Behavioral Therapist

**Responsibilities**

The key responsibilities of a Behavioral Therapist are as follow, but not limited to:

- Provide leadership and direction at the classroom level, working to design, implement, coordinate and evaluate a comprehensive behavior support program.
- Work directly with the students from the SEED program, helping them to adopt behaviors that substantially increase their academic performance as well as adaptive functioning skills. These students, who have been identified as requiring substantial supplemental behavioral intervention and support, will provide diversified strategies and activities specifically designed for our SEED students.
- Work in partnership with SEED’s Special Education Teacher in defining and measuring behavior; understanding principles of reinforcement; teaching new behavior; implementing strategies for weakening behavior; and identifying antecedents.
- Utilize evidence-based behavior management approaches in addressing behavior excesses and deficits for a range of problem behaviors (e.g. tantrums, aggression, self-injurious behavior, pica, sleep challenges, non-compliance etc.)
- Lead evidence-based social skills groups for students.
- Lead group parent training: these may be in conjunction with therapy and pastoral care departments of the school.
- Conduct community-based parent training workshops (in-house and with members of public when hosted by Winstedt).
- Develop behavior intervention protocols for faculty to implement in the SEED program.
- Present case updates at weekly or bi-weekly meetings with interdisciplinary teams consisting of Teachers, Therapists, and the Pastoral Care team.
- Work with SEED teacher, groups of teachers and/or the entire staff on issues such as: crisis intervention, learning and collaboration issues, and factors that can affect development and implementation of interventions.
- Provide consultation to Teacher/s in SEED program and/or Occupational as well as Speech and Language Therapists, and SEED psychologists.
- Conduct comprehensive functional behavioral assessments.
- Attend professional development opportunities to maintain high level of skills and knowledge of current research and best practices.
- Participate in proactive team efforts to achieve campus-wide, departmental and/or grade level goals.

Confidential Filing, Observational Notes and Incident Reporting
- The Behavioral Therapist will ensure that all sensitive documents, personal notes, and communication related to students is kept private and confidential.
- Always approach the handling of any behavior incident with the utmost professional sensitivity and discretion.
- Incident logs and behavioral logs are to be maintained for the purposes of documenting the progress or regression in the behavior management goals and/or plan documented in each student’s individualized plan.

Communication
- Respond to parent concerns within 24-hours of receiving communication or within the next working day.
- Engage parents in the “behavior intervention plan” process and empower parents by providing them with skills and techniques to support the development of their child’s positive behaviors.
- Communicate effectively (verbally and written) with various stakeholders such as staff members, students, parents, and other associated professionals; and seeks clarification for any issues where uncertainty in appropriate handling arises.

Policies
- Comply with all safety policies, practices and procedures; report all unsafe activities or safety hazards to supervisor and/or Human Resources.
- Develop and implement policies with regards to appropriate and effective restraint of students when dealing with young children.
- The frequency of incidents in which a child's behavior becomes situationally threatening and requires any form of physical restraint, such behaviors must be addressed within the framework of a wider behavior management policy. The Behavioral Therapist plays an integral role in sharing this policy with the community.
- The methods should be transparent so that implementation at all stages of response to an unsafe behavior are clearly understood by students and staff.
- Comply with policies as stated in the Code of Conduct for all employees and adhere to any other policies set in place within organization with regards to safe environment and ensuring the safety of all students and staff.

Time Management
- Organize and schedule time commitments to meet demands of the role.
- Demonstrate efficient time management skills in completing required tasks and any staff-related collaborative work that is time sensitive.
- Maintain a high level of productivity that is results-oriented, student-centered, and aligned with the vision and mission of The Winstedt School.

**Requirements**:

- Minimum 3 years of successful elementary classroom teaching experience in which the teaching of “at risk” and/or “behaviorally challenged” students was an important responsibility of the role