Managing the Cycle of Meltdowns for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

How to keep meltdowns from overheating your classroom

This book outlines practical steps for preventing and responding to the various phases of meltdown behavior in students with ASD. Based on Geoff Colvin’s best-selling book, Managing the Cycle of Acting Out Behavior in the Classroom, this practitioner-friendly guide provides special and general education teachers with his seven-phase positive behavior support model that includes interventions for each phase. Readers will also find:

• An overview of the nature of autism and meltdown phases
• Case studies with examples of behaviors and plans
• A chapter on parent communication
• Prevention techniques for the early stages of the cycle

Geoff Colvin draws on his experience as a classroom teacher, administrator, researcher and instructor at the University of Oregon, and national public school consultant. Widely recognized as an expert on the subjects of school safety and violence prevention, Colvin has provided inservice training for teachers and administrators in more than 100 school districts and agencies nationally and internationally. He recently served as research associate at the University of Oregon and independent consultant in the areas of schoolwide discipline, school climate, school safety, and violence prevention, classroom management, and individual cases involving students with severe behavior disorders. Geoff also directed a juvenile detention school and a school program for youth with serious emotionally disturbances. Colvin has authored more than sixty publications, books, book chapters, journal articles, and video programs on the subject of teaching and managing students who exhibit the full range of problem behavior.

Dr. Martin R. Sheehan, integrates a background in research psychology, Direct Instruction, special education, and media development. He is the owner of Double S Instructional Systems and has received federal funding for over 10 National Institutes of Health Small Business grant projects. He has served as the the Principal Investigator for projects on improving anger management for adults with disabilities, positive behavior supports for educators who work with challenging students, dangerous drug prevention, nutrition, weight loss and exercise, leisure, and future planning programs for individuals with DD.

For 12 years he worked as an administrator in charge of programs for high school students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities. At that time he developed and supervised classrooms for students with autism and other developmental disabilities who exhibited severe acting out behaviors.

He also has worked in the past as a therapist for a local counseling center and specialized in helping individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities and also with helping parents with their difficult children.

Dr. Sheehan continues to serve on numerous NIH Center for Scientific Review study groups, including the Biobehavioral and Social Science Review Group in the area of Risk, Prevention, and Health Behavior.