Improving Executive Skills to Promote School Success

Dr. Peg Dawson

Workshop Description: Executive skills are sometimes called “the hidden curriculum.” They are skills such as sustained attention, working memory, planning, organization, and goal-directed persistence that are absolutely critical to school success, yet curriculum standards seldom if ever explicitly reference these skills. Neuroscientists now tell us that these skills take a minimum of 25 years to reach full maturation, and the course of that development is influenced by experience and exposure, by modeling, practice, and direct instruction.  This full-day workshop will give participants a comprehensive overview of the Smart but Scattered model for understanding, assessing, and treating executive skill challenges. 

Learning Goals: As a result of this workshop, participants will:

• 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.
• Know a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies for evaluating executive skills. 
• Learn how to make environmental modifications to support weak executive skills.
• Learn how to design protocols for teaching executive skills.

Biography: In over 40 years of clinical practice, Dr. Peg Dawson has worked with thousands of children and teens 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 Challenges. 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. 

Keynote Address: Catalysts in Action

Dr. Peter Faustino

A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction, or lowers the temperature or pressure needed to start one, without itself being consumed during the reaction. Catalysts by definition are connectors; they only work by pairing together with other substances. Join NASP President, Dr. Peter Faustino for a fun, informative, and inspiring presentation on the transformative power of relationships in school settings.

Biography: 

Dr. Peter Faustino has been working with children and adolescents, as a School Psychologist, for more than 25 years and is currently serving as President of the National Association of School Psychologists. Prior to his term President, Dr. Faustino served in multiple leadership roles in NASP and his home state’s professional associations. He was previously NASP’s NY Delegate & Regional Representative to the Board of Directors. He also served as a member of NASP’s Government and Professional Relations Committee, advocating for children’s mental health at the state and national level.

In his home state of New York, he served as president of the New York Association of School Psychologists, president of the Westchester County Psychological Association, and a Council Representative to the NY State Psychological Association. He maintains several ongoing collaborative partnerships with Autism Speaks, the Child Mind Institute, the JED Foundation, the Trevor Project, the Suicide Prevention Center of NY, Bring Change to Mind, and the Born This Way Foundation.

“Dr. Pete” proudly works at Scarsdale High School and maintains a small private practice with the Developmental Assessment and Intervention Center (DAIC) in Bedford Hills, NY & Greenwich, CT, specializing in adolescent behavior, anxiety disorders, and autism.

In his spare time, he loves to cook and follow his three daughters on social media.

Agenda

7:30  Registration opens with breakfast offered

8:00 - 8:45 Keynote address with Dr. Faustino

9:00 - 12:00 Formal and Informal Assessment of Executive Functioning with Dr. Peg Dawson

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch on your own (we will provide some local recommendations at the conference)

1:00 - 4:00 Executive Functioning Interventions with Dr. Peg Dawson

A brief morning and afternoon break will be offered. Coffee/tea and baked goods will be provided for the afternoon break.

Sponsored by