ATTACH Conference 2027

Description

When children resist, avoid, freeze, control, or collapse, behavior rarely tells the whole story. This experiential workshop helps OTs distinguish sensory, motor, interoceptive, relational, and trauma-based protective responses and choose interventions that restore safety, agency, regulation, and participation. 

Outline / Agenda

20 minutes - When the Body says “No” 

30 minutes -  Same Behavior, Different Nervous System 

25 minutes  - Reading the Body Before Choosing the Strategy 

15 minutes -  From Observation to Hypothesis 

Break 30 minutes 

30 minutes -  The Therapist as a Sensory and Relational Variable 

30 minutes -  From Protection to Participation 

30 minutes -  Case discussion / Group problem-solving 

Learning Objectives:

• Reframing resistance, avoidance, control, freezing, aggression, and collapse as possible protective responses 

• Differentiating sensory defensiveness, interoceptive distress, praxis/motor planning challenges, trauma-related threat responses, and relational vulnerability 

• Identifying physiological, sensory-motor, relational, and environmental clues. Examining trigger, demand, context, recovery, and patterns across occupations 

• Introduce a practical clinical reasoning framework for identifying plausible mechanisms rather than prematurely selecting sensory strategies. 

• Explore how proximity, voice, pacing, movement, language, predictability, permission, and body orientation influence regulation and participation 

• Clinical decision-making: Does this child need sensory input, reduced demand, movement, predictability, agency, environmental adaptation, relational support, or co-regulation? 

• Small-group application to functional challenges such as transitions, grooming/dressing, feeding, unfamiliar motor tasks, and accepting adult assistance. Participants generate and test intervention hypotheses 

• Translating workshop concepts into practice: observe, hypothesize, intervene, watch the response and revise 

Details

Provider Name: ATTACh 

Presenter: Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, ADHD-RSP, DIR Champion and Expert Training Leader 

Bio: Maude Le Roux is a global trainer in multiple methodologies and a mentor to therapists from multidisciplinary teams. She opened her practice, A Total Approach in Glen Mills, PA, USA in 2001. Maude started her training career in 2007 and opened her online academy in 2019. She has designed the Developmental Pathways Model (DPM), which she applies to her own unique assessment and intervention protocol for major diagnosis such as Dyspraxia, ADHD and Executive Functions, Autism, Reading and Writing Disorders, and Trauma and Attachment. Maude served 9 years on the Board of Directors for ATTACh and currently serves on their Advisory Board. She also serves on the Advisory Board for LSWorks (Neuralign program). She is a co-author of two books and more recently wrote a chapter on Trauma and the Body in “Healing Connections” which launched in September 2024. Maude received an award for “Continued child advocacy” through the ATTACh organization in September 2024. She also received the Champion Award through ICDL in November 2024. Maude has a “whole child” approach to care and intervention and equipping the child, while empowering the parent is at the core of who she is as a clinician and trainer. 

Target Audience: Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Physical Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Educators 

Educational Level: Intermediary 

Instructional Methods: PowerPoint, Group Discussion, Video 

Contact Hours: 3 hours 

Contact: www.attach.org