Sarah Murray holds a Bachelor of Honours degree in Applied Psychology from University College Cork, and a Master of Science degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Sarah is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) with the Behaviour Analyst Certification Board. Sarah is also an International Behaviour Analyst and is a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland, a member of the Division of Behaviour Analysis in Ireland and Special Interest Group in Autism Spectrum Disorder in Ireland. In addition, Sarah is also a member of the Munster Behaviour Analyst Forum. Sarah is trained in picture exchange communication systems (PECS) by Pyramid UK, and is trained in the implementation of all four stages of the Attention Autism Programme for Professionals by Gina Davis, the founder of attention autism. Furthermore, Sarah is trained by the University of North Carolina in delivering a structured TEACCH® Autism Programme
Sarah has travelled to Belarus, to children's orphanages and adult institutions, working with a wide variety of ages and abilities. In addition, Sarah spent a year working as a research assistant in Galway, teaching an extensive social skills curriculum to children and adolescents with Autism as part of a PhD study. Sarah received formal PECS training, along with training and experience on the implementation of an empirically validated play curriculum to children with additional needs. Sarah received training on teaching psychosexual education and adolescent issues to teenagers with Autism and designing and developing individualised ASD specific sex education programmes. Sarah is continually developing her skill set as a professional and has a specific key focus in the area of child development, behaviour support and special needs education. At present Sarah is currently learning and receiving BCBA consultation on her work in sleep interventions from a sleep specialist.
To date, Sarah's main area of expertise lies in working with children who present with developmental delays, behavioural related difficulties, language and communicative barriers, and deficits in play skills and social skills. Many of Sarah's clients have a diagnosis of Autism.
Sarah has an abundance of knowledge and experience in the education and development of children in early years and in early intervention. Teaching functional speech, language and communication, and alternative/augmentative modes of communication to children who present with different abilities, is one of Sarah's core areas of expertise. The repeated, successful outcomes of teaching verbal behaviour to children, is something that Sarah prides herself on.
Sarah's proficiency extends to designing and implementing positive behaviour support programmes, in order to reduce behaviours that challenge and to teach functional, replacement skills that are socially meaningful for children, and provide significant and meaningful change for their families.
As well as possessing competency in the above area's, Sarah possesses a diverse skill set in training fluent readers, teaching ASD specific psychosexual education and in parent, teacher and tutor training on the implementation of behaviourally based and evidence based programmes.
In addition to the above mentioned, Sarah has a countless wealth of other experience, particularly in working with multiple children in one household, numerous sets of twins, triplets and multiple siblings with a focus on working on group, peer and sibling interactions.