Full Course Description

Module 1 - EF Strategies to Improve & Change Behavior

Executive Function (EF) skills form the foundation of success for people of all ages. But individuals with ADHD, Autism, OCD and other conditions have significant EF deficits – failing to thrive at school, work, home and in their most important relationships.

Your work with individuals struggling with EF issues is some of your most rewarding -- yet it’s often the work that leaves you the most frustrated and exhausted. Forgotten appointments, unfinished homework, distractibility, procrastination and difficulties organizing thoughts present formidable obstacles to making progress in school or therapy. And the strategies that work so well for other conditions seem to fall short when an EF deficit is present.

Watch this recording and get the targeted skills and tools you need to cultivate lasting change and transform the lives of those who struggle with executive deficits - the chronically lost, late and unprepared!

Watch George McCloskey, Ph.D., the internationally renowned creator of the McCloskey Executive Functions Scale (MEFS) for this incredible recording. An author, researcher, and clinician with more than 20 years of groundbreaking work with Executive Functions, Dr. McCloskey will teach you how to develop customized interventions that can be used with students or clients across multiple settings from the private practice office to the classroom. Practical and easy to apply, Dr. McCloskey’s strategies will help those you serve develop critical time/task management, personal organization, & planning skills, empowering them to elevate their academic and employment performance, relationships, physical & mental health, and more!

Whether you’re a counselor, teacher, OT, SLP or social worker you’ll leave this recording feeling confident in your ability to end the chaos and dramatically improve the lives of those you work with!

Program Information

Target Audience

  • Addiction Counselors
  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • 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

Outline

Executive Functions (EF) Overview

  • The neuropsychology of Executive Functions
  • Levels, domains of functioning, arenas of involvement
  • A closer look at the self-regulation level
  • 7 clusters encompassing 33 functions
  • EF development over time
  • EFs, DSM-5® diagnoses, educational classifications
Develop an Intervention Plan: Assessment of EF Strengths and Weaknesses
  • A multidimensional model to guide assessment
  • Norm referenced tests, rating scales and diagnostic interviewing
  • Assessing the impact of EF difficulties on academic learning and production
  • Learning difficulties versus producing difficulties
  • EF-driven Functional Behavior Assessment
Strategies for EF Development and EF Difficulties
  • Create an environment for positive change
  • Develop and use growth mindsets
  • The EF intervention continuum
  • Orienting strategies that focus on goals and outcomes
  • External strategies for modifying behavior: Cueing, prompting and thinking aloud
  • Bridging strategies from externally controlled to internally self-regulated
  • Internally self-regulated strategies: Strengthen independent functioning
Evidence-based Programs and Resources to Foster Growth
  • Develop EFs in pre-school and kindergarten
  • Problem-solving models and programs
  • Cognitive strategy instruction and cognitive behavior therapy
  • Technology-based approaches
  • Mindfulness techniques and EF growth
Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Objectives

  1. Analyze a comprehensive neuropsychological model of executive functions as it relates to clinical treatment.
  2. Communicate how executive function difficulties are manifested in individuals diagnosed with various psychological disorders and/or enrolled in special education programs as it pertains to assessment and treatment planning.
  3. Apply effective assessment techniques based on a multidimensional framework to determine executive function strengths and weaknesses and to target specific intervention needs.
  4. Recommend strategies that are appropriate for fostering executive function development and/or for intervening when executive function difficulties are identified.
  5. Implement strategies that bridge the gap between “external control” and “internal self-regulation”.
  6. Utilize mindfulness, CBT and other evidence-based programs to foster executive function development and/or remediate difficulties.

Copyright : 04/02/2019

Module 2 - EF Strategies to Improve & Change Behavior

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze a comprehensive neuropsychological model of executive functions as it relates to clinical treatment.
  2. Communicate how executive function difficulties are manifested in individuals diagnosed with various psychological disorders and/or enrolled in special education programs as it pertains to assessment and treatment planning.
  3. Apply effective assessment techniques based on a multidimensional framework to determine executive function strengths and weaknesses and to target specific intervention needs.
  4. Recommend strategies that are appropriate for fostering executive function development and/or for intervening when executive function difficulties are identified.
  5. Implement strategies that bridge the gap between “external control” and “internal self-regulation”.
  6. Utilize mindfulness, CBT and other evidence-based programs to foster executive function development and/or remediate difficulties.

Copyright : 04/02/2019

Module 1 - EF in the Classroom

  • Improve how children learn by teaching them how their brains work
  • How coordinated motor movement improves executive function
  • Close the education gap in poverty with movement and cognition

Teaching students how they think, learn and behave empowers them to play an active role in their own learning. When children with ADHD, anxiety, learning differences, oppositional tendencies and disinterest in school are taught how to be “Cognitive Scientists” coaching their own brains to plan, prioritize, attend and remember, they become more invested in school and motivated to learn.

Taking the mystery out of executive functions by showing students how to learn more efficiently while calming their defensive brains leads to better concentration, improved attention, higher academic achievement and competent social-emotional skills.

In this workshop, Lynne Kenney, Psy,D., pediatric psychologist, author and international educator, will teach you how to integrate the newest research in neuroscience, kinesiology and education for kids to learn more efficiently. You will discover over 30 developmentally progressive cognitive-exercises, worksheets and activities to enliven your classroom. Learn how to improve cognition, enhance learning and empower children to be better thinkers with motor movement, sequencing, attending, self-regulation and memory activities.

Dress comfortably, as we will be moving to think and calming to learn with balls, body percussion, rhythm activities, yoga and music.

Program Information

Outline

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MOVEMENT AND COGNITION

  • Explore new neuroscience + kinesiology + education research
  • Teach children how the brain is built - manage their 3-part brains
  • Define & teach executive functions to children
  • Embodied cognition - learning is a whole-body experience
  • Bring daily physical activity into the classroom

CURRENT RESEARCH ON THE ROLE OF MOVEMENT IN LEARNING

  • Physical activity improves health and academic achievement
  • Types of exercise that improve executive function
  • How to Implement a movement schedule
  • Using collaboration and student creativity to improve behavior

ACTIVITIES, TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

Alerting, Attending and Energizing

  • March Match
  • Find The Pulse
  • Clap & Tap
  • I’m a Star
  • Over the Line in 4/4 time
  • The Little Jane Fonda
  • Wave Jump
  • Switch Tasks
  • Clap, Snap, Tap
  • Rhythm and Rhyme
  • Body Percussion
  • Pretend Drums

Self-Regulation

  • The difference between self-regulation and self-control
  • Task demands and perceived stress
  • Stressor identification & arousal states
  • Slowing down for better cognitive control keeping the marshmallow in the middle
    • Entrainment and Synchrony
    • Entrain me (Walk & Bounce with me)
    • Co-Regulation - Swing, sway, sing
    • Meditation and Mindfulness
    • The Music Carpet Ride
    • Middle C OHM
    • Head, Shoulders, Hips & Knees
    • Tai Chi
    • Pretend Balance Beam
    • Yogivate in ACTIVATE
    • Rhythm Ball
    • 3,5,7,9 For Calming in Time
    • Mirroring with Big Ben

Attention/Memory

  • The BIG 3 - attention, working memory & self-control
    • Having a Ball!
    • ACTIVATE
    • The Secret is The Sequence
    • The Parts of the Task Game
    • Cognitive Conversations
    • The THINK Cards
    • My Attention Engine
    • Play Math

Behavior

  • Anxiety, agitation and hopefulness
  • What to say, think and do when children are escalating
  • The power of self-talk
    • Who’s Jelly Beans Am I Holding?
    • The Purpose Circle
    • What’s In It For Me?
    • Anger and Perceived Loss
    • Anger Mountain
    • My Anger Manager
    • I’ll Give This 10

Objectives

  1. Implement research-based activities educators, teachers and school psychologists can use to improve thinking, self-regulation and behavior.
  2. Characterize the relationship between cognition and motor movement.
  3. Practice bringing physical activity back to the classroom with neurocognitive activities.
  4. Demonstrate how students calm their defensive brains leading to better concentration, improved attention and competent social-emotional skills.
  5. Evaluate the integration of computer-based cognitive skills training and motor movement activities
  6. Choose how to enhance collaboration and cooperation in your classroom by teaching children applied neuroscience research.

Target Audience

Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech-Language Pathologists, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 12/13/2017

Module 2 - EF in the Classroom

  • Improve how children learn by teaching them how their brains work
  • How coordinated motor movement improves executive function
  • Close the education gap in poverty with movement and cognition

Teaching students how they think, learn and behave empowers them to play an active role in their own learning. When children with ADHD, anxiety, learning differences, oppositional tendencies and disinterest in school are taught how to be “Cognitive Scientists” coaching their own brains to plan, prioritize, attend and remember, they become more invested in school and motivated to learn.

Taking the mystery out of executive functions by showing students how to learn more efficiently while calming their defensive brains leads to better concentration, improved attention, higher academic achievement and competent social-emotional skills.

In this workshop, Lynne Kenney, Psy,D., pediatric psychologist, author and international educator, will teach you how to integrate the newest research in neuroscience, kinesiology and education for kids to learn more efficiently. You will discover over 30 developmentally progressive cognitive-exercises, worksheets and activities to enliven your classroom. Learn how to improve cognition, enhance learning and empower children to be better thinkers with motor movement, sequencing, attending, self-regulation and memory activities.

Dress comfortably, as we will be moving to think and calming to learn with balls, body percussion, rhythm activities, yoga and music.

Program Information

Outline

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MOVEMENT AND COGNITION

  • Explore new neuroscience + kinesiology + education research
  • Teach children how the brain is built - manage their 3-part brains
  • Define & teach executive functions to children
  • Embodied cognition - learning is a whole-body experience
  • Bring daily physical activity into the classroom

CURRENT RESEARCH ON THE ROLE OF MOVEMENT IN LEARNING

  • Physical activity improves health and academic achievement
  • Types of exercise that improve executive function
  • How to Implement a movement schedule
  • Using collaboration and student creativity to improve behavior

ACTIVITIES, TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

Alerting, Attending and Energizing

  • March Match
  • Find The Pulse
  • Clap & Tap
  • I’m a Star
  • Over the Line in 4/4 time
  • The Little Jane Fonda
  • Wave Jump
  • Switch Tasks
  • Clap, Snap, Tap
  • Rhythm and Rhyme
  • Body Percussion
  • Pretend Drums

Self-Regulation

  • The difference between self-regulation and self-control
  • Task demands and perceived stress
  • Stressor identification & arousal states
  • Slowing down for better cognitive control keeping the marshmallow in the middle
    • Entrainment and Synchrony
    • Entrain me (Walk & Bounce with me)
    • Co-Regulation - Swing, sway, sing
    • Meditation and Mindfulness
    • The Music Carpet Ride
    • Middle C OHM
    • Head, Shoulders, Hips & Knees
    • Tai Chi
    • Pretend Balance Beam
    • Yogivate in ACTIVATE
    • Rhythm Ball
    • 3,5,7,9 For Calming in Time
    • Mirroring with Big Ben

Attention/Memory

  • The BIG 3 - attention, working memory & self-control
    • Having a Ball!
    • ACTIVATE
    • The Secret is The Sequence
    • The Parts of the Task Game
    • Cognitive Conversations
    • The THINK Cards
    • My Attention Engine
    • Play Math

Behavior

  • Anxiety, agitation and hopefulness
  • What to say, think and do when children are escalating
  • The power of self-talk
    • Who’s Jelly Beans Am I Holding?
    • The Purpose Circle
    • What’s In It For Me?
    • Anger and Perceived Loss
    • Anger Mountain
    • My Anger Manager
    • I’ll Give This 10

Objectives

  1. Implement research-based activities educators, teachers and school psychologists can use to improve thinking, self-regulation and behavior.
  2. Characterize the relationship between cognition and motor movement.
  3. Practice bringing physical activity back to the classroom with neurocognitive activities.
  4. Demonstrate how students calm their defensive brains leading to better concentration, improved attention and competent social-emotional skills.
  5. Evaluate the integration of computer-based cognitive skills training and motor movement activities
  6. Choose how to enhance collaboration and cooperation in your classroom by teaching children applied neuroscience research.

Target Audience

Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech-Language Pathologists, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 12/13/2017

Module 1 - Metacognitive & Self-Regulation Strategies for EF

Walk away with visual strategies and hands-on techniques that:

  • Support self-management in regulating behavior, focus and energy
  • Improve motivation, recall, organization and planning
  • Increase communication skills and develop appropriate social skills
  • Support the way information is received and retained in long-term memory

Do you work with children and adolescents who struggle paying attention, are severely disorganized, have difficulty making transitions and are unable to make plans? They repeatedly act out and meltdown—seemingly unaware of the consequences of their behavior. They frequently get placed in timeout or sent to the principal’s office—missing out on typical childhood experiences in school, on the playground and with their families. These children have Executive Functioning (EF) deficits.

The good news is that EF can be taught!

Watch this intensive workshop and learn to strengthen the neuro connections in children and apply evidence-based metacognitive and self-regulation visual strategies and hands-on techniques to improve:

  • Working Memory
  • Inhibitory Control
  • Adaptability
  • Mental Flexibility
  • Goal Setting
  • Planning/Strategizing
  • Sequencing
  • Organization
  • Time Management
  • Task Initiation
  • Executive Attention
  • Task Persistence
  • Emotional Control
  • Social skills
  • Communication

Through video case studies, visual demonstrations of strategies and dynamic discussions, you will learn how to implement these strategies tomorrow morning at school, during therapy or counseling, home and community.

Program Information

Outline

Executive Functioning

  • Neuroanatomy of the brain
  • Mirror neurons
  • Sensory issues vs. behavior issues
  • Address communication breakdowns before they become social skills deficits resulting in behavior difficulties

Unlock Challenging Behavior in:

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Attention Deficit disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Attachment disorders
  • Obsessive compulsive disorders
  • Mood disturbances
  • Behavior disorders
  • Learning disabilities

Self-Regulation Strategies

  • Methods to chart appropriate/inappropriate behaviors
  • Activities to review situations, options, consequences, choices, strategies, simulation when calm
  • Facilitate systematic feedback
  • Identify emotions, level of emotions and suggestions for self-regulation

Metacognitive Strategies

  • Methods that provide structure, predictability and routines
  • Systems to provide expectations
  • Neutral visual ques
  • Tips to break down workloads and schedules

Integrate Metacognitive and Self-Regulation Strategies

  • Visual ques to alert of change, surprises and transitions
  • Generate new and novel language for persons under stress but have extensive rote memories
  • Video modeling scenarios for persons who have social malfunctions
  • Ways to use high interest areas to motivate and problem-solve
  • Prompts for acceptable behaviors/social skills
  • Social narratives for expected behaviors and what they look like

Hands-On Activities and Video Demonstration of:

  • Meltdowns
  • Power cards
  • Keychain rules
  • Backward Planning
  • Using a launch pad for materials
  • Simulation of over-arousal and over-stimulation
  • Cartooning

Objectives

  1. Determine when to use strategies, such as breathe cards or keychain rules, to support children’s self-management in regulating behavior, focus and energy.
  2. Implement specific intervention strategies to improve recall, organization and planning, and self-management skills in children with Executive Functioning (EF) deficits.
  3. Utilize video modeling as an intervention strategy to target social-communication skills deficits and subsequent behavior difficulties in children with EF deficits.
  4. Integrate visual strategies to support the way children and adolescents receive information and retain it in long-term memory.
  5. Integrate metacognitive strategies to provide structure, predictability and routines to improve children’s level of functioning.
  6. Utilize self-regulation strategies to help children identify their emotions and level of emotions and to improve their level of functioning.

Target Audience

Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech-Language Pathologists and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 10/06/2017

Module 2 - Metacognitive & Self-Regulation Strategies For EF

Walk away with visual strategies and hands-on techniques that:

  • Support self-management in regulating behavior, focus and energy
  • Improve motivation, recall, organization and planning
  • Increase communication skills and develop appropriate social skills
  • Support the way information is received and retained in long-term memory

Do you work with children and adolescents who struggle paying attention, are severely disorganized, have difficulty making transitions and are unable to make plans? They repeatedly act out and meltdown—seemingly unaware of the consequences of their behavior. They frequently get placed in timeout or sent to the principal’s office—missing out on typical childhood experiences in school, on the playground and with their families. These children have Executive Functioning (EF) deficits.

The good news is that EF can be taught!

Watch this intensive workshop and learn to strengthen the neuro connections in children and apply evidence-based metacognitive and self-regulation visual strategies and hands-on techniques to improve:

  • Working Memory
  • Inhibitory Control
  • Adaptability
  • Mental Flexibility
  • Goal Setting
  • Planning/Strategizing
  • Sequencing
  • Organization
  • Time Management
  • Task Initiation
  • Executive Attention
  • Task Persistence
  • Emotional Control
  • Social skills
  • Communication

Through video case studies, visual demonstrations of strategies and dynamic discussions, you will learn how to implement these strategies tomorrow morning at school, during therapy or counseling, home and community.

Program Information

Outline

Executive Functioning

  • Neuroanatomy of the brain
  • Mirror neurons
  • Sensory issues vs. behavior issues
  • Address communication breakdowns before they become social skills deficits resulting in behavior difficulties

Unlock Challenging Behavior in:

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Attention Deficit disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Attachment disorders
  • Obsessive compulsive disorders
  • Mood disturbances
  • Behavior disorders
  • Learning disabilities

Self-Regulation Strategies

  • Methods to chart appropriate/inappropriate behaviors
  • Activities to review situations, options, consequences, choices, strategies, simulation when calm
  • Facilitate systematic feedback
  • Identify emotions, level of emotions and suggestions for self-regulation

Metacognitive Strategies

  • Methods that provide structure, predictability and routines
  • Systems to provide expectations
  • Neutral visual ques
  • Tips to break down workloads and schedules

Integrate Metacognitive and Self-Regulation Strategies

  • Visual ques to alert of change, surprises and transitions
  • Generate new and novel language for persons under stress but have extensive rote memories
  • Video modeling scenarios for persons who have social malfunctions
  • Ways to use high interest areas to motivate and problem-solve
  • Prompts for acceptable behaviors/social skills
  • Social narratives for expected behaviors and what they look like

Hands-On Activities and Video Demonstration of:

  • Meltdowns
  • Power cards
  • Keychain rules
  • Backward Planning
  • Using a launch pad for materials
  • Simulation of over-arousal and over-stimulation
  • Cartooning

Objectives

  1. Determine when to use strategies, such as breathe cards or keychain rules, to support children’s self-management in regulating behavior, focus and energy.
  2. Implement specific intervention strategies to improve recall, organization and planning, and self-management skills in children with Executive Functioning (EF) deficits.
  3. Utilize video modeling as an intervention strategy to target social-communication skills deficits and subsequent behavior difficulties in children with EF deficits.
  4. Integrate visual strategies to support the way children and adolescents receive information and retain it in long-term memory.
  5. Integrate metacognitive strategies to provide structure, predictability and routines to improve children’s level of functioning.
  6. Utilize self-regulation strategies to help children identify their emotions and level of emotions and to improve their level of functioning.

Target Audience

Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech-Language Pathologists and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 10/06/2017

70 Play Activities for Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning & Behavior

Packed with worksheets, handouts, and guided scripts with step-by-step directions, this definitive resource will put you to the top of your play game. With over 70 activities designed to improve thinking, self-regulation, learning and behavior, your tool kit will be full and your creative brain will be inspired to craft your own meaningful exercises. Play now, Play later... with 70 Play Activities for better brain function and learning.

Based on years of clinical experience and educational work, Harvard-trained psychologist, Lynne Kenney, PsyD, and school psychologist, Rebecca Comizio MA, MA-Ed, NCSP have created fun, imaginative, and brain-based exercises for children and adolescents to develop attention, planning, executive function and mood management skills.

Featuring:

  • Musical Thinking
  • Physical Activities
  • Social Interaction Games
  • Artmaking
  • Perfect for the classroom, clinic or home