Dealing with Challenging Behavior in Early Intervention

Not every early intervention session goes as planned—and that’s okay.

About The Course

Learn how to respond to meltdowns, refusals, and emotional dysregulation in early intervention with practical, neuroaffirming strategies. This 2-hour course gives SLPs, OTs, PTs, and educators real-world tools, visual supports, and ready-to-use materials to reduce power struggles and support meaningful regulation, especially for neurodivergent and medically complex children.

$119

PURCHASE

Learning Objectives

Identify

Identify common challenging behaviors in early intervention and the underlying causes.

Describe

Describe evidence-based, neuroaffirming strategies to de-escalate and manage challenging behaviors in diverse and medically complex children.

Evaluate

Evaluate the effectiveness of practical tools for promoting regulation and positive engagement across therapy contexts.

Course Agenda

5 Min
Welcome & Learning Objectives Overview
25 Min
Identifying & Categorizing Challenging Behaviors
20 Min
Root Causes of Challenging Behavior
20 Min
Supportive, Neuroaffirming and Evidence-Based Strategies
10 Min
Additional Tools & Resources
10 Min
Evaluation Tools
20 Min
Case-Scenarios
10 Min
Q&A

What's inside the course?

  • Clear categories for identifying tantrums, refusals, meltdowns, and shutdowns — and understanding what’s reallycausing them (not just what you see on the surface).
  • A practical flowchart that guides you step-by-step: What kind of behavior are you seeing? What should you do next?
  • Neuroaffirming, evidence-based strategies to reduce power struggles, support regulation, and build trust.
  • Visual tools that actually work—you’ll leave with ready-to-use emotion charts, visual schedules, and break plans to support your sessions immediately.
  • Real-life EI scenarios you’ll instantly relate to from sibling interruptions and sensory overload to medical complexity and home chaos.

What you get to keep?

  • Behavior Type & Response Decision Flowchart
  • Family Coaching Tools
  • Visual Supports (Emotions, First/Then boards, Daily schedules & More)
  • Low-Arousal Environment Audit Checklist
  • Team Functional Behavior Observation & Documentation Sheet

Detailed Course Information:

Target Audience:

This course is designed for SLPs, OTs, PTs, and special educators working in early intervention who support children with diverse developmental, sensory, and behavioral needs and who are seeking practical, easy to use and neuroaffirming tools to manage challenging behaviors with clarity, confidence, and compassion.

Content Level:

Intermediate

Course Completion:

This course is offered for .2 ASHA CEUs Intermediate level, Professional area. Participants will receive a certificate of completion.                

Successful completion of this course requires:

  • Attendance for the entire course (attendance will be tracked automatically),
  • Completing the quiz and program evaluation form.

No partial hours will be awarded.

Special Accommodations/Accessibility:

KuzminSLP welcomes participants with disabilities. Please contact Alex at info@kuzminslp.com to discuss disability accommodations needed to take this course.

Refund/Cancellation Policy:

Full Tuition will be refunded if written notification is received by KuzminSLP and less than 30min of the course has been watched. If more than 30min of the course was completed, no refund would be awarded.

Complaint Policy:

We respect your input, for concerns or complaints during the registration process, during the event, or after the course please contact us at info@kuzminslp.com

For ASHA:

KuzminSLP makes submissions to ASHA monthly, after each month has ended. Therefore, the date of completion that appears on your Continuing Education Registry is the last date of the month in which you completed the self-study course.

Margaryta Kuzmin

MA, CCC-SLP, TSSLD-BE
BCS-S Candidate
Certified Childhood Educator

About Instructor

Margaryta is a bilingual pediatric speech-language pathologist and child educator who specializes in feeding and swallowing disorders, as well as augmentative and alternative communication. With over 10 years of experience, she has serviced hundreds of mild to severely delayed and medically complex children in early intervention.

Financial Disclosure
  • Employed by Early Intervention Agency Prospect Kids LLC
  • The speaker is the CEO/President of KuzminSLP
Non-financial Disclosure

No relevant disclosures

It was helpful, I like the breakdown of all the behaviors, so often, they are just clumped together and we don’t take time to isolate and dig into the reasons for it.

- Hannah Donnenwerth MS OTR/L

I really enjoyed this course and found it very informative. The material was well-organized and engaging, making it easy to follow and learn.

- Isabel Geller, CF-SLP

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