We give bright, gifted and twice exceptional kids the thought leadership skills they’ll need for a future defined by their gifts, and ground-breaking, data-driven programs reducing the obstacles that threaten to stand in their way

People who naturally see the world differently require outsized critical thinking, social emotional and executive function skills to bring those ideas to life. Cajal Academy’s comprehensive approach meets students where they are and gives them the skills they will need as the innovative thinkers they’ll become.

Find out the components of this innovative educational model, and how they come together through data-based differentiation on standards-based instruction; project-based learning; executive function, leadership and social skills; and individualized coaching.

We provide highly-individualized programs that empower students to access, and prepare them to enjoy, a future defined by their strengths

Many of the students in our cohort of kids with high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills have complex learning profiles. These may include learning, executive function, social-emotional, sensory, neurophysiological or chronic medical differences that interfere with their ability to access and enjoy those gifts.

For these students, we augment our general curriculum with a student “Catalyst:” a data-driven and multi-disciplinary program that meets students where they are, delivered by expert licensed therapies in the fields of neuropsychology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech and language pathology. Like a student’s IEP in public school settings, this program incorporates a mixture of services by licensed therapists, accommodations and academic differentiation, but unlike an IEP, each student’s Catalyst provides a roadmap for how to reduce or even remove those challenges, through a mix of traditional and Cajal-exclusive approaches, applying the well-established principle of neuroplasticity.

These programs are integrated directly into the project-based learning, social-emotional curriculum and agency and growth mindset coaching in our “Vision to Voice” curriculum, accelerating the pace of progress and helping them to find the courage to try things that have previously been hard for them. Use these links to learn more about these two primary components of our program.

Use these links to learn more about these primary components of each student’s program:

Vision to Voice Curriculum

Included in Base tuition level for all learners

One continuous journey from where you are to fully developing your gifts.

Cajal’s unique Catalyst Method is a first of its kind approach to special educational needs that includes the differentiation, accommodation and specialized instruction you would receive in other settings—but then moves beyond them to “rewire” the brain to perform those specific neurocognitive and neurophysio skills that drive those difficulties in the first place. In other words, we don’t just accommodate learning and social differences, we reduce or even remove them, freeing students to access and further develop their strengths. This is an inter-disciplinary and highly-scaffolded process delivered by licensed occupational, physical and language therapists, with data-driven insights from our neuropsychologist. These accommodations and interventions are faded as the targeted skills are developed, and the focus of the student’s program gradually shifts to making the newly-acquired skills more resilient and mastering the skills in our Vision to Voice Curriculum and the benefits of our college-readiness programming for gifted kids.

We re-build core learning, social, emotional and neurophysio skills from the bottom up, finding and then re-wiring those steps in the neurodevelopmental process that got skipped or "went sideways” along the way. Read about this incredibly exciting and powerful approach, or attend an Information Session to learn more.

Our students develop critical thinking, executive function and social skills while collaborating together to solve real world problems

Our academic curriculum delivers Connecticut state standards, but it does it through multi-disciplinary deep dives that further develop our cohort’s high critical thinking skills, and provides an authentic environment in which to develop the executive function and peer collaboration skills where they often struggle. Each project requires students to integrate curriculum across math, science, social studies and language arts and then manifest their learnings through tangible products and deliverables ranging from documentary films to 3D builds. This is just one of the ways that we’ve put all the best principles of “gifted” education at the heart of our program.

No child should have to choose between academic challenge and the support they need to thrive.

All Cajal Academy programs integrate both stimulating academic programs and highly-personalized individual growth plans that leverage neuroplasticity to build up the skills they need to overcome any weaknesses in their otherwise strong neuropsychological and neurophysio profiles. Find out more about these core elements of our program below.

was founded on the premise that children can only fulfill their full human potential when they are given the opportunity to discover and experience their own gifts—and that this shouldn’t come at the cost of the expertise and support they need to overcome obstacles and have agency over their own life-lived experiences. Achieving this balance is especially important (and challenging!) for children having complex learning, social, sensory and/or neurological profiles. Our program is specifically-designed to meet these students’ needs, while leveraging modern neuroscientific research to address—not just accommodate—their differences, enabling them to thrive independently in the academic, social and professional settings of their own choosing.