We empower students to access their gifts through comprehensive, neuroscience-based programs that reduce the learning challenges holding them back
Special education programs traditionally are based on the premise that a child’s “disabilities” are immutable, and thus focuses on removing the barriers to academic and social access that those disabilities pose. Yet neuroscience now demonstrates that in fact, the human brain is constantly rewiring itself in response to the tasks that we ask it to perform.
We have made a break-through for the field of education: a research-backed methodology that is proving successful at reducing or even removing learning disabilities, and in some cases executive function and social-emotional disabilities as well.
This ground-breaking approach moves beyond accommodating disabilities or reducing the barriers they pose to rewire the underlying profile itself, transforming student outcomes while reducing costs across the K-12 educational lifetime. This holds exciting promise for reducing the fiscal crisis facing school districts and special needs families across the country, while facilitating school district contracting.
Research-backed and data-driven programs reducing learning disabilities by “rewiring” the foundational skill deficiencies that drive them
Learn about our ground-breaking approach to reducing learning disabilities through the science of neuroplasticity.
Highly-individualized Student Growth Catalysts address even the most complex student needs through our research-backed, Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach
Cajal Academy students have a wide range of learning and social-emotional profiles, including a wide array of learning challenges. Within the cohort of exceptionally-bright students with special needs that we serve, many have sufficient analytical reasoning abilities to compensate for learning vulnerabilities in the early years, only to struggle academically later on. Others may be able to maintain on-grade-level academic performance but struggle within social spheres (where they cannot “bootstrap” through their analytical abilities as they do in academic spheres), or to develop anxiety, depression or maladaptive coping mechanisms. In our work, we see that the very fact of having a large gap in their neuropsychological profiles makes these children vulnerable to school-based trauma as well.
In each of these cases, our work follows the same, research-backed methodology. This begins with our Neuro- and Trauma-Informed methodology for understanding what problem the child needs our help to solve, and creating highly-individualized, comprehensive programs called Student Growth Catalysts that move the child forward through a neurodevelopmental approach. Importantly, these programs start with the data in a child’s profile and the foundational skills that drive their challenges across a range of academic, social and behavioral spheres rather than with their diagnoses, allowing us to provide highly-effective interventions even for students with very complex profiles and/or who are in a “cohort of one.”
Use the links below to learn more about how these approaches are applied to common learning profiles, or start your application to find out how this approach may make a difference for your own child:
Reading Interventions
This program is tailored to the needs of students who do not struggle with decoding words and/or have strong phonological processing skills, but who are easily frustrated or fatigued by reading nonetheless. This may include students whose reading challenges do not respond to Orton-Gillingham or Wilson reading programs. We start by breaking reading down into the several skills that must be employed simultaneously for fluid reading and then use the data in each child’s profile to identify which specific skills are holding back their reading fluency and enjoyment, and which step in the neurodevelopmental chain must be strengthened to reduce their reading difficulties.
ADHD/ADD
ADHD is a common diagnosis among the cohort of kids whom we serve, but it’s a diagnosis that can have many different neurogenic causes. Our Student Growth Catalysts for students with ADHD starts by identifying the cause driving the presentation that is described by the ADHD diagnosis, and then identifying the special neurocognitive skill deficiency that drove that challenge. At the same time, students having organizational difficulties benefit from the fact that movement and sensory supports are integrated into the classroom, helping students not only to better organize their thinking but to master strategies using these physio tools to improve their ability to organize themselves, translating into agency and independence.
Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia & other Motor Planning & Coordination Disorders
Motor Coordination difficulties including gross and/or fine motor planning and coordination tend to be underdiagnosed, but can display as a student who “hates” to write, fails to write out the steps in math, avoids athletics or struggles with basic life skills required to get out the door in the morning. Students having motor coordination challenges may have a difficulty accessing their high cognitive abilities during tasks that include a motor component. This often leads to social-emotional challenges, including task avoidance, school refusal and anxiety. We approach these challenges through a comprehensive, data-driven neurodevelopmental approach that reduces the extent of their motor disabilities while also addressing the academic and psycho-social impacts of the disorder.
Sensory Processing Disorder & Associated Executive Function Challenges
Our Sensory Processing Learning Interventions Program is intended for students who struggle with organization and sensory regulation but who are on or close to grade level academically and do not have other learning or social-emotional differences.
Sensory integration therapy will be embedded into classroom instruction through Body-Informed Learning techniques and classes co-taught by our licensed occupational and physical therapists. Students will receive coaching in how to self-manage their sensory and organizational needs and will learn the science behind them, fostering an authentic growth mindset and independence across settings.
College prep for teens with complex learning profiles
Our Vision to Voice Curriculum and high school program prepare teens to thrive independently in college and beyond by giving them the understandings and strategies they need to optimize their own learning, social and emotional experiences. This accelerates in students’ senior year with the Senior Capstone Project, giving students the opportunity to take full ownership of their own learning experiences, while enjoying the support of the full team to identify and pursue the post-graduate path that’s right for them.
Gifted learners
The needs of intellectually-gifted learners are at the center of our program. Our Vision to Voice Curriculum develops the executive function, peer collaboration and communication skills that are essential for gifted thinkers to realize their unique ways of seeing the world, while our Student Growth Catalysts offer a neuroscience-based approach that is proving successful at reducing or even removing the challenges that interfere with accessing their gifts.
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