Emotional Regulation: A Guide for Parents and Educators on Supporting Emotional Development - ***please register using the poster only***

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Emotional regulation plays a fundamental role throughout the lifespan. Supporting your child's regulation needs and emotional development in early childhood is an investment for later success. Strong self-regulation predicts better performance in school, relationships with others, and fewer behavioural difficulties. In this workshop, we will explore how children's brains and bodies function in times of distress and how to support those big emotions. We will discuss a variety of strategies that will help you manage those tricky moments and walk away feeling more confident when supporting your child’s big feelings.

Poster

A Parents’ Guide to Tackling Stress, Anxiety, and Mood: Using CBT Skills to Support Your Children and Yourself (Covid-19 edition) - ***please register using the poster only***

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on all of us and as we begin to recover it’s important to work on lingering stress, anxiety, and low mood. Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a well-established way of reducing these issues in adolescents and adults. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to implement practical CBT strategies to support your children and teens in managing their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Tools to support parent well-being will also be included as well as examples of how theses strategies can be used in everyday life and how they can be used to support families as we begin to recover from the pandemic. By the end you should feel you have strategies that will help you help your kids!

Executive Functioning: Who’s the Boss? - ***please register using the poster only***

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Executive Functions (EF) are mental processes that help to connect past experience with present action to guide future behaviour. Individuals with Learning Disabilities and/or ADHD may experience increased difficulty in the development and use of these functions compared to their same-aged neurotypical peers. These functions underlie activities such as planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to and remembering details, and managing time and space. When students struggle in these areas, it can result in behaviours that are often labeled as “attention-seeking”, “defiant”, “showing off”, “unmotivated” or “lazy”, “emotional overreactions”, and “inflexible”, just to name a few.

School can be tough for kids and teens with EF deficits. When the adults in their world understand the how and why of EF deficits and what they can do to maximize the success of these students, it can significantly impact learning, engagement, and motivation at school. With a focus on cognitive neuroscience research and brain-based strategies that you can use to increase student engagement, motivation, and self-management, we will discuss:
• The Executive Functions and how they work
• Discuss the development of EF
• How EF deficits impact students and classroom dynamics
• How to best support students with EF deficits

Adolescent Brain Development and Navigating Parent-Teen Relationships - ***please register using the poster only***

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Adolescence is a magical time when children enter a period of huge growth and change. Bodies and brains change, emotions become more volatile, friends become more important, and the parent-child relationship morphs into a parent-teen relationship. In this session we will discuss the adolescent brain, how to support healthy brain development, promoting resilience, and navigating the ways that your relationship with your teen will evolve as they slowly but surely become little adults.

Nutrition and ADHD - ***please register using the poster only***

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Parents of children and teens with ADHD are often concerned about their eating habits - are they eating enough, too much or the right type of foods? In this presentation, parents can expect to learn the fundamentals of nutrition, nutrition related to ADHD and practical strategies to make mealtimes more enjoyable!

Back to School - Teen Mental Wellness - ***please register using the poster only***

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Back to school, this can be an exciting time in your teen’s life and yours. It can also be challenging for teens and their parents, anxiety can increase and self-esteem can decrease. Emotions can change quickly as teens learn to deal with school, their friends, and perhaps a different life of their pre-pandemic life.
What is typical at this age and what is troubled? This session will share information on how the teen brain develops, how you can support positive mental health and promote healthy brain development.

Understanding Childhood Stress & Anxiety

1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

A discussion on anxiety and stress in children; what it is, what it may look like and how you can help your child. How to use strategies such as mindfulness and relaxation with your child as well as resources that can support caregivers and their children.
** Registration is NOT REQUIRED for this session, please use the link provided in poster to access the session on the day of session **

Understanding and talking about teens and risk-taking

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Teens are faced with making new decisions about risk every day – drugs, alcohol, driving, relationships and sex. Part of growing up is learning how to manage risk and make choices.

Learn how to talk to your teen about risk by:

• Identifying how risk fits into healthy teen brain development
• Using tips for talking about risk so that teens feel heard and included to set limits
• Learning how to teach teens to manage risk to grow and stay safe

Adapting after Adversity

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Normal development happens even during a pandemic. We still grow, change and learn from our experiences. This session explores some of the possible impacts we need to understand about the effects of adversity on neurodevelopment.
Ideas about what we can do to support the healthy development of young people as they adapt to new expectations and opportunities just as we as adults are adjusting from surviving to thriving will also be explored.

Gut Feelings

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Join Dr. Taylor as she speaks to the growing body of evidence examining the link between the bacteria in your gut and mental illness.
She will address this literature and talk about what we know about this branch of science and what we don’t know.

Promoting Self-Determination in Everyday Life: Practical Strategies

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Self-determination refers to the ability to be in charge of your own life. It can include choosing what to eat for breakfast, choosing your leisure activities, or choosing where to live among many other choices we make everyday. However, research shows that autistic people are less self-determined than their peers. This workshop will provide a brief overview of self-determination theory and factors that support its development. Participants will leave with practical strategies to embed into daily routines that will enhance self-determination for autistic teens and young adults.

When should doctors consider antibiotics for the Common Cold?

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

This session will provide information on:
• what to expect for children during the upcoming respiratory viral season
• the causes of the common cold
• the role of antibiotics for respiratory infections and
• management strategies for common cold symptoms

Helping newcomer youth navigate the process of school integration

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Immigrating to Canada and entering a new school system is an enormous task for newcomer youth. The process of school integration captures the adjustment of newcomer youth across all aspects of student life – both inside and outside the school context – including English Language Leaning, academic performance, classroom behaviour, social networking, identify negotiation, emotional and familial wellbeing, involvement in school life, and understanding of the educational system. This presentation will focus on strategies to help newcomer youth navigate the numerous social-emotional challenges they face as they integrate into a new school setting.

Panic and Anxiety in Youth: Strategies for families to conquer back-to-school stress

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Going back to school is both exciting and nerve wracking for youth, and this year will pose more uncertainty than most. This presentation will focus on understanding what panic and anxiety looks like in youth and how it affects activities, such as returning to school. Practical strategies will be offered to youth and caregivers for managing back-to-school worries. As well, tips for reducing parenting stress will also be shared with caregivers.

Return to Work and School: Optimizing your Mental Health

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic has created stress and anxiety, loss and grief, and a host of other mental health concerns. This presentation will provide information about what has been learned about mental health challenges during the pandemic, but will focus on recommended strategies to optimize your mental health as we face the Fall return to school and work. Some of the recommended strategies will be well-known and drawn from extensive past research and study, but some will be unique to the return to work and school as health restrictions are lifted and we begin to encounter the peculiarities of post- pandemic life. This session will include a presentation, but ample time will be left for questions and discussion.