Who would benefit from a Davis Concepts for Life – Early Years Program?

 

Any child under the age of eight, who is struggling with focus, behavior, relationships, self-regulation, executive functioning, or meeting developmental milestones can benefit from this program.

 

What is involved in a Concepts for Life – Early Years Program?

 

Davis Concepts for Life – Early Years is a four-step program.

 

Step 1: Tools for the helper 
Each child’s support person learns two mental strategies to help them remain calm and relaxed while working with their child/student. These tools are called ‘Release’ and ‘Dial’. 
 
‘Release’ helps the support person to ease any stress, tension or anxiety they may be feeling. This enables them to maintain a state of calmness as they work with the child.

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‘Dial’ helps the support person to determine and self-regulate their personal energy levels. This promotes positive interactions with others, particularly the child receiving the program. ​

 

Step 2: Self-regulation Tools for the Participant 
The participant (child) is guided to learn and use a number of focusing tools and self-regulation strategies. This process includes: 

 

Auditory Orientation – the participant listens to a specifically engineered sound through headphones leading up to and, if necessary, during program sessions. This auditory stimulus – affectionately referred to as the ‘Davis ting’ was designed by Ron Davis to help each participant to develop accurate, stable perceptions and the ability to achieve a calm focus.

 

Release – a breathing tool for relaxation, relieving tension and to help manage stress and anxiety levels.

 

Dial – a mental imagery tool used to help monitor energy levels and maintain rapport with others.

 

Auditory orientation fine-tuning – this consolidates the feeling of focus established by the Auditory Orientation, and enables the participant to achieve and maintain focus without needing to use the auditory orientation sound.

 

Koosh ball exercises – a fun, interactive way to practice maintaining focus, while strengthening neural pathways and improving balance and co-ordination. These exercises can be practiced with the assistance of the Davis Facilitator and/or the child’s support person.

 

Step 3: Davis Early Years Life Concepts 
The focus of Life Concepts Early Years is to facilitate solid understanding of the following fundamental ideas, as they relate to both Self and others:

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• Self

• another /others

• change 

• consequence 

• cause and effect 

• before and after

• time

• sequence

• order and disorder  

 

This is achieved through explicit teaching of each concept.  Each concept is introduced through demonstration and experienced together with the child in a fun way that appeals to their interest. Then the child is guided to create a clay model of their own choosing, which visually represents that concept. For example, they may choose to depict the life concept of change by making a flat balloon becoming a full balloon out of clay.

 

​Step 4: Integration of Life Concepts 
The most effective way to consolidate learning is for the child to have many fun and meaningful experiences that serve to embed a practical understanding of how each life concept exists in the world.

 

After each concept is taught and mastered at the clay modelling table, the child needs to have lots of opportunities to recognize and experience the concept in the real world, with help from their support person. These experiences are essential, as they enable the participant to integrate the concept into their own identity and establish an internal ‘filing system’ that provides the foundations for future thinking and behavior. 

​Physically interacting with these concepts in the surrounding environment deepens the child’s understanding of these fundamental aspects of life. It also enables them to apply this understanding across a variety of day-to-day situations, which develops their executive functioning skills .

 

A series of individualized exercises enhances this learning, facilitating the participant towards fostering self-responsibility and creating order for themselves.  These exercises include:

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• Establishing order in the physical environment - Learning how to use the concepts to establish order, determine order, and create and maintain order.

• Creating new behaviors - Exploring behaviors which have had negative consequences, and using the concepts above, create new, more positive outcomes and strategies.

 

What kind of results do people see with the Davis Life Concepts – Early Years Program?

 

Children who have completed the program have experienced many positive changes. Below are some general trends that have been reported back to us by Davis Facilitators, parents, teachers and the children themselves:

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• better self-regulation (for e.g., able to calm themselves down)

• showing much less anxiety

• reduced stress levels

• less resistance to change

• a willingness to try new things

• an increase in their willingness and capacity to play with others

• increased understanding of cause and effect

• can follow instructions using the ideas of before and after

• improved behaviour

• will go along with others ideas or suggestions in work groups and play

• understands why (i.e. improved reasoning), and

• more willing to share their own ideas.

 

What are the options for accessing this program?

We know that every child has unique needs. For this reason, there can be no one-size-fits-all delivery solution. We have a variety of options for you to choose from depending on the needs of the child you are supporting.