Smart But Scattered – Improving Executive Skills to Promote School Success

Youngsters with poor executive skills are disorganized or forgetful, have trouble getting started on tasks, get distracted easily, lose papers or assignments, forget to bring home the materials to complete homework or forget to hand homework in. They may rush through work or dawdle, or they make careless mistakes that they fail to catch. They don’t know where to begin on long-term assignments, and they put the assignment off until the last minute in part because they have trouble judging the magnitude of the task and how long it will take to complete it. Their workspaces are disorganized, and teachers may refer to their desks, backpacks, and notebooks as “black holes.” Students with executive skill deficits present tremendous challenges to both parents and teachers who often find themselves frustrated by children whose problems in school seem to have little to do with how smart they are or how easily they learn.

Learning Objectives:

• Be able to describe the brain processes involved in executive skill development both in typically developing children and those with executive dysfunction (such as ADHD).
• Be able to identify how executive skills impact school performance and daily living.
• Learn key strategies for improving executive skills in student including 1) how to make environmental modifications to support weak executive skills, 2) how to design protocols for teaching executive skills, and 3) how to use incentives effectively to encourage students to engage in the practice necessary for improving executive skills.
• Learn the critical features of a coaching method geared to improving school performance through supporting executive skill development.

About the Presenter: Dr. Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP

In over 40 years of clinical practice, Dr. Peg Dawson has worked with thousands of children who struggle at home and in school. At the center of their struggles are often weak executive skills. Along with her colleague, Dr. Richard Guare, she has written numerous books on this topic for educators, mental health professionals, and parents, among them Smart but Scattered, Smart but Scattered Teens, Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, and Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits. Peg is also a past president of the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association, and is a recipient of NASP’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The workshop includes morning and afternoon refreshments and snacks and certificate of completion. Please note that lunch is on your own.