Assessment and Treatment of Youth with Complex Needs

With Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), an even greater need exists to effectively support social workers, probation and  mental health professionals, family caregivers and resource families to meet the needs of children in home-based cared. This workshop will focus on children with higher-level needs. Challenging behavior in children has been defined as behavior that interferes with a child’s learning or the learning of others, prevents the child from developing meaningful social relationships and/or is harmful to the child or others. Behavior problems, in general, have been identified as being one of the most significant issues faced by social service personnel, educators, administrators and parents. Strategies to address challenging behavior are all available in applied behavior analysis and special education literature; however, many professionals frequently report a lack of training as well as frustration in dealing with challenging behavior. This class will describe guidelines to assist professionals in selecting interventions to remediate challenging behavior.

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the importance of determining why behavior occurs
  • Define behavior, understand the functions of behavior and how to respond effectively
  • Demonstrate an understanding of functional based interventions 
Course Code
501525