Is It Really Autism Spectrum Disorder? Traumatized Children in a Post-COVID World

Friday, December 12, 2025
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Zoom Webinar

Registration Fee: $50

Bernadette Spooner Thompson Ed.S., LPC-S, LCPC, CSC, founder and principal of Context of Culture, LLC is committed to facilitating safe and uncomfortable conversations at the intersection of societal hierarchies and cultural identity within a trauma-informed framework. Her specializations are issues that impact children, women, and racial identity.

Bernadette possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, and an Education Specialist Degree in Professional Counseling. She is licensed as a professional counselor and supervisor in Missouri, a certified K-12 school counselor in Missouri, a licensed professional clinical counselor in Kansas, and a level one certified clinical trauma professional.

Having spent nearly a decade within the K-12 academic environment in various capacities, Bernadette provided individual counseling support for students and families while creating social emotional development curricula and teaching in the classroom. Along with creating a proactive and reactive comprehensive counseling program responsive to the needs of students and their families with a foundational focus of creating a culturally-affirming, trauma-predictive environment within academic institutions, she facilitated professional development centered on trauma-informed practices to better equip staff and faculty.

Bernadette is keenly aware of the many challenges marginalized individuals face today and the corresponding impact socially, emotionally, and psychologically centered at the intersection of race, class, gender.

OVERVIEW:

Prolonged periods of isolation are detrimental to the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of people, with infants and young children being the most profoundly impacted. The K-12 environment has been engulfed in helping children who were already in school regain academic gains, manage overwhelming amounts of anxiety, and loss of interpersonal relationship skills. We are on the precipice of the children that were born during the height of the pandemic in 2020, when life as we knew it forever changed. Then babies will begin their K-12 academic journey. They come with a unique set of challenges that could result in over- and/or misdiagnosis with ASD if we fail to understand the impact isolation has on infants and their ability to form bonds, feel secure, and learn to soothe and regulate themselves.

OBJECTIVES: After attending this Zoom webinar, the participant will be able to:

Reframe the impact isolation had on infants born between March of 2020 and May of 2023 due to COVID-19,
Have an Increased understanding of how human physical connection fosters an infant’s ability to form secure attachments and learn empathy, which are foundational building blocks for relationship building and managing interpersonal relationship challenges,
Explore how lack of and/or developmental delays in language due to extended periods of isolation can inhibit children’s ability to express emotions and thoughts.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
This continuing education Zoom webinar is designed for case managers, social workers, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and health care workers. The community is welcome to attend.

CONTINUING EDUCATION:
Mental Health America of the Heartland is a pre-approved provider for social workers through the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (BSRB) Provider Number 17-007. This continuing education provider is approved 3.0 hours for social workers and accepted for psychologists, professional counselors, masters prepared psychologists, marriage and family therapists and addiction counselors.

In order to receive continuing education credit and a certificate of attendance for this Zoom webinar, you will be required to participate in the Zoom webinar. You will receive a Zoom invitation via email within a week of webinar. Also you will need to take an online exam and complete an evaluation that will be sent in a separate email after the live Zoom webinar. You must pass the test by 70%. The Zoom webinar will not be available by recording and viewing at any other time.

Questions?

Stacy Davis
Mental Health America of the Heartland
739 Minnesota Avenue
Kansas City, KS 66101
Phone: 913-222-5933
Email: sdavis@mhah.org
www.mhah.org

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Please register by December 11, 2025. If you are unable to register online or have questions or need translation or accommodations please contact Stacy Davis at least 5 days prior to the workshop.

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Is It Really Autism Spectrum Disorder? Traumatized Children in a Post-COVID World

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