Professional Consultation on Responsive Teaching is a follow-up program for parents and professionals who have completed the two day Getting Started with Responsive Teaching workshop.

There are two purposes for this program. The first is to provide assistance as you as you begin to implement Responsive Teaching either as a parent with your own child or as a professional in your work with parents and their children. The second is to help professionals reach a level proficiency with Responsive Teaching where we can certify you as a Responsive Teaching Provider.

In the more than 20 years that we have been developing and implementing Responsive Teaching we have found that almost all parents and professionals have several important questions as they begin to implement this program. In some cases, these questions are so serious that they become roadblocks or barriers that discourage them from following through with intervention.

In many situations the questions are related to issues that we ourselves have dealt with previously, but which we did not discuss clearly or completely in the Responsive Teaching Curriculum Guide: Autism and Developmental Delays in Young Children. In some situations, the problems arise from a misunderstanding of issues as they apply to a specific child or parent that we did discuss in the manual.

We have found that in the majority of the situations we have been able to come up with answers and solutions that have helped these parents and professionals move on with Responsive Teaching. Many of these answers are based upon our own practical experiences from working with the hundreds of families who participated in the development and field testing of this curriculum. At other times, the answers have come from parents and professionals outside of our own group who have also been using Responsive Teaching.

One goal of this Professional Consultation program is to make our experience and expertise as well as the wisdom of several other people who are using this program available to you, to help you through some of the questions, problems or misgivings you may have as you begin to implement Responsive Teaching.

The services provided through Professional Consultation are outlined in Table 1 and are described below.

How does Professional Consultation work? As a subscriber to this program, you can submit as many questions or problems related to Responsive Teaching for a 12 month period of time as you would like. Simply follow the steps listed below.

STEP 1. Write the question down. We have found that the best way to deal with a question is to, write it down so that you are clear exactly what the problem is, or perhaps so that you can actually see that you are dealing with more than one question or issue.

STEP 2. Contact us:


• Email Your Question To Responsive Teaching Consultation (gjm14@case.edu) and one of our consultants will provide you a written response within 5 working days.
• Call Us Directly to Ask Your Question (216-368-1824). If no one answers your call, leave your questions on our voice mail along with your name, telephone number, and best times to contact you. An RT Consultant will call you within 5 working days to discuss your question with you.

The services provided through Professional Consultation are outlined in Table 1 and are described below.

Table 1. Professional Consultation
Answering Your Questions Formulate Your Question Contact Responsive Teaching Send an Telephone: (216) 368-1824 Response from RT consultant within 5 working days		Video Feedback Videotape Yourself Interacting with your child (5 to 10 minutes) or Conducting an intervention session (20 to 50 minutes) Send Video to Responsive Teaching Total = 2 Written feedback from RT consultant in 2 to 3 weeks

A. Parents
One competency is required of parents to successfully implement RT with their child. This competency is that parents become proficient in using RT strategies as a means of interacting more responsively with their child to help promote a specific pivotal developmental behavior.

As a subscriber to this program, parents are eligible for up to two video consultations per year. For these consultations parents would need to submit 2 video recordings of them playing with their child while attempting to use one or more RT strategies to help their child increase his or her use of a pivotal behavior.

This observation should be between 5 to 10 minutes long, and should be accompanied with information regarding both the RT strategies being used and the pivotal behavior(s) being addressed.

Also, please include your child’s chronological age, diagnosis, if available, and the concerns parents have regarding their child’ development.

B. Professionals
Two competencies need to be achieved in order to become proficient with Responsive Teaching:

• The first is to be able to use RT strategies as a means to interact more responsively with children to help promote a specific pivotal behavior
• The second is to follow the procedures conduct an RT session, described in the RT curriculum guide, Guidelines for Conducting Intervention Session (Chapter 8).

As a subscriber to this program you are eligible for up to two video consultations per year. For these consultations you would need to submit a video recording of you in one of two situations:

The first is while you are attempting to use one or more RT strategies to help a child increase his or her use of a pivotal behavior. This observation should be between 5 to 10 minutes long, and should be accompanied with information regarding both the RT strategies being used and the pivotal behavior(s) being addressed.

The second is of you conducting an RT session with a parent and child. This observation should be between 20 to 50 minutes long and should be accompanied with a copy of the plan that was used for this session. Please include the child’s chronological age, developmental age, diagnosis, and the concerns of the parents.

All video observations can be recorded in one of three different formats: VHS, DVD, or Mini DV (Digital Video). For each of these recordings it is critical that that the audio be clear enough to hear what is taking place, and that the camera is positioned so that we can see the faces of the participants as much as possible - parent, professional and child. The video should not include distractions that occur during the session, (e.g., dogs, telephone calls or television) and people other than the participants.

We will provide a written review of all videos that are submitted to us within two weeks after we receive them. This will provide suggestions about using RT strategies or conducting intervention sessions.

For more questions regarding this program please call or email Dr. Gerald Mahoney at 216-368-1824 or gerald.mahoney@case.edu.