FRIENDS of DIFFERENT

LEARNERS
Preparing Your Different Learner
for Interaction With Law
Enforcement Professionals
Susan H. Rogers, LMSW
Thursday, April 15, 2010

BEHAVIORAL SAFEGUARDS in
SCHOOL
Health and Sexuality Training For Students in
School
a. Currently in the middle schools, high
schools and post-secondary program
b. Focus is on healthy relationships,
risk reduction and decrease of
vulnerability

 Parent Component
a. Communication
b. Trust
c. Understanding
Positive Support Behavior Intervention
Plan (Part of CPI/Crisis Prevention
Institute, Inc., Nonviolent Crisis
Intervention Training Program)

 Social Skills Training

a. Teaching communication skills
b. Friendship and other relationship
components
c. Reducing isolation
d. Conflict resolution
e. Increase level of comfort being with
people

STATISTICS
Information from SESA - Special Education Service
Agency:
At least 20% of females and 5 to 10% of males are
sexually abused every year in the United States.
Among adults who are developmentally disabled,
83% of females, and 32% of males are victims of
sexual assault.
People with disabilities are 70% more likely to be
victims of abuse.
Only 3% of sexual abuse crimes are reported,
involving people with developmental disabilities.

Additional Statistics
Women with disabilities are assaulted, raped
and abused more than two times greater than
non-disabled women (Sobsey, Cusitar,
DisAbled Womens Network)
In a study of 100 psychiatric inpatients, it
was found that 81% had been physically or
sexually assaulted during their lifetime
(Jacobson and Richardson)
Why are the statistics so high for under
reporting?

The Michigan Child Welfare Law Journal

Official Publication of the State Bar of Michigan
Childrens Law Section
Volume XII, Issue II Winter 2009 State Bar of
Michigan Childrens Law Section

Sex Offender Registration is Not the Answer

for Juvenile Sex Offenders with or without
Disabilities
by Lynn B. DOrio, Susan Rogers, LMSW, Dr. Roger
Kernsmith Ph.D., and Dr. Poco Kernsmith, MSW,
Ph.D.

Students Need to Learn:

Assertiveness Skills
Refusal Skills
Self-Protection
Self-Advocacy

 Ways to Express Affection

The Difference Between Private and
Public
Opportunities for positive social
experiences

LEARNING:
Boundaries
Intimacy
Social Rules of Touch
Acceptable Means of Touch
Age Appropriate Modeling

COMMUNICATION
Effective communication = risk
reduction
AND
SAFETY

The Circle of Relationships

Developed as part of the Circles curriculum, James
Stanfield Company

Purple Private Circle - I am important, and I

decide who will touch me.
Blue Hug Circle - It is a mutual decision to
kiss and be close. If I do not want to, I must
say STOP.
Green Faraway Circle - I may want to give
you a Faraway hug. You are not in my Blue
Hug Circle.

 Yellow Handshake Circle - I do not feel as

close to people in this circle.
Orange Wave Circle - I wave to people who
are too faraway for a hug. People in this
circle are typically community helpers.
Red Stranger Circle - I am not close at all to
people in this circle. They may remain
strangers or I may get to know them.
I do not share personal information with
people in the yellow, orange or red circle.

An objective of this program is to:

Recognize potentially exploitative
situations and relationships
Understand more about establishing
limits and boundaries
Learn about appropriate mutuality
Take action for self-protection when
necessary
Learn how to remove oneself from
threatening situations
Tell a trusted or safe person

Parent Component
Parent and School Partnership
Information on the lessons taught are
communicated to parents on a regular
basis.
School and home will work in
partnership with each other to reinforce
the concepts and promote
communication for students.

Trusted Adult / Safe Person

A trusted adult is a person that a child/teen
or adult may go to for help/assistance. This
person is identified as someone who can be
trusted to provide safety, or find safety for
the child/teen.
Make sure the person with a disability has a
trusted adult in their life and knows how to
access that person.

Positive Support Behavior Intervention

Plan
(Taken from the Birmingham Schools CPI
training and information)
Functional Behavior Analysis
A Antecedents
B Behavior
C Consequence

Proactive Strategies:
Environmental Supports
Behaviors to Increase/Skills To Teach

 Reactive Strategies
Student Behavior

Staff Response

Anxiety: a noticeable
increase or change in
behavior.

Supportive: an empathic, nonjudgmental approach used to

calm the student.

Defensive: the beginning

verbal stages of a loss of
rationality.

Directive: staff takes control of

situation by redirecting and
giving choices.

Acting Out Person: total

loss of control, which results
in physical acting out.

Non-violent Physical Crisis

Intervention: safe, nonharmful restraint used to
control the student until he/
she can control him/herself.

Tension Reduction: a decrease

Therapeutic Rapport: rein physical and emotional energy. establishing
communication and giving
the student the tools he/
she needs to return to his/
her schedule.

COPING MODEL
(taken directly from the CPI training manual)
Control - Regaining emotional and physical
control.
Orient - Establish the basic facts.
Patterns - Identify patterns of staff responses
and client behaviors.

Investigate - Look for alternatives to

inappropriate behaviors.
Negotiate - Agree to changes that will
improve future interactions.
Give - support and return responsibility
to the student.

 A behavior plan that works, teaches the

student to appropriately get their needs
met. It gives students alternatives to
behaviors ( N. Kocsis and R. Kingery).

Everyone communicates
Not everyone communicates verbally.
Finding the way(s) to communicate
with a child will reduce the risk of harm
and abuse, and will increase safety.

Law enforcement officers and first

responders are extremely
important in helping a child with a
disability remain safe and prevent
victimization of that child.