Professional Development
Autism: It Just Makes Sense!
Hands-on learning with Shoebox Activities - a comprehensive training in neurodiversity-affirming, emotionally responsive practice for early childhood educators.
Hands-on learning with Shoebox Activities - a comprehensive training in neurodiversity-affirming, emotionally responsive practice for early childhood educators.
This training synthesizes Emotionally Responsive Practices, TEACCH structural principles, and the DIR/Floortime model into a cohesive, actionable curriculum. Originally conceptualized in collaboration with renowned autism specialist and author Catherine Faherty, it has been meticulously developed and refined by Gabriel Guyton, Skylar Belt, and Omaira Ojeda.
Max participants per cohort
for high-fidelity interaction
Comprehensive modules
with hands-on practice
Available in English
and Spanish
This training deliberately uses the term “Autistic person” rather than “person with autism.” This semantic choice honors the stated preferences of the adult Autistic community, embodying the disability rights ethos of “Nothing About Us, Without Us!” - acknowledging autism as an integral, inseparable aspect of identity rather than a separable pathology.
Unlike traditional externally driven compliance models, this curriculum emphasizes internal motivation, the cultivation of emotional safety, and the proactive reduction of classroom anxiety. We are equipping educators to work with autistic children’s neurology - not against it.
Each module builds on the last, moving from conceptual reframing to environmental design to hands-on tool construction.
Using a botanical metaphor, educators learn to reframe their understanding of autistic neurology:
Educators leave equipped to nourish the roots - not merely police the branches.
Participants learn to engineer physical and temporal classroom environments that proactively mitigate sensory and cognitive dysregulation:
The primary practical component of the training. Participants physically construct and learn to implement “Shoebox Tasks” - success-oriented, self-contained, independent work activities rooted in the TEACCH methodology developed at UNC-Chapel Hill.
These tasks are designed to foster self-efficacy, reduce challenging behaviors, and provide psychological calmness through successful, independent completion - without constant teacher prompting.
Curriculum ranges from basic visual sorting and sensory engagement activities through advanced multi-step assembly and cognitive flexibility tasks.
Every task is deliberately designed according to four core principles that honor autistic neurology. Participants learn to construct tasks from scratch using these guidelines.
Each task is fully contained within one box or tray. This specifically mitigates the executive functioning challenges associated with multi-step organization, allowing the child to initiate and complete the task without constant teacher prompting or environmental navigation.
Tasks are structured to move inherently from left to right - a subtle but critical design choice that reinforces foundational literacy, reading, and sequencing patterns that children will encounter throughout their educational lives.
Specialized lids with insertion slots create a “put-in” mechanism. Once a component is placed, it disappears into the container. This physical closure prevents the child from undoing the task once completed, providing crystal-clear visual finality and significantly reducing anxiety around incompletion.
Pieces are deliberately separated to reinforce one-to-one correspondence. Irrelevant labels, brands, or pictures on shoeboxes are meticulously obscured to eliminate visual distraction and overstimulation - keeping the child’s attention on the task itself.
Cohorts are capped at 25 participants to ensure high-fidelity instruction and personalized support. This training is ideal for early childhood educators, school district staff, early intervention agencies, and private therapeutic practices.
To inquire about upcoming training dates, request a private cohort for your organization, or ask questions about the curriculum, reach out below.
Inquire About Registration →We’re happy to discuss how this workshop can meet the needs of your team, school, or agency.
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