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Live Webcast

Smart But Scattered: Executive Dysfunction at Home and at School


Topic Areas:
Executive Function
Speaker:
Margaret M Dawson, ED.D., NCSP
Duration:
8 Hours
Format:
Audio and Video
Event Class:
One Day Seminar
Media Type:
Live Webcast

Dates

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Description

Course Description:

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. (2010), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart but Scattered Teens (2013, Guilford) 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.

Leave this seminar 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








       
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Credits



Speaker

Margaret M Dawson, ED.D., NCSP Related seminars and products


Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP, is a school psychologist and for over 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), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart But Scattered Teens (Guilford, 2013).

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.

 

 


Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson has an employment relationship with Seacoast Mental Health Center. She receives a speaking honorarium, book royalties, and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. Dr. Dawson is a published author and receives royalties. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Non-financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson has no relevant non-financial relationships.

 


Target Audience

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Speech-Language Pathologists
  • Teachers
  • School Guidance Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • School Administrators
  • Educational Paraprofessionals
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapy Assistants
  • Other Helping Professionals who Work with Children

Objectives

Objectives:
 
  1. Assess the relationship between the executive skills and brain development/function in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
  2. Recommend strategies to accommodate and strengthen weak planning and organizational skill, to improve client level of functioning.
  3. Explore assessment tools used to identify deficits in executive functioning to better inform your choice of treatment interventions.
  4. Determine how executive skills impact performance and activities of daily living at home and school for the purpose of client psychoeducation.
  5. Utilize environmental modification strategies to support deficits in executive skills thus improving treatment outcomes.
  6. Implement strategies that transition children from being externally prompted to internally regulated.

Outline

OUTLINE

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
Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks
  • Limited empirical evidence for the approach
  • Approach integrates evidence-based practices such as ABA and RTI
  • No “one size fits all” for any treatment modality

Reviews

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