Jessica Minahan: Behavioral Blindspot: Revealing Overlooked Strategies to Increase Engagement and Reduce Oppositional Behavior
MSAA Summer Institute Pre-Conference Professional Development Workshop for PreK-12 Administrators and School Leaders |
Behavioral Blindspot: Revealing Overlooked |
An increasing number of students are struggling with mental health issues, and their behaviors—such as leaving class, disengaging from tasks, disrupting others, or quietly resisting—are often misunderstood. This can lead to significant frustration for school teams, and traditional behavior plans frequently fall short, failing to address the underlying causes of these behaviors. One key issue often overlooked is the impact of negative and inaccurate thinking, a hallmark of student anxiety, which can contribute to disengagement and dysregulated behavior. For instance, if a student is overwhelmed by negative thoughts about the difficulty of an assignment or their ability to complete it accurately, which hinders their engagement during a writing task, a typical intervention such as a graphic organizer may not be effective. This workshop will equip participants with strategies to reduce these negative and inaccurate thoughts, thereby preventing oppositional behavior and improving students' work engagement, initiation, persistence, and self-monitoring through practical, preventive approaches. |
Learning Objectives: · Identify why common interventions may not always work for students with anxiety-related behavior · Enumerate strategies for reducing negative thinking toward writing · Participants will be able to enumerate strategies to promote initiation skills in students with work avoidance |
When: Tuesday, July 22, 2025, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm |
Delivery Method: In-Person Workshop |
Location: The Hotel 1620, 180 Water Street, Plymouth, MA |
Presenter: Jessica Minahan, PhD, BCBA |
PD Hours: 3 in Content Area Leadership and Administration |
Fees: Member $150 / Non-Member $205 |
MSAA Contact: Victoria Ellison vellison@msaa.net |
Dr. Jessica Minahan| Consultant to Schools Dr. Minahan is a licensed and board-certified behavior analyst and a consultant to schools internationally. Jessica has over seventeen years of experience supporting students who struggle with mental health issues and challenging behavior in public school systems. Her particular interest is to serve these students by combining behavioral interventions with a comprehensive knowledge of best practices for those with complex mental health profiles and learning needs. She is a blogger on The Huffington Post, the author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students (Harvard Education Press, 2012), and author of The Behavior Code Companion: Strategies, Tools, and Interventions for Supporting Students with Anxiety-Related or Oppositional Behaviors (Harvard Education Press, 2014).(www.jessicaminahan.com) |
