Positive Behaviour & De-escalation Skills (with Playfulness from PACE) (2/5) OPEN COURSE

This is the second instalment of a vital five-part series in PACE.

Children and young people who have faced neglect, abuse, or loss often find it hard to trust adults. Using playfulness as a strategy demonstrates that enjoyable interactions can occur even in challenging situations. Playful moments help reduce shame and reinforce that disagreements are temporary, not weakening your relationship.

This training is crucial for promoting positive behaviour in children and adolescents while equipping you with skills to de-escalate challenging situations. We'll cover Positive Behaviour Support plans (PBS), the PACE framework, and de-escalation techniques, helping you understand challenging behaviour as a means of communicating underlying needs.

Throughout the course and upcoming modules, you'll learn practical strategies for therapeutic engagement using PACE and methods for documenting your impactful work for Ofsted and other partner agencies.

Please ensure that the PACE Mindset course is completed beforehand.

This course is part of the PACE suit. If you are looking for a course purely on Promoting Positive Behaviour and De-escalation, this one is more appropriate.

Why is Playfulness important?

• Improved relationships: Building strong, trusting relationships with children.
• Reduced challenging behaviours: Helping children develop healthier coping methods for stress and emotions.
• Enhanced self-esteem: Boosting children's confidence and self-worth.
• Positive school climate: Creating a more supportive and inclusive learning environment.

Key components of the training:

1. 1. Define what playfulness is and what it is not, and identify the situations in which it should be applied.
   2. Recognise the challenges and difficulties faced by children and young people who have experienced trauma.
   3. Understand the underlying roots and causes of challenging behaviour.
   4. Suggest coping mechanisms and appropriate responses from caregivers, utilising the PACE mindset.
   5. Conduct a functional analysis to identify triggers, which helps in better supporting young individuals.
   6. Apply active calming and de-escalation strategies to assist a child or young person during a crisis.
   7. Understand aggression by identifying general physiological signs of anger and common triggers.
   8. Recognise how feelings influence behaviour.
   9. Identify different levels of distress in individuals.
   10. Learn appropriate interventions for each level of distress, including strategies to prevent being restrained or attacked.
   11. Develop techniques for managing your own emotions.
   12. Enhance your evidence-based skills in de-escalation and defusion techniques.

Suitable for:

Our PACE suite is suitable for a wide range of individuals. We recommend a yearly refresher to ensure that practices stay fresh and to help prevent the worker from reverting to the style of parenting they experienced:

• Social Workers: Case managers, child welfare workers, and community organisers.
• Caregivers: Residential workers, care home staff, Foster carers, adoptive parents, and kinship caregivers.
• Mental Health Professionals: Therapists, counselors & social workers.
• Educators: Also see "PACE for Schools" - Teachers, school counselors, and special education professionals.
• Birth Parents: Use "PACE for Parents" instead. Our workforce development training program is not designed to provide individual therapy. Some content may be triggering, and it will not be appropriate to address specific individual examples or development needs in front of the group.

Testimonials:

You can take a look at what people are saying about our training HERE.

Those seeking to be certified in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) or to further explore PACE in action are invited to visit the founder's website.

Format: This is a live training session through "Zoom". It includes taught sections, small group work, work in pairs, and whole group discussions.

Hand-outs & Certificates: Downloadable resource library and certificates of attendance are provided.