Making Sense of Baffling Behaviors

Series Overview and Purpose

The Blank Children's STAR Center seeks to improve outcomes for child victims of abuse by providing educational opportunities for members of our professional community at no cost to attendees. The purpose of the Workshop Series is to impact the systemic coordination of services for children and families through increased professional knowledge and skills surrounding developmentally appropriate, child-focused interventions.

Intended Audience

The Workshop Series is intended for professionals involved in the child protection field including: Department of Human Services professionals, law enforcement, attorneys, victim advocates, medical and mental health providers, family service professionals, nurses, school-based professionals, and foster parents.

Session Description: Making Sense of Baffling Behaviors - A Practical Framework for Professionals Supporting Children

All behavior makes sense- except when it doesn’t! The big, baffling behaviors of children and teens can leave even seasoned professionals feeling overwhelmed, ineffective, or ready to give up. When traditional behavior interventions that should work aren’t working, it’s easy to feel stuck about what to do next.

In this training, we’ll look beyond behavior alone to explore what’s happening in the brain, body, and nervous system. Drawing from the fast-emerging field of relational neuroscience, this training offers a framework that helps make sense of dysregulation, toxic stress, vulnerable nervous systems, and confusing, baffling, and out-of-control behavior. When behavior is understood through a nervous-system lens, strategies become clearer, more effective, and easier to apply across professional settings.

This 6-hour training blends theory and practice in ways that are accessible and immediately usable for professionals working with children across systems, including mental health, child welfare, education, medical, and advocacy settings. When we shift the lens from “fixing behavior” to understanding needs, strategies become more effective, professionals feel more equipped, and children and youth can receive the support they actually need.

Objectives:  

Together, participants will:

● Develop a shared understanding of what behavior is and how it emerges from the nervous-system

● Make sense of baffling behaviors by learning how stress and toxic stress shape children’s brain and body responses

● Understand how all behavior is a reflection of nervous-system state

● Explore how environmental and relational supports can reduce behavioral challenges

● Learn how to respond when strategies aren’t working and behavior continues to escalate

● Examine effective consequences within a nervous-system informed framework

Participants will leave equipped with both proactive and responsive strategies, including guidance for what to do when it feels like nothing is working, and a clear, compassionate framework they can apply immediately in their professional roles.

CEUs:

CLE Approval by the Iowa Supreme Court Commission - *pending*

Group foster parent training approval by DHHS - *pending*

IBON Provider #31, UnityPoint Health - Des Moines, approval (nursing) - *pending*