Recorded Parent Webinars

Webinar Series with Dr. Chris Barthold.

DSANV is proud to present a three part webinar series with Dr. Chris Hoffner Barthold, a Behavior Analyst from George Mason University! We are excited to collaborate with Chris to facilitate webinars that address the unique challenges of quarantining at home while parenting a child who has a developmental disability.

Chris is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D™) who has a passion for helping people to be their best selves. She has been working with individuals with developmental disabilities of all ages for over 25 years, and received her BCBA in 2007. In addition, Chris has worked with organizational behavior change as well as supervision and management. For the past 7 years, Chris has been a faculty member at George Mason University, coordinating teaching courses in the Applied Behavior Analysis program. She believes that a good academic should also practice and stay current in the field. She calls it being “on the ground floor of the Ivory Tower.”

In addition to being a BCBA-D, Chris holds certifications as a Personal Trainer and Health Coach from the American Council on Exercise, Compassion Fatigue Professional and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional.

Session One: Structuring your day while the kids are at home

One of the most challenging aspects of staying at home is creating a schedule to help structure your child’s day. In this workshop, we will address the mechanics of creating a schedule for your family. We will especially focus on making visual schedules, and we will review a number of examples with suggestions for how they could be integrated into your home.

Play Video

Session Two: Promoting appropriate behavior at home

Now more than ever, we need easy strategies to promote appropriate behavior and peace at home. In this workshop, we will be talking about reinforcing appropriate behavior. We’ll discuss why reinforcement is different than giving bribes, why it works better than punishing inappropriate behavior, selecting good reinforcers, and using them appropriately. We’ll also bust some myths around reinforcement.

Session Three: Promoting appropriate behavior at home II — Using token systems

While this workshop is Part II, it is not necessary to attend the first one to benefit. We will discuss a specific type of reinforcement – the token system. We will talk about how to set up an effective token system, selecting tokens, and common errors seen when using tokens. After this presentation, you should be able to implement a simple system in your home that is customized to your needs.

Panel Discussion on a Sleep Apnea Surgical Alternative

The Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia (DSANV) hosted a free panel discussion webinar on a surgical alternative to treating sleep apnea—something that affects many individuals with Down syndrome and other conditions that obstruct the airway. The FDA has already approved the device we’ll be discussing for adults; approval for children is still in the phase of clinical trials.

Our panel discussion included two DSANV members whose daughters participated in a children’s clinical trial, one of the young ladies spoke for herself, her surgeon and a representative from the manufacturer of the Inspire® device.

Panelists:

Cristina Baldassari, MD, FAAP, FACS – Associate Professor in Pediatric Otolaryngology at CHKD (Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters) and Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon. You can click on Dr. Baldassari’s name to email her directly to inquire about joining the new trial of patients for the Inspire® treatment.
Barbara Hoopes, PhD – Associate Professor of Business Information Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, longtime DSANV member and mother of Anna who is a current Inspire® user
Kathryn Ramchand – Past President of the DSANV Board of Directors, longtime DSANV member and mother of a current Inspire® user
Anna Mutter – current Inspire® user
Adam Wimmer – Regional Manager DC/MD/VA, Inspire Medical Systems, Inc.

Resources for those wishing to find more information on Inspire:

https://www.inspiresleep.com & https://www.inspiresleep.com/faq/

A new app on the IOS and Android Store available for download by typing in “Inspire Sleep” into the search box. Here is the QR code for easy access:

Parents who are strongly considering or in the process of pursuing the trial there is a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1304364119703711/?ref=share

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