2. We create holistic programs to address these challenges, within the context of the whole child
Once we’ve developed a picture of the student’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, we put this in the context of their life-lived experiences. This helps us to understand how differences in their learning, social-emotional and neurophysiological development have brought them to this moment—and what negative self-beliefs will need to be unwound in order to help them move forward. For many of the kids in our cohort, the very experience of having both outlying strengths and outlying weaknesses creates ongoing experiences of stress—often in front of their peers—that has reached the point of academic trauma.
Unwinding these challenges and helping the student to see a path forward requires a full court press. We must simultaneously build up a child’s capacity to perform tasks that were once challenging, and replace any associated negative self beliefs with an authentic growth mindset. This is an intensive and multi-disciplinary process that is integrated across all academic and therapeutic areas.
We use the science of neuroplasticity to build up the cross-cutting skills holding a child back
Once we have identified those core cross-cutting skills that are negatively impacting the child across learning and/or social experiences, we apply new interventions being developed at Cajal to build up those low-lying skills driving learning and social differences, applying the well-established principle of neuroplasticity. These exciting new interventions are among the many things that make Cajal Academy unique.
We create custom social-emotional programs that empower kids to bring their best selves
We create customized social-emotional programs focused on preparing each child to respond in the moment. We partner with each child to identify the drivers interfering with their social and emotional outcomes, including prior experiences, academic trauma, gaps in their social cognition and more. We coach each child in personalized strategies they can use to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their needs, drawing on our staff’s deep expertise in the ways that both prior traumas and hidden neurophysiological events can impact students’ state of regulation, through our unique Trauma- and Neuro-Informed Approach.