On Monday the 6th May we hosted the first webinar in our series for early childhood educators on how to better understand and support children with challenging behaviours in early childcare and education settings. Overall, we had 50 attendees join the webinar - a great turnout!

This series was developed in response to feedback from parents and early childhood educators on the importance of creating a supportive and effective classroom for neurodivergent children.

The webinar was led by our Lead Therapist Kristy Capes, and focused on:

• Understanding what drives challenging behaviour in young children.
• Learning tools to understand an individual child’s behaviour.
• Learning how to how to collect data as a team, to understand the function of the behaviour.
• Strategies to promote and maintain wellbeing of early childhood teams.

We had great feedback from attendees, with participants particularly appreciating the practical nature of the strategies and information shared.

The second webinar in the series, focusing on how to embed strategies in the classroom and develop positive behaviour support plans will be held in June 2024. If you’re interested in attending or know others who might be, a registration link will be sent out in the next few weeks.

About Kristy Capes:

Kristy has extensive experience in inclusive preschool settings, as a teacher, therapist and centre manager of the La Trobe University Community Children’s Centre, which houses the Victorian Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Center, a pioneer in Australia.

In addition, Kristy is an Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) Therapist and certified trainer, and contributing author to extensive academic research in early childhood learning settings. She’s passionate about coaching parents of young children, and teaching them strategies they can embed in their daily lives at home.