A Strengths-Based Approach
to Supporting Autistic Kids

This live virtual workshop is available for your team. It’s best suited for groups of 20 – 75. You’ll learn a concrete process to help you generate more relevant, effective, strengths-based plans for your therapy sessions with confidence and ease. This interactive workshop includes 2.5 hours of instructional time and a 15 minute break, with at run time of 2.75 hours. 

 

email meg@learnplaythrive.com

Quick Links

FAQs
Meet the Instructors
Course Objectives
Testimonials

Continuing Education
from Learn Play Thrive

Brand Block ASHA SBA Live
NBCC Approved Provider

Learn a strengths-based process that will change
how you work

PART 1: Dive Deep into Autism Learning Styles

Go deep into how Autistic kids learn and experience the world based on the latest research and the experience of Autistic adults so that you can feel confident you understand your clients’ learning style way beyond the surface level.

PART 2: Take Your Clients' Perspective

Learn how to shift your perspective to truly consider the experience of your Autistic clients. This means looking beyond the behavior you can see and diving deep into how a child’s participation in daily routines is impacted by their learning style, interests, and strengths, as well as the demands of the environment.

PART 3: Plan Treatments with Confidence

Learn an autism-specific process that will allow you to generate a robust list of hypotheses and interventions every time you sit down with a new goal so that you can stop dreading treatment planning and start approaching it with confidence.

PART 4: Put It Into Action

Practice using this process together with Meg in this live training using cases that are relevant to your own practice so that you walk away with fresh ideas to apply right away and experience applying them to your actual work.

EXTRAS: Get Resources to Support You

Get a workbook and a filliable PDF of the process to complete together with teachers and parents so that you can feel you truly have expertise in using an autism-specific, strengths-based lens, and so that your work can have the greatest impact possible.

Investment

$2500 for up to 75 participants.

Access

This is a live continuing education event. No recorded replay is available.

Continuing Education

This course is registered for .25 AOTA CEUs (2.5 contact hours), 2.5 NBCC hours, and registered for .25 ASHA CEUs as a distance learning -interactive course.

FAQs

Information about completion requirements, accommodations, and more can be found in the FAQs.

View FAQs
email meg@learnplaythrive.com

This course is
for you if...

You currently work with Autistic kids on functional daily skills and want to be more effective in your work

You are tired of writing “The purpose of the behavior is to gain attention” and you want to write more relevant and useful hypotheses that truly reflect the lived experiences of Autistic people and the needs of your clients

  • You currently work with Autistic kids (note this is the preferred language of the autistic community) on functional daily skills and want to be more effective in your work
  • You are tired of writing “The purpose of the behavior is to gain attention” and you want to write more relevant and useful hypotheses that truly reflect the lived experiences of Autistic people and the needs of your clients

You want concrete tools (and a workbook!) to help you shape your interventions based on the strengths of your neurodivergent clients so that they can experience more ease, authenticity, and joy in participating in their life

  • You want concrete tools (and a workbook!) to help you shape your interventions based on the strengths of your neurodivergent clients so that they can experience more ease, authenticity, and joy in participating in their life
As a long-time autistic self-advocate who is newly going into the field of working directly with families of younger autistic children, I greatly appreciated this course. Although one can already be very familiar with the autistic experience/learning styles and strengths-based approaches the best benefit of this course is giving an easy-to-use and explicit process by which to utilize all that information and be sure that nothing important is forgotten.
CM
CM
This is a "no fluff" course that makes me feel like I've had years of experience!
Being a new grad has come with many challenges and has lead to insecurities but Meg's course has helped with my confidence and has allowed me to learn truly effective ways to work with many of the students in my caseload.
Amanda M.
Amanda M.
I am so happy I invested in this course! I am a school based SLP that works with Autistic students in grades 3rd-12th grade. I've been learning more and more about the Neurodiversity model and realizing I have so much unlearning to do. This course falls perfectly in line with what I have been learning about reworking my strategies to meet my student's needs. I love that this course gave specific examples that we were able to work through together. I am excited to try out my new knowledge!
Nikki Fries
Nikki Fries
This course has been able to provide me with an approach that I can apply and feel like I am making a difference because I have filled a gap in my knowledge as well as learned an approach that will assist me to support children in the years to come. Thank you.
Shannyn D.,
Shannyn D., Occupational therapist, Australia
I have been a pediatric OT for almost 20 years, and Meg's course is the only one I've ever attended that I feel is absolutely spot on and the best approach to working with autistic clients. It gives me hope for our profession!
Lynn Salley,
Lynn Salley, MS, OTR/L
This course was so great! Meg is an excellent instructor. She's so articulate, and manages to blend current research and the perspectives of autistic learners into a concrete process for therapists to use in practice. I look forward to taking more of her courses in the future. Highly recommended.
Kate Pingel,
Kate Pingel, MA OTR/L
I feel like I have improved my understanding and ability to support autistic individuals' participation in occupations! An OT's dream!
Jessica,
Jessica, MOTR/L
This is has been the most concrete, beneficial course on using strengths-based approaches and working with autistic individuals. Bravo
Crystal C.,
Crystal C., MS, OTR/L
Even if you're a new grad or a seasoned veteran, there was something to be learned from this training.
Maria F.,
Maria F., OTR/L
This is exactly what I have been looking for in a class that not only guides me in evidence based practice and practical applications of effective interventions, but also listens to the voices within the autistic community to ensure our practice empowers and supports our autistic clients.
Kathleen,
Kathleen, OTR/L
This course is what I've been missing in my work with autistic kiddos. As an OT, using a strengths-based approach just makes so much sense! I loved the concrete process that I can use to interpret behavior and come up with a wide variety of intervention strategies. I'm really excited to put the content of this course to good use!
Christine P.,
Christine P., OTR/L
This course is a game changer in how we as educators view and approach our autistic students. For so long we have been focusing on compliance and teaching neurotypical social skills that can ultimately be so stressful and mostly unsuccessful for an autistic child. Pinpointing and using strengths and interests to ensure success makes so much more sense for these children in order for them to love who they are and be proud of being autistic. As a special educator, I am always thinking outside the box but this perspective has taken me to a whole new realm. If more people learn this approach, it will hopefully change the way we ALL think about autistic people.
An inspiring course. Meg is so upbeat and positive and makes you want to go away and change the world for children and their families, one small strengths-based step at a time. I thoroughly recommend. I will be encouraging many more SLTs (SLPs) to take the course.
Ami,
Ami,Speech Language Therapist
email meg@learnplaythrive.com

Meet your
Instructor

INSTRUCTOR

Meg Ferrell

M.S., OTR/L
Founder of Learn Play Thrive, Occupational Therapist (she/her)
Read Bio
Modal Title

Meg Ferrell

Founder of Learn Play Thrive, Occupational Therapist (she/her)
Meg (she/her) is the founder of Learn Play Thrive and an occupational therapist who cares deeply about person-affirming therapy. At Learn Play Thrive, she hopes to springboard as many professionals as humanly possible into practices that are culturally responsive and neurodiversity-affirming.

Meg continues to learn from Autistic adults with different intersectional identities through hosting the Two Sides of the Spectrum podcast, and paying Autistic consultants to review Learn Play Thrive courses.

She is the primary instructor in The Learn Play Thrive Approach to Autism, where she fills up the toolboxes of OTs, SLPs, social workers, school psychologists, and other professionals with strengths-based strategies to use in their work.
Disclosures for Meg Ferrell
FINANCIAL: Meg is the owner of Learn Play Thrive and receives a salary.
NON-FINANCIAL: Meg has friends and colleagues who are Autistic.

Please note: disclosure statements are contained in the Bio page for each speaker. Click on "READ BIO" above to review the disclosures.

I feel confident that it will change your practice.

– Meg Proctor, Founder of Learn Play Thrive

Course Objectives

A Strengths-Based Approach to Supporting Autistic Kids

Critique traditional models of behavior problem solving using the framework of the Double Empathy Problem and research on the mental health outcomes of masking

Develop six or more specific hypotheses about how a child's difficulty participating in a learning activity or routine may be related to Autistic learning styles

Generate six or more intervention strategies to teach new skills and adapt the learning environment based on specific client’s strengths

  • Critique traditional models of Autistic learning styles using the framework of the Double Empathy Problem and research on the mental health outcomes of masking​
  • Develop six or more specific hypotheses about how a child's difficulty participating in a learning activity or routine may be related to Autistic learning styles​
  • Generate six or more intervention strategies to teach new skills and adapt the learning environment based on specific client’s strengths​
A Strengths Based Approach - course objectives

Training Agenda

PART 1: Autistic Learning Styles

30 minutes

Dive deep into what we know about how Autistic people think and learn based on the latest research and the lived experiences of Autistic people. 

This includes the challenges that your Autistic clients are likely to experience as neurodivergent people in a world not designed for them, the harm of traditional behavioral approaches, and the strengths often associated with Autistic learning styles. 

This portion is taught live by OT and LPT Founder Meg Proctor with recorded contributions from Autistic SLP Rachel Dorsey and Autistic OT Sarah Selvaggi Hernandez. 

PART 2: Interpret Learning Needs, Write Hypotheses and Generate Interventions

2 hours (plus a 15 minute break)

Next, you’ll dive into the Interpreting Behaviors Process together with Meg and your other live participants!

Meg will walk you through the interpreting behaviors process step-by-step using the example of a child who throws toys during free time. She’ll show you how to use Autistic learning styles to write hypotheses and generate interventions.

The next part is when the learning really happens. Using the experience of a child who has trouble transitioning into school after recess, we’ll all work through the process together live in the workshop. You’ll be amazed at the hypotheses and intervention ideas that you are suddenly able to come up with!

  • Meg will walk you through the interpreting behaviors process step-by-step using the example of a child who throws toys during free time. She’ll show you how to use Autistic learning styles to write hypotheses and generate interventions.
  • The next part is when the learning really happens. Using the experience of a child who has trouble transitioning into school after recess, we’ll all work through the process together live in the workshop. You’ll be amazed at the hypotheses and intervention ideas that you are suddenly able to come up with!
Worksheet and Workbook

You’ll receive a worksheet that you can type into or print out and a workbook to make sure you get the most out of the training and can take it into your practice with confidence and skill.

Quiz Completion

In order to receive a certificate of completion, you must complete a quiz attesting that you completed the workshop and demonstrating mastery of the course content. 

Receiving Credit

After you complete your quiz (multiple attempts are allowed) and the course satisfaction survey, you’ll receive your certificate by email. If you miss the live training, we’ll offer you a transfer into the recorded replay.

email meg@learnplaythrive.com

Frequently Asked Questions

This course is developed for occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, counselors, and mental health providers. It is also appropriate for any professional working on real daily skills with Autistic kids.  This is not a course designed for parents.
This course is targeted at the intermediate level.

This course is appropriate for professionals working with kids from early intervention through adolescence.

This is a live training that includes live lecture, short recorded videos, and a participatory process using the Zoom chat box. During the live training, you will learn the interpreting behaviors process, practice using it together during a structured case study, and then have time to ask any questions.

This course is available for .25 AOTA CEUs, 2.5 NBCC hours, and .25 ASHA CEUs. It is not approved by any physical therapy associations, but check your state board to see if it meets the requirements.
The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.

If you miss the live training, you may email us to be transferred into the recorded replay, which will also be available for CE credit. It will be available within one week of the live training. If you are not planning to attend live, please wait and register for the replay directly. 

You must attend the entire 2.75 hour live training (2.5 hours of instructional time with a 15 minute break). You must attest to your attendance by completing an attestation.You must then pass a quiz in the course in Thinkific with a satisfactory score of 75% or greater. (multiple attempts are allowed). You will receive your certificate by email.

No refunds will be issued after you have registered. However you do have the option of transferring your registration to another learner or transferring to the recorded replay. If the live course is canceled by the instructor, you will be given the option of a full refund or access to a recorded version of the course.

All videos used in this presentation have closed captions and the live training will have live captioning enabled. If you need additional accommodation, please email admin@learnplaythrive.com prior to your training date. Accommodations will be made to support all learners in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act. 

You can send an email to admin@learnplaythrive.com

Our courses are hosted in Thinkific’s web-based course platform. You can find the system requirements for Thinkific at this link. The live portion will use Zoom and the Zoom chat box.  You can find the system requirements for Zoom at this link.

Build your skills and your confidence with a process truly grounded in strengths-based practices that you can use right away in your work.

email meg@learnplaythrive.com

This course will be available for ASHA CEUs from June 11th, 2023 to June 10th, 2028.
The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.
ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products or clinical procedures.

Learn Play Thrive, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7586. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Learn Play Thrive, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.