NOTE: The seminar manual, CE information, and CE test are contained on disc #1 in PDF format. To access these documents, play disc #1 in your computer. For the video presentation, begin playing disc #1 in your DVD player. Children who have deficient executive skills often have trouble getting started on tasks, get distracted easily, lose papers or assignments and forget to hand in homework. They make careless mistakes, put off work until the last minute and have no sense of time urgency. Workspaces are disorganized and teachers often refer to their backpacks or lockers as “black holes.” Often considered chronic underachievers, these children are at risk for academic failure as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties. Dr. Dawson, co-author of the best-selling books Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, 2nd Ed. (Guilford, 2010) and Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009), uses case examples along with interactive discussion to demonstrate how the executive skills manifest in daily home and school activities. Learn how to assess these skills and take home evidence-based strategies to help children and adolescents overcome executive skills weaknesses. End this seminar recording with a set of tools that includes strategies for task/environmental modifications, skill development through cognitive/behavioral techniques and creation of incentive systems. You will be able to give teachers and parents a means for developing and improving the following: organization time management impulse control goal-directed persistence executive skills critical for independent functioning Describe the relationship between the executive skills and brain development/function Explain how executive skills emerge throughout childhood and adolescence Summarize assessment tools used to identify executive dysfunction Identify how executive skills impact performance and daily living at home and school Utilize strategies to modify the environment to reduce the impact of weak executive skills Develop tools that improve specific executive skill deficits in the context of home or school performance expectations Design intervention strategies tailored to the needs of individual children and adolescents
Executive Skills Underlying theory Executive skills in the context of brain function and child development Assessment of Executive Skills Parent/teacher/student interviews Behavior rating scales Observations Informal assessment Formal assessment Intervention Strategies Environmental modifications to reduce the impact of weak executive skills Teaching strategies to help children develop/improve executive functioning Using incentives to help practice or use skills that are difficult Keys to Effective Intervention Design Match the child’s developmental level Use the child’s innate drive for mastery and control Begin with environmental modifications Effortful tasks and ways to make them less difficult Use incentives to augment instruction Provide the minimum support necessary Apply supports and interventions until the child achieves mastery or success Gradually fade supports, supervision and incentives Coaching: An Effective Strategy for Building Executive Skills Description of 2-stage process Coaching with younger children Clinical case examples Research studies supporting the efficacy of coaching Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP is a school psychologist and for nearly 20 years has worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she specializes in the assessment of children and adults with learning and attention disorders. She is co-author of the best-selling books on executive dysfunction, Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: 2nd Edition (Guilford, 2010) and Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009). Peg is a past editor of Communiqué, the newsletter of the National Association of School Psychologists, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, including retention, ability grouping, reading disorders, attention disorders, the sleep problems of adolescents, the use of interviews in the assessment process and homework. Peg has many years of organizational experience at the state, national and international levels and served in many capacities, including president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the International School Psychology Association. She has also participated in many of NASP’s leadership initiatives, including the Futures Conference and the development of both the second and third Blueprint for the Training and Practice of School Psychology. She is the 2006 recipient of NASP’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Peg received her doctorate in school/child clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. NOTE: CE Certificates are available for $9.99. Please contact our Customer Service at 1-800-844-8260 for more details. |