. This course will give you an introduction to the main concepts of Cultural Competency, and what is required to become culturally competent.

Challenging behavior is the one thing that continues to consume our time, resources and emotion in the work we do. The more efficient we become at supporting people to change their behavior, the closer we get to achieving the outcomes we strive toward. Understanding whether our efforts to support behavior change are working, is the foundation of any effective behavior support plan. To know this....we need data! Data Collection is a "quick course" of study in why we need to collect data and covers the fundamentals of how to do so. This includes graphing and how to ensure the data you collect is reliable.

Dementia can be a complicated and confusing health issue for both the individual diagnosed with it, and for family and support professionals. This course provides a basic guide about what dementia is, common symptoms, how to support people with dementia, and a brief look at some of the medications that are often given to patients with dementia.

This course is designed for Direct Support Staff who work with people who have a developmental disability. The purpose is to provide a firm foundation on which future learning can occur and to provide staff with the skills, understanding and confidence to improve their work.

Perhaps the most challenging clinical aspect of providing mental health care to people with developmental disabilities is the diagnostic assessment of psychiatric disorders. Although it has been reported that persons with developmental disabilities experience the full range of psychiatric disorders, at rates higher than the general population, many mental disorders, for various reasons, are misdiagnosed, under-diagnosed, or undiagnosed in this population. The degree of accuracy of diagnostic assessment with this population is critical to best practice as it provides the foundation for treatment and service planning. This course will explore Dual Diagnosis and possible treatment processes for people with dual diagnoses, and recommendations for providing Dual Diagnosis services.

This course is designed to assist interventionists in developing effective working relationships when teaching individuals with autism. This important first step in teaching is often overlooked when supporting individuals with autism but is critical for success in teaching. The importance of identify meaningful reinforcers and building motivation are reviewed. In addition, strategies for increasing the child's responsiveness to your instruction are covered to promote success in your teaching efforts.

Visual supports are a way of making auditory information visual. Visual Supports are an effective instructional tool. Visual supports organize a sequence of events, enhancing the student's ability to understand, anticipate and participate in those events. Visual supports supplement verbal instruction, clarifying the information for the student and increasing comprehension. Visual supports can be used to cue communication, providing reminders of what to do and say in a situation. This course will provide you with tools to provide visual supports to help communicate with individuals diagnosed with Autism.

It is important that harassment is not a problem in all workplaces. This course has been designed to inform you about what constitutes harassment, the different types of harassment, and the legislation that means harassment is illegal. This course is aimed at employees as well as employers.

This course has been designed to give you a basic understanding about the health care decision-making process. It covers information about supporting individuals to make their own decisions, issues of capacity, substitute decision makers, and during emergency situations.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the US Congress in 1996 and became effective July 1st, 1997. The Act is a combination of regulations designed to reduce inefficiencies, fraud, and misuse of information in the health care industry and to protect the health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs, get divorced, become pregnant, or move. This course focuses on the Privacy and Security Rules of the Act as they are more relevant to the direct support worker, who is the primary audience of this course.

HIV infection in humans is now pandemic. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981. This means that all psychotherapists should understand the main concerns for patients around this virus, and the methods of testing. This course follows the course objectives surrounding HIV/AIDS that all psychotherapists must meet.

This course has been designed to instruct you on the process of incident reporting. Every incident - whether anything happens or it is just a near miss - needs to be reported on. This course will inform you on the basics of this process.

This course has been designed to give new employees an introduction to Bloodborne Pathogens, Infection Control, Universal Precautions, and Handling Vomit, Urine, and Feces. These topics are very important for all workers in the health care industry, and demonstrates the importance of good practice in order to stop the spread of infectious diseases.

This course is designed to assist interventionists in developing the basic skills for implementing Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) to teach children with autism. An overview of the basic components of PRT is provided along with guidelines for building child motivation and establishing teachable moments within play and other natural routines to promote the development of new skills.

Legal and ethical matters are of concern in almost every profession, especially in the field of mental health. Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) will often encounter clients and situations where ethical and legal issues are intertwined with the mental health issues that are at hand. Because of this, it is imperative that the MFT have a good understanding of their legal and ethical responsibilities and rights when working with clients. While many of the legal considerations of the field are governed by national law, in addition each state and licensing board will have their own laws and standards. This course provides a general overview of laws and standards in place in California. If practicing in another state, it will be imperative for you to know and understand those laws and standard which are specific to that state in which you are practicing.

This course has been designed to inform you about the Mental Health Recovery Model, and discusses the concept of 'recovery', and how this can be used to help Mental Health patients.

This course will provide direct support staff, teachers and other professionals with a model that will increase options when dealing with challenging behavior. By understanding how we can work to change environments, support people to learn alternative ways of getting their needs met, increasing skill base and independence as well as directly influencing behavior with the use of behavioral technology, we can increase the likelihood of avoiding that crisis in the first place. That said; behavioral crises still happen however successful we are, so we also need to understand what to do in these situations. By the end of this course you will better understand how such approaches will assist you.

This course is designed to give people in any support roles valuable tools they can use for developing and implementing positive behavior supports to support students with challenging behaviors. The course outlines an approach for understanding why problem behavior occurs, and how to adapt intervention strategies to address the specific needs of individuals. In addition, the course provides guidelines for assisting those responsible for implementing positive behavioral supports to do so in a reliable manner so recommended positive behavioral supports can produce their intended benefit.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders including back injury and upper extremity disorders are the most prevalent, most expensive, and most preventable workplace injuries in the United States today. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs, alternatively known as musculoskeletal injuries, MSIs) account for $1 of every $3 spent on Workers Compensation in America and affect 1.8 million workers each year which many experts believe represents significant under-reporting of the true incidence of ergonomic injury nationally. Compared to other private industry sectors, the medical, economic, and social costs of work-related musculoskeletal disorders or ergonomic injuries in the healthcare environment are particularly serious. This course will look at and examine Ergonomics, Patient Handling Procedures, and Transfer and Lifting Devices available in the healthcare setting.

Person Centered Planning (PCP) is a course designed to provide a firm understanding of the philosophy and process of thinking and planning in a person centered way. EVERYBODY should do this course. Whether you are a newly employed support person or a seasoned professional or manager, this course will allow you to truly understand what it means to provide support to someone in a "Person Centered" manner.

Philosophy, Values and Advocacy is a "quick course" of study concerning the importance of these core underlying principles with relation to providing support services to people who have disabilities.

Whether you work in the mental health, developmental disability, educational or general medical sectors, this course will be of value to direct support staff and professional staff alike.

This course is designed to help interventionists support individuals with challenging behaviors. The course includes an overview of what is Positive Behavioral Support ranging from (1) a description of its philosophical underpinnings and critical features, (2) the hallmark assessment and intervention planning practices, and (3) specific proactive, teaching, and reactive strategies used to develop positive behavioral support plans. This course is essential for interventionists who must resolve challenging behaviors, teach meaningful replacement behaviors or alternative skills, and create interactions that promote success when working with individuals with autism.

While assisting individuals with personal care it is important to ensure that each individual is taught socially appropriate behavior related to privacy and protecting his or her own body. This course will cover the objectives for individuals in residential care, prevention strategies, and case studies to help learner's understanding of how to prevent high risk sexual behavior in healthcare settings.

Professionalism is not just something for doctors, lawyers and other formally qualified people. Professionalism is something that EVERY person in ANY job should understand. This is especially the case for people working in Human Services. This "quick course" of study is for anyone working in the Human services sector at any level.

This course is designed to instruct you on how to recognize abuse that may be taking place, and how to report what you see. It covers mandated reporters, types of abuse and neglect, and what you should do if you witness or experience some form of abuse.

Building on the notion of "normalization" for people who are aging or have a disability, Social Role Valorization (SRV) can be seen as a tool for analyzing the process and effects of the societal devaluation of these groups and individuals. ALL members of the organization at ALL levels they support.

This course has been designed to inform you about the rights of students. Human rights are the basic rights that people have in all aspects of their lives, and it is important for educators to recognize and support these rights when working with their students. Case studies are used throughout this course to emphasize behaviors that violate the student's rights, and inform you on how to effectively resolve any problems that you encounter.

This course is designed for those in a clinical role. The content covers rates and trends, key indicators, risk and protective factors including the myths and facts about suicide. Competencies include clinical response and intervention strategies.

What is supervision? Who needs it? How does it happen and what should someone expect when having supervision. These are all questions that are addressed in this course designed for both the supervisor and supervisee. This course is aimed at anyone working with people and who wants to make sure they are working as effectively as they can by understanding how they can maximize the benefits of an effective supervision process.

People, including those with IDs, are living longer than ever before and with increased life expectancy comes increased challenges in addressing age-related issues. In large part, this increase in life span can be directly attributed to a general improvement in overall healthcare throughout society. This course will give an introductory overview of what intellectual and developmental disabilities are, and covers services and support, as well as planning and considerations for supporting aging people with intellectual disabilities.

This course has been designed to give you an increased awareness and understanding of challenging behaviors, and help you to understand some strategies to help prevent challenging behaviors from occurring while supporting people when they do.

People spend their day transitioning from one activity to another with little or no thought as to how they do it or consider the process involved. Whatever the setting, school, work, home, we largely complete these transitions naturally and without consequence. While natural to most people, individuals with Autism can have difficulty in changing between activities and coping with changes to their schedule or environment. This course will provide you with tools to help people with Autism.

This course focuses on the key elements of effective best practice and educational models for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Is there a difference between Asperger's syndrome and High-Functioning Autism (HFA)? This question continues to challenge those who work in the sector and is debated at all levels. Generally, the two terms are used almost interchangeably. In part, we may be able to determine the answer to the question by looking at the reasoning behind how the terms came to exist. This course will look at the differences between Asperger's and HFA.