Education and Training at Annies Centre

Annie's Centre offers the following comprehensive range of education and training services to families, schools, and other health and education professionals in Sydney, rural Australia, interstate and overseas.

Please contact our Centre for further details about our education and training services or complete our online expression of interest form.

In-Services in Child Health, Development and Education for Schools and Teachers

We provide in-services to day care centres, pre-schools, primary schools, high schools and universities across Sydney.

Our team of health professionals can prepare in-services on a wide range of topics relating to child health, development and education. Topics that tend to be of interest to schools include:

• Assessment of School Readiness
• Dealing with Challenging Behaviour in Children
• Identifying Children Who Need Extra Support
• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Supporting Literacy and Language Skills in Children
• Supporting Hand Writing Difficulties in Children

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss and/or schedule a time for the involvement of any of our experienced health professionals in a school in-service for your staff or complete our online interest form or download the PDF Interest form and return it by fax or post so that we can contact you.

Child Health and Development Workshops
for Parents and Professionals

We offer the following workshops both within Australia and overseas. Please feel free to contact us regarding any of the workshops listed below:

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Assessment, Diagnosis and Intervention Workshop
A thorough overview of best practice assessment and intervention

This two day workshop presents evidence based assessment and intervention methods for children who have or are suspected of having an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The content is appropriate for health and educational professionals including GPs, Psychiatrists, Paediatricians, Psychologists, School Counsellors, Speech Pathologists and Occupational Therapists. It includes hand outs, video footage, live demonstrations and case examples. The techniques discussed are applicable for use with individuals of all ages.

The workshop is presented by Dr Anne Chalfant Psy.D, Director of Annie's Centre.

Day 1 topics include

• Current literature about the main features and possible causes of ASDs
• Differences in the diagnostic labels used to describe ASDs
• Early indicators of Autism in infants
• Evidence based screening tools for infants, school aged children and adults (including demonstrations of their use)
• The "gold standard" diagnostic assessment tools (including demonstrations of their use)
• Differential diagnosis (via case examples)
• Report writing and summarising assessment outcomes for families

Day 2 topics include

• The "culture" (i.e., thinking and learning styles) of individuals with an ASD
• Major intervention methods for individuals with an ASD (including Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and TEACCH methods)
• Functional behaviour analysis for individuals with an ASD
• Teaching self-regulation skills to individuals with an ASD
• Teaching social skills to individuals with an ASD
• Managing anxiety difficulties in individuals with an ASD.

To express your interest in this workshop please feel free to complete our online interest form or download the PDF Interest form and return it by fax or post.

Treating Anxiety in Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

• The parent workshop is conducted over 1½ days
• The professional workshop is conducted over 1 day
• The workshop is presented by Dr Anne Chalfant Psy.D, Director of Annie's Centre.

Participants will:

• Learn about the main features of anxiety disorders in children
• Learn about current research regarding the incidence of anxiety in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Learn about the main screening and diagnostic tools used to assess anxiety difficulties
• Review research regarding the most effective treatments for anxiety
• Review the main components of "cognitive behaviour therapy" for anxiety difficulties
• Workshop anxiety management strategies including relaxation techniques, cognitive therapy techniques and exposure exercises to help children learn how to "face their fears"
• Workshop strategies to maintain long-term coping skills for future anxiety provoking situations
  

Coming soon! Annie's Centre, in conjunction with Macquarie University and Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia), will be publishing the FIRST, Anxiety Treatment Program for Children with High Functioning Autism and Asperger's! This publication will be the first of its kind both in Australia and internationally! Please click here  for more information or contact us  to register you interest in accessing anxiety support for your child at our centre.

Managing Challenging Behaviour

• This parent-only workshop is conducted over 1 day.

Participants will:

• Learn about the factors that predispose a child to developing challenging behaviours as well as the factors that maintain the behaviours
• Learn strategies for enhancing a positive relationship with their child
• Learn strategies to praise and reward children for appropriate/positive behaviour
• Learn strategies for how to react when challenging behaviours occur
• Develop "behaviour management plans" to help eliminate and prevent challenging behaviours
• Learn how to use effective parenting strategies more consistently

Learning Support for Children with Autism in the Classroom and at Home This workshop for parents and teachers is conducted over 2 days. It was developed using evidence based support principles including the TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and other related Communication-handicapped CHildren) philosophy to learning support from the University of North Carolina, USA. The workshop is presented by Dr Anne Chalfant Psy.D, Director of Annie's Centre. Participants will: Learn about thinking and learning styles in Autism (the "culture" of Autism) Learn about structured teaching approaches including the use of visual supports and work systems Learn how to assess, develop and teach independent work tasks Learn about and have hands-on experience developing systems to support communication skills Learn about and have hands-on experience developing domestic and daily living skills tasks Learn about and have hands-on experience developing social and leisure activities Develop plans for setting up classroom and home learning environments In order to create a better workshop environment we offer separate workshops for parents and teaching professionals. Separating the participant groups allows us to design the workshop to each group's specific learning needs. Please read our clients' testimonials for their feedback on our centre and services

Seminars for Parents in Child Health, Development and Education

Covering a range of topics including:

• Speech and Language Development
• Motor Development
• Sensory Processing Development
• Communication Styles and Parenting Roles
• Handwriting Development
• Getting Ready for School
• Red Flags and First Concerns
• Importance of Early Literacy
• Babies Love Books Too!

Please contact us to arrange an in-service, workshop, seminar or information session in your area or to make enquiries about our centre based training services.

Workshops for Children

In 2007 we will be offering a range of workshops for primary school and high school aged students. Please feel free to contact us regarding any of the workshops listed below:

• Social skills workshops for children with High Functioning Autism and Asperger's
• Conversation skills workshops
• Study skills workshops for high school students
• Anxiety management workshops for primary school students
• Group programs for children to help develop their language, literacy, play, social and hand writing skills.

We welcome all Expressions of Interest in our workshops from within Sydney, rural Australia, interstate and overseas.

To express your interest in our workshops please feel free to complete our online interest form or download the PDF Interest form and return it by fax or post.

Completing the form will help us determine which locations have strong demand for the workshops as well as what kind of support or training is required. Providing us with your contact details will also enable us to contact you directly when there is a workshop scheduled for your area.
 

Coming Soon!

Annie's Centre Children's Books
Fun, short and easy-to-read stories about a group of animals with their own special learning, developmental and emotional support needs

Accredited Training Courses

We offer the following training courses both within Australia and overseas. Please feel free to contact us regarding any of the courses listed below:

Training for Health Professionals in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)

The ADOS is a semi-structured, standardized assessment of communication, social interaction, imagination and play skills for individuals who are suspected of having an ASD.

Training courses have been developed in order to teach health professionals how to use the ADOS effectively and appropriately as a clinical and/or research assessment tool. Since the tool involves standardised administration procedures, the training generally takes the form of a course conducted over 4½ days by an accredited ADOS trainer.

During the 4½ day course, participants:

• learn about the rationale for the ADOS tasks
• learn how to code their observations
• watch the trainer administer the ADOS with individuals who already have a formal diagnosis of one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders
• conduct and code their own "live" ADOS administrations with individuals who already have a formal diagnosis of one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders

The 4½ day course is considered the most thorough way of learning about the ADOS and, therefore, provides professionals with the best opportunity to conduct effective ADOS assessments for both clinical and research purposes.

Dates for the next ADOS courses are:

• Monday 15th to Friday 19th March 2010
• Monday 22nd to Friday 26th November 2010

Please contact our Centre for further details about or to register for our ADOS training courses.  Alternatively you can complete our online interest form or download the PDF Interest form and return it by fax or post to arrange an ADOS course in your area.

Please read our clients' testimonials for their feedback on our centre and services

Training for health professionals in the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R)

The ADI-R is a semi-structured diagnostic interview to assess behaviours related to Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorders. The ADI-R typically takes between 90 minutes to 3 hours and is administered by an experienced clinician to the caregiver(s) of an individual suspected of having an Autism Spectrum difficulty.

Training courses have been developed in order to teach health professionals how to use the ADI-R effectively and appropriately as a clinical and/or research assessment tool. Since the tool involves standardised administration procedures, the training generally takes the form of a course conducted over 2½ days by an accredited ADI-R trainer.

During the 2½ day course participants:

• learn about the rationale for the ADI-R tasks
• learn how to code the caregiver's responses during the interview
• watch the trainer administer the ADI-R with individuals who already have a formal diagnosis of one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders
• conduct and code their own "live" ADI-R administrations with parents/carers of individuals who already have a formal diagnosis of one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders

The 2½ day course is considered the most thorough way of learning about the ADI-R and, therefore, provides professionals with the best opportunity to conduct effective ADI-R assessments for both clinical and research purposes.

Dates for the next ADI-R courses are:

• Wednesday 24th to Friday 26th March 2010
• Wednesday 1st to Friday 3rd December 2010

Please feel free to complete our online interest form or download the PDF Interest form and return it by fax or post so that we can contact you ahead of our next courses.

Please read our clients' testimonials for their feedback on our centre and services