No one ever said that working with children with autism, ADHD, or sensory disorders is easy. Theo will only eat white foods, tends to be buried in his own world, and melts when he is transitioned too quickly. Steven, in 6th grade, has ADHD, poor organization skills, and an attitude that is hard to break through. But, how do we help a child break through the self-regulation issues that limit their achievements?
I discovered this was a simple question with a complex answer. I set out to learn as much as I could about theories, techniques, and research that could help make the lives of these young people much more manageable and promising. I took intensive courses on multi-sensory approaches, sensory integration, self-regulation, yoga, autism, ADHD and became a certified autism specialist in 2018. I have extensive experience adapting these techniques to make them usable in a variety of settings while working closely with teachers, aides, child study professionals, and parents.
You’ll be guided through a broad set of self-regulation interventions culled from my years of research and practice along, with strategies for adapting them to your setting. You will leave my program with the essential skills, interventions, and strategies to help children find harmony with themselves, their families, and the world around them!
You will learn:
- ✓ The most effective calming, sensory, motor, or behavioral techniques for a given type of behavior
- ✓ Peer-to-peer video feedback as a social intervention for children and teens with ASD
- ✓ Sleep interventions for children with erratic sleep schedules
- ✓ Interventions for repetitive and restrictive behaviors for a child with stereotypy
- ✓ Organization strategies for home and school for teenagers with ADHD
- ✓ And more!
“Break Through” Self-Regulation Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD, Sensory or Emotional Challenges
One full day with Dr. Parikh
- ✓ A full-day, practice-changing intensive
- ✓ Up to 6.25 CE hours
- ✓ A ready-to-use toolkit of calming, sensory, motor & behavioral strategies
- ✓ Interventions for ASD, ADHD & sensory needs you can use Monday morning
What You’ll Explore, Module by Module
The Many Challenges of Self-Regulation
- Balance the needs of the body, brain, senses, emotions, and the social self
- Emotional regulation and sensory regulation
- Neurotypical children v. atypical children
- Differences with ASD, ADHD, and other challenges
- Tying intervention to assessment results
- How well are we doing the research?
A Little Bit of Neuroanatomy
- Cerebellum: The prediction machine
- The ASD, ADHD, sensory connection
- Mapping emotions
- The vagal nerve’s job in all this
Let’s Talk about Infants and Toddlers
- Early predictors of ASD, ADHD, and sensory challenges
- Infants, temperament, crying, and social attention
- Facial expressions and emotions in ASD
- Parent video feedback with infants makes a difference!
Self-Regulation for All Age-Groups and Behavior Types
- Calming and gradual exposure and desensitization
- Rethinking the classroom, office, and/or home environment
- Strategies for pre-school and the kindergarten classroom
- Play, play, play! Inside/outside the classroom
- Classroom aerobics and other activities
- Heavy work, exercise, deep pressure, and play
Eating and Sleeping Can Co-opt Good Effort
- Effect of poor sleep on repetitive behaviors and negative affect in ASD
- Effects of sensory processing on sleep
- Bedtime fading
- Melatonin, elimination diets and supplements for ASD and ADHD
- Sensory intervention at mealtime
Autism Spectrum Disorder: Techniques You Should Absolutely be Using
- Engaging lists, stories, and transitions (Make them fun!)
- Making consistency as your modus operandi
- Play engagement, DIR, ABA, discrete trials and more
- Restrictive, Repetitive Behaviors (RRBs) Interventions
- High order v. low order
- Exercise and aquatic movement
- Ayres’ Sensory Therapy®
- Mixed method interventions
- Help kids with ASD handle peer rejection
- Video feedback for social scenarios: Do’s and don’ts
ADHD: Effectively Intervene with This “Moving Target”
- A new look at combined ADHD and Concentration Deficit Disorder
- Innovative organization techniques
- Creating simple habits and keeping it simple
- Grounding activities: Mindfulness, karate, HIIT
- Self-management intervention and “getting to center”
- Check impulsivity meta-cognitive group games
- Revisiting feedback and timing in the cerebellum
Special Interventions for Teens and Tweens
- Video feedback: Create appropriate expressions, reactions, and interactions
- Social skills programs to develop real-life empathy
- Regulation techniques for social situations and avoiding peer rejection
- Sensorimotor Therapy to cut through trauma
It’s a Team—Going for the Championship
- Partnership of teachers, therapists, and specialists
- Interlace the team’s self-regulation goals to make them effective
- How to include parents: Highly effective at-home interventions
Sheetal Parikh, OTD, OTR/L, ASDCS, CYT
For more than 20 years, Dr. Sheetal Parikh has helped children with autism, ADHD, and sensory challenges find calm, focus, and connection — across schools, clinics, early intervention, and homes. A certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist and yoga instructor, she founded SPOT Therapy and now trains the next generation of clinicians as a professor in St. Joseph’s University’s occupational therapy programs. She teaches the way she practices: blending neuroscience with real, usable strategies you can carry straight into your next session.
Turn the science of the regulating brain into calming, sensory, motor, and behavioral strategies you can use the very next morning — with Sheetal Parikh, OTD, OTR/L, ASDCS, CYT.
Behind every “behavior” is a child trying to communicate and function with their body, brain, and environment.
If you work with kids who melt down at transitions, who only eat white foods, who can’t sit still or can’t seem to find calm — you already know this work is anything but easy.
I’ve spent more than 25 years as an occupational therapist — in schools, in early intervention, in clinics and homes — pondering and researching this question: how do we actually help a child break through the self-regulation challenges that get in the way of their learning, their relationships, and their overall function?
The answer turned out to be richer than I expected. It lives at the intersection of neuroscience and everyday functioning — understanding why the brain of a child with autism or ADHD perceives the world differently, and then translating that into strategies you can use the very next day, in your practice setting.
In this program, I’ll walk you through many pieces of the puzzle — understanding neuroscience including the cerebellum and the vagus nerve so the meltdowns finally make sense, then getting practical with sensory desensitization, visual schedules, movement breaks, sleep and mealtime routines, and team-based approaches that help the therapists, support staff, and parents.
You will learn the evidence-based science, strategies, and interventions to be a more efficient and effective therapist and team member, enriching the lives of the children we support and serve.
Your work matters. You matter.
— Sheetal Parikh, OTD, OTR/L, ASDCS, CYT
Autism as a difference in prediction — and dysregulation as the fallout of constant “surprise.”
Of everything attendees told us, one idea came up more than any single technique: the cerebellum as the brain’s prediction machine, and meltdowns as what happens when the world doesn’t match the prediction. It’s the “why” that suddenly makes a child’s reactions make sense — and gives you the language to explain it to parents.
Your peers left ready to use this immediately.
Grounded in what hundreds of clinicians actually said they’d do next.
- ✓ Read “behavior” through a sensory-processing lens — and finally see the cause, not just the meltdown.
- ✓ Explain the brain’s “prediction machine” to parents so an autistic child’s reactions suddenly make sense.
- ✓ Build visual schedules, if/then plans, and self-management charts you could use Monday morning.
- ✓ Gradually desensitize a child to sensory triggers — without the meltdown.
- ✓ Use HIIT, heavy work, and breath work to help kids get regulated and ready to learn.
- ✓ Coach parents and caregivers with language that actually lands — and advocate with new confidence.
Loved by clinicians across every discipline.
“Break Through” Self-Regulation Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD, Sensory or Emotional Challenges
One full day with Dr. Parikh
- ✓ A full-day, practice-changing intensive
- ✓ Up to 6.25 CE hours
- ✓ A ready-to-use toolkit of calming, sensory, motor & behavioral strategies
- ✓ Interventions for ASD, ADHD & sensory needs you can use Monday morning
By the end of this program, you will be able to:
Utilize effective calming, sensory, motor or behavioral techniques and activities for a given type of behavior in the classroom, clinic and home.
Demonstrate early predictors of ASD, ADHD and sensory challenges in infants and toddlers to design appropriate interventions.
Implement interventions for repetitive and restrictive behaviors for a child with stereotypy.
Integrate peer-to-peer video feedback into social interventions for children and teens with ASD to increase social ease.
Utilize the “Bedtime Fading with Response Cost” sleep intervention for children with erratic sleep schedules.
Design innovative grounding activities and organizational strategies effective for teens with ADHD for at home and school.
Integrate “team-based” self-regulation interventions for the classroom, clinic and home.
Bringing your team? Save more.
Register your colleagues together and unlock automatic group savings.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Occupational Therapists
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Speech-Language Pathologists
- Teachers/School-Based Personnel
- School Administrators
- School Social Workers
- Physicians
- School Counselors
- School Psychologists
- School Guidance Counselors
- Psychologists
- Social Workers
- Licensed Professional Counselors
- Physical Therapists
- Physical Therapist Assistants
King of Prussia, PA (Feb 19): The Alloy King of Prussia — A DoubleTree by Hilton, 301 W. Dekalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA.
Both in-person sessions — and the live webcast — run 8:00 AM–4:00 PM ET, with lunch from 11:50 AM–1:00 PM and 15-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon.
Please note: You will have access for 90 days after the program for review. For live CE credit, you must watch the live presentation in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. Please note that this requirement may vary by credit type. Please see detailed credit information for specific requirements for each credit type.
You already have the heart for this work.
Let’s give you the tools.
Join Dr. Sheetal Parikh and walk away with the skills, language, and confidence to help children find harmony with themselves, their families, and the world around them.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Register for this intensive training course without risk. If you’re not completely satisfied, give us a call at 800-844-8260.
We’re that confident you’ll find this learning experience to be all that’s promised and more than you expected.