How we Develop Individualized Catalysts to Student Growth

We use the data in each student’s profile—not the diagnostic labels used to describe them—to develop neuroscience-based interventions that reduce or even remove learning and in some cases social-emotional disabilities.

Learning and social-emotional diagnoses such as ADHD, ASD, dyslexia or specific written expression delay are made based on checklists that describe how a given challenge presents, but not what leads to that presentation. This gives us lots of insights into how to accommodate that challenge, but not the information we need to reduce it. Thus, special education programming typically seeks to reduce the impact of the disability on the child’s access to learning, through accommodations, specialized instruction and differentiation to maximize how much the child can learn it light of their (presumed-to-be-static) learning profile. 

Our Student Growth Catalysts approach this problem from a totally different perspective. We view the child’s prior diagnoses and their parents’ and teachers’ observations of where they struggle and then use our expertise in neuropsychology and child development to examine the data in their profile and identify the specific “splinter” skills required to perform those learning or social activities. We then work backwards down the neurodevelopmental chain to identify where a skill was missed or under-developed, thus creating the presentation that is reflected in that diagnosis. This tells us what problem our child needs our help to solve; the further down the neurodevelopmental chain that missing link resides, the more areas of their academic and daily quality of living are likely to be improved. 

Armed with this information, we apply well-established strategies in new ways to build up the child’s neural capacity to perform that skill, working from the bottom up. The result is a totally different growth curve in their ability to perform the targeted learning or social activity that led to their diagnoses, with an ultimate level that is defined not by their challenges but by their strengths, as we remove the “drag” from the required skills that were previously deficient. As this occurs, we gradually fade the child’s Catalyst in tandem with helping them further develop the skills they’ll need to realize their innovative ideas in a future created by their strengths.

Read below to learn how we develop these ground-breaking programs, or learn more about the science behind how this works here.

Step 1: Identifying what problem this child needs our help to solve

Step 2: Developing a comprehensive CATALYST to propel the child from where they are to where they want to be

With this multi-layered and data-driven understanding of the child’s current strengths and weaknesses and how that is currently affecting them in the classroom, socially and in their daily living, we create expert “Catalyst” programs increasing their access and enjoyment of their gifts.

Like a student’s IEP in public school settings, this program incorporates a mixture of services by licensed therapists, accommodations and academic differentiation, but unlike an IEP, each student’s Catalyst provides a roadmap for how to reduce or even remove those challenges, through a mix of traditional and Cajal-exclusive approaches, applying the well-established principle of neuroplasticity.

Classroom instruction is differentiated and accommodations are provided to reduce interference from the child’s Not Yet Skills while they progress, however they are faded out as the child’s capacity to perform those skills is increased—thus increasing the number of settings and pursuits where they will be able to feel successful.

You can learn more about common components of a “Catalyst” with the links below.

Step 3: Integrating the CATALYST into all aspects of the student’s program, giving them agency and ownership that transfers across settings

Giving the child agency over their learning, and the mindset to propel their own growth

It isn’t enough to develop the skills that have previously held the child back: we also have to help them unpack and understand how those challenges have impacted their development up to that point, and then develop the growth mindset required to find the courage to try tasks they’ve previously found difficult, so that they activate and re-integrate those newly-developed skills. This is an iterative process, implemented through instruction in the neuroscience behind both their challenges and how we’re improving on them, and highly-personalized Agency and Growth Mindset Coaching delivered by our Head of School, Cheryl Viirand: a national speaker on empowering kids through neuroscience and on the needs of twice exceptional kids.

A continuous journey towards unlocking their gifts

We recognize that all these students have the ability to turn their unique ways of seeing things into innovations that can benefit us all—and that developing those skills is a journey. Students enter Cajal with a wide array of diagnoses and at all stages in this process, from building neural networks to integrating refined splinter skills. We’ve made a paradigm shift in how we understand students’ special needs, opening up new avenues for how we can remove—not just accommodate—them.

As new abilities evolve, accommodations are removed, tuition levels are reduced and the work shifts to making these skills more resilient and further developing their strengths through the Voice to Visions Curriculum at the heart of our program for all learners. Students who stay on at Cajal through graduation and our Sr Capstone Project leapfrog from learning to keep up with their mainstream peers to ready to independently thrive socially and academically in college, with the tools and essential life skills they need to turn their visions into leadership in their chosen fields down the road. 

Parent Testimonials