We use the data in a child’s program and modern neuroscience to empower kids.

Two fundamental shifts in our understanding of how children learn, socialize and grow are at the heart of Cajal Academy’s groundbreaking program. Both are by now well-established in the scientific literature. Until now, neither has been operationalized in our schools.

The first is that the human brain is constantly rewiring itself to improve its ability to do the things we ask it to do (a principle called Neuroplasticity).

The second is that connections between the body and the brain play a big a role in our learning and social-emotional experiences (both positively and negatively), just as our emotions do.

 Watch this short video to understand how these two understandings fundamentally shift what education can and should be all about.

We re-examined all aspects of education in view of these insights and developed a new model for education that aligns to what scientists know today about how kids learn, socialize and grow. Starting with the data in each child’s neuropsychological and neurophysio profile, we create individualized programs that combine traditional and Cajal-exclusive therapies to reduce any obstacles that stand in their way. These come together through community-wide project-based learning. Use these links to find out more about the four key pillars of our program:

Driven by the research of our own Dr. Steven Mattis and other clinical and research neuropsychologists, we take a fundamentally different approach to addressing students’ learning and social-emotional differences—with what are often transformative results.

While other schools start with what a given child’s challenges look like, we see those challenges as markers or clues indicating what problem a child needs our help to solve. We dig into the data in the child’s neuropsychological and neurophysiological profiles to identify cross-cutting “splinter skills” are areas of relative weakness in their profile. This includes things you do every day without thinking about it, to perform a range of academic and social-emotional activities, like working memory, sequencing and motor-cognitive integration. Most of these skills can be assessed using well-normed neuropsychological, occupational and/or physical therapy assessments; for those that aren’t included in those standardized assessments, we are developing new testing procedures here at Cajal.

We then match up this view of a child’s strengths and weaknesses on the one hand with our expert clinicians’ understandings of all the ways that you use each of those skills everyday. We use these results to develop a comprehensive program empowering your child, through interventions to develop the neural networks they need to perform those low-lying skills; social-emotional learning that is customized for the data in their learning profile; and coaching to help them develop an authentic growth mindset and sense of agency (and accountability) over their experiences. We also develop guidelines our teachers use to differentiate your child’s instruction to reduce the demand for your child’s “Not Yet Skills” while work proceeds to address them. This differentiation and any accommodations fade over time as our interventions work to build those skills up.

This process is exclusive to Cajal Academy, and it brings results that transfer across settings and that can only be called transformative—like unlocking a brilliant 7th grader’s abilities to read and write in just six months. We are redefining what’s possible. In fact, other educators tell us this has the potential to revolutionize all of education.

Throughout your child’s program at Cajal, our clinicians are constantly engaging in an iterative, data-driven process to identify what problem your child needs our help to solve. This starts with the Cajal Profile Analysis: a deep dive into the data in your child’s profile to get behind labels like “ADHD,” “ASD” and “dyslexia” to identify the underlying cause for that presentation. That might be a “splinter skill” that isn’t as well developed as the rest, a neurophysiological difference in how you process information or regulate core autonomic functions, or the effects of social anxiety or prior academic trauma, for example.

Parent Testimonials