Finding the right solution starts with identifying what problem this child needs our help to solve.

At Cajal Academy, all programming decisions are made based on an iterative, three-step process of identifying what problem this child needs our help to solve, what levers we have available to “move the needle” and how we can give the child agency over this process to facilitate their independence.

The first step in this process is in many ways the most important, because if we don’t start by identifying the correct problem, we are unlikely to fashion the correct solution. Put differently, when we identify the specific challenge that is driving a child’s challenges and presentation, we have the opportunity to actually address and alleviate the problem, rather than just manage its manifestations or symptoms.

Digging below the labels.

Realizing this opportunity requires that we dig behind labels like “ADHD” and “ASD” to identify the specific neurocognitive and neurophysiological skills that drive them. These diagnoses are made based on a child’s clinical presentation, but they don’t tell us why the child presents as they do. For example, a child may meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD because they are struggling with a language processing disorder, anxiety and depression—or because they have an actual problem with their attentional system (in which case ADHD medication may actually be helpful to them). Needless to say, one would solve a language disorder very differently than one would treat anxiety—so knowing what problem is driving the presentation is essential to addressing the problem and not just treating the symptoms.

This process requires that we look instead to those cross-cutting neurocognitive and neurophysiological skills that a student uses as they engage in academic tasks and travel through the world more generally, using the data in their neuropsychological, psychoeducational and OT/PT profiles. These cross-cutting skills come together in different combinations for different tasks, and a given child may be at very different ends of the bell curve with respect to one skill than they are with respect to another—in fact, this is true of most of twice exceptional children. So how successful a student will be at a given activity depends on how well that task matches to their current skill level with respect to each of the skills required to perform it. Thus, we can improve not only their academic experience but the quality of their life-lived experiences if we identify those low-lying skills that are holding a child back across multiple spheres and then work to build up their capacity to perform that specific skill.

Identifying how we can help starts with a deep dive into the data.

Each child’s program begins with a deep dive into the learning, social, emotional, medical, sensory, executive function, auditory processing and other elements that influence how this child experiences the world. This work starts in the admissions process, as our Director of Programs and neuropsychologist looks across the data in the child’s prior evaluations to identify those cross-cutting strengths a child is relying on, and also core cognitive and neurological deficits that may be manifesting across multiple, seemingly unrelated areas. This work is integrated across learning, social, emotional and self-regulation spheres, with a goal of arming the child with strategies that are just as integrated as are their life-lived experiences.

For example, a child who has difficulty intuitively figuring out which of many details is the most relevant will have a difficult time trying to structure new information so that they can efficiently categorize and store it in their memory. This in turn may affect their abilities to efficiently recall and work with math formulas, spelling rules, history facts and even social feedback. For educators, this creates a patchwork quilt of special education pullouts and services. For the child, it can lead to a generalized feeling of being overwhelmed and less “smart” than their peers who may be quick to recall facts but may have lower analytical and/or creative thinking skills for how they work with them.

However, once we understand that in fact these several challenges are all stemming from a single low-lying skill, it becomes apparent that rather than “playing whack-a-mole” with a raft of individual academic and social challenges, we can give the child greater leverage across a range of issues if we focus instead on building up those cross-cutting skills that are impacting their performance across multiple individual areas. We call these skills our “Domino One’s,” because like the first domino in a maze, these are the skills that when addressed, can create the biggest improvement for the child.

Teach to the way the child learns today…while we increase the ways the child can learn tomorrow.

Once we have identified this child’s current Domino One’s, we use this information in two ways. First, we differentiate instruction to match what we can see from the data and from observation is the child’s current skill level with respect to each of these component neurocognitive skills. Simultaneously, we begin work to build up those low-lying skills through interventions developed by Cajal Academy that apply the principle of neuroplasticity to actually reduce these gaps in the child’s neuropsychological profile.

This process is repeated throughout a student’s time in our program, and adjustments are made as they make progress, experience changes in their presentation, and as improvements in one area reveal additional, often more foundational challenges that they need our help to solve.

Only at Cajal.

We are unaware of any other school that is approaching special education interventions in this way. And yet, this science is not new. We are bringing together well-normed neuropsychological testing and assessments with strategies that have been used in occupational therapy settings for decades—we’re just bringing the two together in a new way.