May 2020
Denver Behavior Consultants was founded to provide children and families with the strategies needed to increase their success at home, school, and in the community.

Talking to Your Children About Coronavirus
Resource: Rachel Ehmke for Child Mind Institute

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold, many parents are wondering how to talk to children about the impacts of the virus in a way that will be reassuring and not make kids more worried than they already may be. Here is some advice from the experts at the Child Mind Institute.
Social Skills Groups Gradually Resuming

LONE TREE GROUP IN JUNE
We are just as eager as you are to resume our Social Skills Groups. We are happy to report that our Lone Tree groups may be able to resume in June. Please visit the link below for more updates.

Our Social Skills Groups are a fun way to learn about social dynamics using instruction, team activities, group discussion, games, role-play, and other fun activities. We have groups available in Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Parker.

All groups are run by a School Psychologist or Special Educator with a Master's Degree and 10 or more years of experience. We also use evidence-based practices and curriculums to ensure your child receives the greatest benefit.

Groups for June through August now forming!

Check Out Our Monthly Parent Support Group

This month, we are resuming our Parent Support Group on May 30 at 11:00am via a Zoom meeting and have waived the $15 fee. That's right, it's FREE! This was our first attempt at having an online meeting, so we hope you'll join us. We are hoping to have another meeting in June, so we invite you to register for our support groups via the link below.

We are certain many of you have been adjusting to juggling remote learning with all your other day-to-day responsibilities while quarantined at home. We know how important it is to get the support you need and, often times, its parents going through similar experiences and challenges that can offer the most support.
Learning to Advocate
for Our Children
Holly Dysart-Ward, Office & Marketing Manger


At the age of nine, our son was officially diagnosed with mild to moderate ADD. It was also at that age that his teachers recommended he be tested for the district's GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education). I think I can safely say that most parents think their children are brilliant, but it was interesting to learn that our son's teachers were seeing something unique and special in our son. He qualified for GATE and we were also told by the assessment person that our son had exhibited an intellectual level of a 13-14 year old (at the age of 9). Between the ADD diagnosis and the GATE designation, we were in completely unfamiliar territory and didn't quite know what all of this meant for our son.

This was the beginning of a very challenging journey in which my husband and I had to learn how to advocate for our son. At the time, we were living in California and, from our experience, we did not feel we received adequate support for our son. We kept getting mixed messages from his teachers and the school administration. They complained that our son struggled to remain focused and on task, but at the same time his ADD "wasn't severe enough to qualify for accommodations". So, here they had a boy they KNEW was smart (as they expressed to us often) but they struggled to keep him focused and on task in class and didn't feel he needed any accommodations to help him succeed. This baffled us! His struggles both academically and socially were destroying his self esteem. As a result, the final few years of elementary school were very painful and difficult for him. This also included a trial-and-error period of trying the medication route, which never worked well for our son and he suffered very severe side effects. By the age of 14 1/2, he stopped taking medication.

By this time, we relocated to Colorado and feel it was the best move we ever made. He still experienced challenges at his new high school but it was here that he finally felt supported. After going through more academic issues, we learned from his counselor that it wasn't too late to seek accommodations for our son. Within a couple of months, we had a 504 learning plan set in place for him. Finally we found a school district that was willing to help our son! But, it didn't stop there.

He was on track to graduate early so he took some additional independent study courses outside of his regular school to complete his requirements. Unfortunately, we didn't realize going into that journey that this online school set up their classes to be pass/fail based on the results of the final exam. Our son struggles with retaining large amounts of information at one time, so he has never done well on tests. No matter how much he would study, he just couldn't retain the information. He worked hard in those classes and had an A in one class and a B+ in the other, but he failed both final exams thereby meaning he FAILED BOTH CLASSES.

I immediately went into "mom advocate mode" and contacted their accommodations department. I explained our son's situation and provided them with his 504 plan but, because there wasn't specific verbiage to make accommodations for testing, they wouldn't even consider helping him. The school did allow a second attempt at the exams but, without accommodations in place, we feared he'd have the same results, but he took advantage of the second exam attempt. I helped him study for days. He studied the material over and over but, when testing day came, he failed the second attempts also. Needless to say he was devastated. But, again, I couldn't accept this and felt like someone at that school had to care. I contacted the school's accommodation dept again and they suggested I file a petition to allow our son to make a third attempt at the exams, but still with no accommodations. So, once again, I sent another heart-felt letter to their petition department. The following day I received a response from a gentleman who didn't address my pleas for help at all. He simple said he was in receipt of my petition and "he noticed our son's online activity showed he was only online for 5 minutes" and went on to say, "Perhaps if your son puts in more time to study, he'd do better on his exams." He then wrote that he'd "make an exception" and allow our son to re-take the exams a third time. And that was it! I was appalled at this man's response. Clearly he disregarded the entire portion of my letter where I explained how we printed out all of the study material so that our son could review it over and over as well as the hours I helped quiz him. (Our son doesn't do well scrolling through hundreds of pages of information online so we opted to print everything out.)

So, once again, I am forced to go into "mom advocate mode". This time, I chose to find someone higher on the "totem pole" and I wrote yet another heart-felt letter and sent a copy of our son's 504 plan as well as the rude email I received back from the petitions person. Within a couple of hours, I received the most amazing response. This woman was extremely apologetic and went as far as to reprimand the petitions person and apologized for his callousness. She felt horrible that we hadn't received any support from their accommodations and petitions departments, amidst my numerous pleas for help. She went on to say she will do anything she can to support our son and would get back to us soon once she had a chance to discuss the matter with her department. Within a couple of days, they removed the "fail" status on his two classes and made accommodations that enabled him to pass both classes. HALLELUJAH! I might also add that, through this journey, we learned we needed to make adjustments to his 504, which his counselor swiftly updated for us.

So, after a very long story, the take away here is that we MUST learn to be advocates for our children. Regardless where they fall on the spectrum or what level of learning issues they possess, our children deserve to be heard and supported. Not every child learns the same way and I long for the day someone finds a successful way to revolutionize our education system to accommodate the various learning needs of our children. I'm so grateful to be a part of the Denver Behavior Consultant's team, as we have a stellar team of therapists and behavior support professionals who are helping today's children grow and thrive.

As parents, we can't give up! We have to turn over every leaf and knock on every door to get the support we need. We've been on a long, painful, arduous journey, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat to help my children succeed. And, I'm happy to report our son is officially graduating high school early this month and ready to tackle his new life!

Let's Get to Know Our Team Members
Meredith O'Keeffe, M.A.
Lead Early Childhood Developmental Interventionist

Meredith is a native Texan who moved to Colorado in 2009. She lives in Castle Rock with her husband, son, and beagle named Louie. Meredith graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor's degree in Development and Family Studies. She holds a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Colorado Denver, with a Colorado teaching license as an Early Childhood Special Education Specialist. Before joining Denver Behavior Consultants, Meredith worked as a Service Coordinator at Developmental Pathways and in Early Head Start at Clayton Early Learning. Meredith enjoys spending time with her family outside and enjoying our beautiful state!
CHECK OUT THIS FUN HOME ACTIVITY!
Great Ways to Play with Your Child

Playing with a responsive adult provides a context in which children can have positive and meaningful interactions with the environment. Playing with your child supports your child's learning and development in many ways!

Say What They Say And Do What They Do

  • Copy your child's words and actions to let him/her know you are there and responsive
  • If your child says "car", you can point to a car and say, "Car!"
  • If your child bounces a ball, you can also bounce a ball

Describe What They Are Doing

  • Say what your child is doing while he/she is playing using language your child would use
  • If your child it tapping on a drum, you can say, "tapping on a drum," and repeat this every 15 seconds

Add New Language and Play Ideas

  • Once you've established a new play routine, add new language or play ideas to keep your child interested
  • If your child says "car", you can say, "It is a fast car!"
  • If your child is holding a baby doll, you can hold the baby and model feeding it
Please take a moment to send us your feedback!
If you are a current family utilizing our services, we'd love to hear from you.

We'd appreciate it if you'd share your experiences with us so we may share it with prospective families and organizations. Thank you.
Denver Behavior Consultants LLC | DenverBehaviorConsultants.com