A paradigm shift in how we understand student needs, which leads to actionable insights we can translate into student growth

At the heart of our program is a paradigm shift in how we understand children’s learning and social experiences and behaviors: a shift that leads to actionable insights we can use to propel student growth in a way that is not possible under traditional approaches to special needs. This approach provides a neuroscience-based approach appreciates that a child’s neuropsychology and neurophysiology play just as strong a role as their psychology in their learning and social-emotional experiences, and leverages those connections to move children forward.

Four core scientific principles drive this approach:

1) Each task we perform requires that we employ a mix of neurocognitive and neurophysiologic “splinter skills” simultaneously, so a child’s ability to perform a given task will be impacted by their unique array of strengths and weaknesses across the myriad “splinter skills” that go into performing that task. That means that if we can isolate the discrete splinter skills that hold back a given task, we can improve student experiences and performance.

2) A child’s ability to access those skills at any given moment can be altered by any of a number of hidden, neurophysiologic events, ranging from sensory processing overload to immunological reactions, so we can improve their access to their gifts if we teach them how to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their neurophysiologic regulatory needs.

3) Our ability to perform a given skill can also change over time, as the brain is constantly rewiring itself to increase the capacity to perform those skills we ask it to do the most. That means we can enhance the child’s neural capacity to perform a given skill if we are strategic in how we target it.

4) As a child develops, each new skill they learn builds upon the neural network in the brain that was developed as they learned the task before—so we can rewire how a child performs age-appropriate tasks by improving how they perform the foundational skills on which it relies.

Taken together, these four principles have profound implications for how we think about intelligence, learning, mental health, social interactions, behavior and the purpose and opportunity of a K-12 education as a whole. We reengineered “school” from the bottom up, applying these principles.

What has resulted is transformative results for students having a range of learning, social-emotional and neurophysiologic needs, and a powerful new, Neuroplasticity School model. Here are some of the ways that our Neuro- and Trauma-Informed understandings inform our program:

1. We break down learning and social-emotional tasks into the discrete skills needed to perform them, allowing us to “connect the dots” between a child’s learning and social-emotional struggles and experiences

Leveraging the extreme expertise of our internationally-renowned neuropsychologist, we understand complex tasks like reading or social interactions in terms of the myriad discrete, neurocognitive and neurophysiologic skills that must be employed in concert to perform them. This allows us to get behind diagnostic labels and “decode” a child’s observed strengths, weaknesses and struggles as reflecting the data that measures how well they can perform each of those discrete skills. This leads to actionable insights we can use to help the student understand their own experiences, and grow their abilities.

2. We go beyond accommodating the challenges posed by their complex profiles to transform the profiles themselves

We transform student profiles through a research-backed methodology for enhancing those neurocognitive and neurophysio skills that are identified as holding back a child’s learning or life-lived experience, through a ‘bottom up,’ neurodevelopmental approach, following our Student Growth Catalyst Methodology. This break-through methodology is proving successful at reducing or even removing a range of learning, social-emotional and executive function difficulties, along with the behavioral challenges that result.

2. We teach students how to leverage established science about the connections between the body and the brain into strategies they can use to chart their own future

We teach students established neuroscientific principles of how the human brain, body and learning interact, giving them physio-based strategies they can use to correct or maintain the neurophysiologic regulation that is essential to learning, and understandings of the neuroplasticity process behind our powerful interventions that fosters an authentic growth mindset.

3. We understand and respond to student behaviors in real time as reflecting their current mix of “Not Yet Skills” and their state of regulation in the moment, and collaborate with them to interrupt these processes through a neuropsychologically and trauma-informed approach

We use what we call the “Lens of the Not Yet Skills” to understand student social struggles and/or task avoidance as a reflection of the child’s current array of abilities, and to respond to behaviors in real time as an opportunity to improve the student’s understanding of their own profile and how it influences their learning and social experiences. Behaviorally, we respond in the moment through a flowcharting approach that models for students a process they can use to better understand the roles that their psychological motivations, neurophysiological reactions and “Not Yet Skills” play in their social choices, and learn how to interrupt those responses to select choices that better serve their social goals.

4. We maximize academic progress by applying the neuroscience behind body-brain connections in the classroom

Our classroom instruction and implementation of project-based learning reflect neuroscience as well. We train our teachers in how to understand and use the data in each child’s profile to tailor instruction based on neurocognitive skills and weaknesses, avoiding over- or under-accommodation. And, rather than pressuring kids to “sit still”, our Body-Informed Learning pedagogy strategically pairs movement and sensory input with academic concepts, increasing learning retention and engagement through “embodied cognition.”

A break through for social-emotional supports within educational settings

Watch our webinar to learn more about our Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach, and how it differs from CBT/DBT, ABA and other social-emotional strategies

Neuropsychologist and Director of Research Steven Mattis, PhD, A.B.P.P., Co-Founder and Head of School Cheryl Viirand and Co-Founder and Director of Therapies Heather Edwards—Cajal Academy’s program architects—discuss the unique, Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach they created and pioneer at Cajal. This approach expands on the trauma-informed schools movement to integrate the neuroscience revealing how our neurophysiologic states impact our emotional, social and learning experiences. This powerful methodology offers exciting possibilities for mainstream environments, by unlocking social-emotional growth for students with autonomic regulatory difficulties, including PTSD but also sensory processing disorder, chronic medical conditions, thermoregulatory difficulties and more.

Read examples of how this approach has led to transformative results for our students

Attend an Info Session to Learn More