All learning and social activities are in fact a bundle of individual neurocognitive and neurophysiological tasks. In order to excel at that task, we need to excel at each of its component skills as well. Turning this around, if we can build up a child’s capacity to perform cognitive and physiological skills that are required for a range of learning, social and emotional experiences, then we can make meaningful improvements in their life-lived experiences. This is a fundamental principle behind Cajal Academy’s approach, and one that makes us meaningfully different from other special education schools.

The critical first step in this process is to identify, at a very granular level, which cross-cutting neurocognitive skills are holding a child back. This work starts in the application process, with the data in each student’s neuropsychological and other assessments. This information is reviewed by our Director of Programs, a recognized neuropsychologist, researcher and professor at Weill Cornell medical school. As the child’s program progresses, these insights are refined through formal and informal assessments, observations and multi-disciplinary investigations by our embedded team of licensed therapists and diagnosticians.