May is Mental Health Awareness Month and May 10-14 is Student Mental Health Week. Mental health is essential to our overall health and well-being. Please read and share the resources below with family and friends to build awareness of the importance of mental health.
Since May is Mental Health Month, we wanted to share some things you can do to take care of your mental health.
1. Value yourself
2. Take care of your body
3. Surround yourself with good people
4. Give of yourself through volunteer work
5. Learn how to deal with stress
6. Quiet your mind
7. Set realistic goals
8. Break up the monotony
9. Avoid alcohol and drugs
10. Get help when you need it
For more details on these strategies, please click here.
Kimberly Zhe
BCBA, Student Support Coordinator for Behavior, Moderate/Severe Needs, and SST
Kim has worked in the field of education/behavior analysis for the last 20 years in both the school district and home settings. She holds a master’s degree in special education and a graduate-level certification as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Before coming to iLEAD, she worked at a non-public agency that serves individuals with autism and related disorders for ages two through 22 as well as a non-public school serving students with severe needs. She lives in Orange County, California, with her husband and two sons. They enjoy going to the pool or the beach and going out to eat. Kim recently started volunteering on the Community Unity team at her son’s school, which aims to promote acceptance and inclusion for students of all abilities, ethnicities, and cultures.
Fun Fact: Kim’s husband is also a BCBA. They met over 11 years ago at her last job.
Dana Crucil
M.A., BCBA, Behavior Analyst
Since 2008, Dana has worked in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). She is currently a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst living in California. Dana has worked in various settings, including school districts, non-public agencies, and as an adjunct professor. Dana is personally connected to the special needs community by her life experiences with her younger sister, who has autism. Dana serves as an ambassador to the Autism Community in Action, a nonprofit organization that helps empower families affected by autism.
Fun Fact: In the winter, you can find Dana on the mountain skiing.
Brittany Domenick
M.A. Behavior Support Specialist
Brittany grew up in Santa Clarita and received her master’s degree from Arizona State University. She has been working in the education system for 10 years and found her passion in behavioral support. She is also a certified grief and trauma specialist and has her own practice helping both children and adults navigate life after trauma.
Fun Facts: Brittany is dyslexic, so she can read backward faster than she can forward (she calls it her fun party trick). She also used to ride horses and was in a bowling league for several years.
Reinforcement is a procedure in which an environmental event occurs after a behavior that increases or maintains the behavior in the future.
Positive Reinforcement: Something is added after the behavior, which results in a future increase in the behavior.
Example: The girl gets a star from her teacher after doing her math worksheet.
Negative Reinforcement: Something is removed after the behavior, which results in a future increase in the behavior.
Example: Teacher eliminates that night’s homework after learners finish assignments in class.
Edible: Food, drinks, etc.
Tangible: Toys, books, dolls, blocks, etc.
Activities: Playing a game, swimming, watching videos, riding bikes, etc.
Social: High-five, thumbs-up, etc.
Generalized:Things that can be exchanged for a reinforcer, such as tokens, stickers, points, money, etc.
Verbal phrases: Statements like “Nice,” “Awesome job,” “Wow,” etc. (These can be given in addition to the delivery of any other type of reinforcer.)
Bribery
Positive Reinforcement
By Kimberly Zhe and Dana Crucil
Visual supports help learners in multiple ways! Visuals can help create predictability and serve as prompts to assist in learning and increasing appropriate behavior, especially for visual learners.
Using a visual schedule helps learners become more organized and better prepared to meet expectations. They use a series of pictures to communicate a series of activities or the steps of a specific activity. They are often used to help children understand and manage daily events in their lives. They can be created using pictures, photographs, or written words, depending upon the child’s ability.
Visual schedules help provide predictability and reduce stress associated with change in routine. Schedules can be created to be written or pictures.
Visual Support #2: Choice BoardsA choice board is a graphic organizer that allows learners to choose different ways to learn about a particular concept. Choice boards are effective in many situations, including food or drinks, reinforcers, activities or actions, places, people, toys, materials/supplies.
How to implement:
Use pictures, symbols, text, or objects, depending on the learner’s language and cognitive abilities, to create a board.
The learner will show you their choice with his or her motor and communication skills. Some learners will need larger choice board icons so that they can point or look at the option they want. Others will be able to grab a Velcro symbol card off of a more tightly arranged choice board and hand it to you.
Show the learner the choice board and, if needed, read the choices aloud, pointing to each one as you say the word.
Ask the learner to make a choice.
Wait for the learner to show you which item they want by either pointing, removing the choice and handing it to you, or verbally choosing.
Tip: Make sure all choices presented to the learner are available.
A token economy is a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers.
Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for providing positive reinforcement to children by giving them tokens for completing tasks or achieving goals, such as spelling a certain number of words correctly, saying hello to their facilitator in the morning, or playing nicely with their peers.
