Understanding Behavior through the Developmental – Biomedical Lens: Using a Team Approach to Finding Solutions

Celebrate the Children’s founder, Monica G. Osgood, is an experienced behavioral consultant and therapist who specializes in using developmental approaches to support children with autism and other differences in relating and communicating. She is also the Founder and Director of the Developmental Center for Children and Families and Executive Director and a founding member of the Profectum Foundation. Monica has worked in homes, therapy centers, and private and public school settings for over 20 years. Some of her experience has included assessment and the development of intervention programs, curriculum and IEP development, and parent and professional training. In 1998, Monica created the first public school program with the Developmental Individual Relationship-based (DIR model) approach as the core philosophy. ​In 2000, she was the first educator to join the senior faculty of the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning(ICDL) to provide interdisciplinary training in the DIR model. During her time with ICDL, Monica served as faculty for all of their yearly training institutes, spoke at many of their conferences and had the opportunity to work closely and collaborate with Drs. Greenspan and Wieder to further develop the DIR model in school settings. ​In 2004, she collaborated with Lauren Blaszak to open a state-approved, DIR model school for children ages 3-21 in Denville, New Jersey, now serving over 70 school districts and 130 families. Additional accomplishments include, many speaking engagements at conferences and participation in television, radio and newspaper interviews across the USA, Wales, Ireland and Amsterdam. Monica has appeared on Welsh Channel 4 and BBC1 documentaries, sharing the DIR model approach with British parents and professionals. Monica and the Celebrate the Children school were featured in a TIME Magazine cover story in May of 2006. ​She serves on the Advisory Board for 3LPlace and the National Advisory Council for The Centers for Exceptional Children​. Monica also serves on the Economic Development Advisory Council and the Sustainable Economic Development Plan Steering Committee for her local Town Council. Finally, she collaborated with twice Grammy nominated children’s artists Dan Myers and Brady Rymer on an album and music video celebrating diversity in children with all abilities released April 2011. https://www.monicaosgood.com/

Dr. Hollander is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Director of the Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Program at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Director-Spectrum Neuroscience and Treatment Institute in NYC. The Spectrum Neuroscience and Treatment provides novel and integrated treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorders, including diagnostic evaluations; social skills training; and medication treatments for social cognition and inflammation. Dr. Hollander has served as the principal investigator for a number of federal grants, including the NIH Greater New York Autism Center of Excellence, the NIMH Research Training Grant in Psychopharmacology and Outcomes Research, and an FDA funded multicenter treatment trial of pediatric body dysmorphic disorder. He was the principal investigator of the autism Clinical Trials Network, and Chair of the eight centers NIH STAART Autism Steering Committee. He is involved in research on the neuropharmacology, neuropsychiatry, functional imaging, and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, impulsive/aggressive personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive-related disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, pathological gambling, and autism. Dr. Hollander served as Chair of the DSM-V Research Planning Agenda for Obsessive Compulsive Behavior Spectrum Disorders, and member of the DSM-V Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum, Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Disorders Workgroup, and the Behavioral and Substance Addictions Workgroup. During his career, Dr. Hollander has published more than 500 scientific publications in the professional literature. He has edited 20 books, including the Textbook of Autism Spectrum Disorders (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2011), the Textbook of Anxiety Disorders (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2002 and 2009 editions), and the Clinical Manual of Impulse Control Disorders (2006). Dr. Hollander is listed for the past ten years in NY Magazine’s and Castle Connolly’s “Best Doctors”, and “Best Doctors in America”. He has made frequent media appearances on the Today Show and Dateline NBC and has had interviews in People Magazine and the New York Times. He is co-author of a book with Marc Summers, Everything In Its Place: My Trials and Triumphs with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Penguin Putnam, 1999) and coauthored with Nick Bakalar, Coping with Social Anxiety: The Definitive Guide to Effective Treatment Options (Henry Holt and Company, 2005).