We don’t just accommodate children’s unique profiles, we transform them through first-of-their-kind, research-backed programs.

We’ve made a break-through in education, by digging into the science of how children learn, socialize and grow and then applying it to the data in each child’s neuropsychological and neurophysiological profile. We identify the specific neurocognitive and neurophysiological skills holding a child back and then use a mixture of traditional and Cajal-exclusive approaches to rewire the child’s brain to reduce or remove learning, neurophysio and social-emotional difficulties that stand in their way. In the meantime, each child’s highly-customized program is differentiated to reduce the demand for those deficient skills, allowing them to access their strengths and experience their gifts. These custom programs come together through community-wide project-based learning units, giving all our students a shared, common purpose.

Follow these links to read more about this ground-breaking, research-backed approach and how we are using it to transform children’s profiles.

We’ve made a break-through for the field of education, with a research-backed approach that is transforming students’ learning and social-emotional profiles

Where other programs accommodate difficulties like ADHD, dyslexia, social skill deficits and more, we have made a paradigm shift in how we understand, and treat, those needs. This starts with a deep dive into the child’s neuropsychological and neurophysiological profiles to identify areas of relative weakness within their otherwise high profiles that interfere with their ability to perform core learning and social tasks where they have been observed to struggle. We then work backwards down the neurodevelopmental chain to identify the missing link, leveraging our team’s expertise in child development and in the many granular level “splinter” skills that is required to perform each task, under the leadership of Steven Mattis, PhD, A.B.P.P., our internationally-renowned neuropsychologist and our Director of Research. Next, we target and build up the neural network that a child requires to perform that skill through our Neuroplasticity Interventions: an exclusive approach using movement and games that was developed by Cajal Academy’s innovative occupational therapist and co-founder, Heather Edwards. Finally, we complement this work with personalized social-emotional programs; powerful sensory- and physio-based strategies that students can use to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their needs to gain agency over their experiences, and Growth Mindset and Agency Coaching by our visionary program architect and co-founder Cheryl Viirand helping our students bring these threads together and apply them in the moment to optimize their own learning, social and emotional outcomes.

Highly-individualized programs are at the heart of this approach, but they come together through project-based learning (PBL) aligned to Connecticut curriculum standards. Students receive academic instruction in ability-based groupings but then work together to solve real world problems. This creates a shared common purpose that brings our cohort together as a single community, while the structured PBL process helps them develop the critical thinking and executive function skills that are essential to 21st century success.

Over the five years that we have developed these protocols, the results for our students have been nothing short of transformative, across a wide array of profiles. These include a middle schooler who jumped from a 1st to a 7th grade level in both reading and writing in a single year, because we identified and addressed the dyspraxia that was driving it; an early elementary student with dyslexia who jumped from below to above reading level in a single year because we built up the splinter skills that made it difficult for them to remember what words look like (orthographic processing) — a key component of reading; a high schooler who overcame the physical, emotional and cognitive impacts of a spinal cord defect and graduated from Cajal ready to study architecture at RISD: the top art school in the country; and a middle schooler who went from retreating to a closet at the first hint that might lead to social disapproval to living with 30 peers at sleepaway camp just nine months later. Read more about the ground-breaking approach that made these disparate transformations possible.

Our students develop critical thinking, executive function and social skills while collaborating together to solve real world problems

Our academic curriculum delivers Connecticut state standards, but it does it through multi-disciplinary deep dives that further develop our cohort’s high critical thinking skills, and provides an authentic environment in which to develop the executive function and peer collaboration skills where they often struggle. Each project requires students to integrate curriculum across math, science, social studies and language arts and then manifest their learnings through tangible products and deliverables ranging from documentary films to 3D builds. This is just one of the ways that we’ve put all the best principles of “gifted” education at the heart of our program.

 Read Testimonials from Cajal Academy Parents

Cajal Academy offers a whole new approach to education, based on the neuroscience of how kids learn, socialize and grow.

What started as one mom’s determination to ensure that bright and gifted kids in Connecticut and Westchester County have access to a school with the opportunities and supports they need turned into a whole new model for schools that modernizes education to match current neuroscientific research.

Other schools with specialized expertise define their cohorts based on their disabilities.

We define ours based on their superpowers.

All Cajal Academy students share very high analytical reasoning skills (as indicated by very high average to superior range scores on standardized measures of verbal comprehension, fluid reasoning and/or visual-spatial reasoning reasoning). Within that, they share a wide range of learning, social-emotional and neurophysio needs, generating a diverse student body of innovative thinkers who naturally see the world differently. We brings these diverse thinkers together, and give them the toolbox they need to turn those innovative ideas into new products, services, STEM and cultural advances that can benefit us all—with a commitment and a skill set to fostering truly inclusive neurodiverse communities. Follow these links to Read more about the students we serve.

Cajal Academy in the News

Cajal Academy admits students of any race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Are you an educator or clinician who’s passionate about empowering kids? Apply to join our team!