A Catalyst to Growth
Each student’s Catalyst is not just an individualized educational plan; it’s an individualized plan for empowering their future
For students who are not yet able to access their gifts, we develop multi-disciplinary, highly-individualized “Catalysts” reducing or removing those barriers through a research-backed approach developed at Cajal Academy. 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.
Read below to find out about the muti-disciplinary components and the licensed therapies within them that go into our Student Growth Catalysts, or read about the data-driven process that we use to develop a student’s Catalyst program here.
Here are the elements that go into a student Catalyst, as appropriate for their individual needs:
Our ground-breaking, research-backed Neuroplasticity Interventions reduce or remove learning disabilities by enhancing the neurocognitive skills that drive them
We use the data in each child’s profile to examine the specific neurocognitive skill deficits driving learning difficulties like ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia and then “rewire the brain,” identifying and rebuilding missing links in the neurodevelopmental chain that drive the disability in the first place.
We use the data in each child’s profile to create highly-individualized social-emotional learning programs
Just like our individualized academic programs, our social-emotional programs start with an analysis of where in the process a student’s social and emotional experiences tend to go awry, and how those difficulties relate to other aspects of their profile. We then put together a highly-personalized social-emotional learning program that gives the child increasing agency over their social-emotional experiences.
We “leap frog” social skill deficits by giving kids a toolbox they can use to foster truly inclusive, neurodiverse communities
We help students understand how their learning and neurophysio profils influence their experiences, and give them a 21st century toolbox for fostering truly-inclusive neurodivergent communities, turning social skill development into social leadership over the course of their program.
We empower each student with the learnings they need to use body-brain connections to their advantage
We’ve brought movement and the science of how our neurology influences learning and social-emotional experiences into the classroom, rather than pressuring kids to “sit still and listen!” We teach each child how to understand their own unique neurophysio profile and how they can use movement to optimize their own experiences. We take this further for students with complex neurophysio needs like motor coordination difficulties, sensory processing disorder and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and other chronic medial conditions.
We make a “full court press” to reduce the impact of prior academic or school-related trauma
It is commonplace that our students’ gifts hide their challenges and their challenges hide their gifts—leading learning and/or social cognition needs to be missed, or incorrectly interpreted as behavioral problems. Over time, the repeated experience of being unable to succeed at a given task can have a trauma impact on the brain, especially if this is occurring in front of peers. We help students understand and unpack their prior experiences, and to disentangle the ways that has impacted their understanding of themselves and replace it with an authentic growth mindset.
We incorporate on-site sensory therapy not just re-regulating students but increasing their ability to regulate themselves
Our co-founder is a talented sensory integration therapist, and designed this expertise into every aspect of our program from how we appoint the facilities to our exclusive, Body-Informed Learning integrating movement and sensory input into the classroom. All students start their day with group sensory activities reconnecting them with one another and preparing their brains to learn. Additional small group sensory therapy is included in Catalysts for all students who are either overly- or under-responsive to sensory inputs.
For kids with chronic medical conditions, we meet them at their baseline and help them move to where they want to be
We accelerate academic growth by helping kids understand how hidden neurophysiologic events undermine their regulation—and build up their ability to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for those needs across settings.
Each student’s Catalyst is integrated throughout the “Vision to Voice” curriculum that is at the heart of our program for all learners
All components of the child’s Catalyst are integrated into the project-based learning, social skills and Agency and Growth Mindset Coaching within our Vision to Voice curriculum, which gives all Cajal Academy students the tools they’ll need to turn their unique ways of seeing the world into reality. This curriculum is specifically tailored to our students’ very high analytical reasoning and creative thinking skills, and provides them with the tools they will need to succeed in the settings and endeavors that are likely to be intellectually rewarding to them in the future. In short, it ensures that they have the tools they need to fully act on the possibilities presented by their gifts, once we are able to free those gifts the challenges that hold them back.
Integrating the Catalyst strategies and instruction directly into the academic setting where they experience these real world demands also accelerates their mastery and increases their ability to apply these skills at home and in the community, and ensures that students have the supports, differentiation and understanding required to complete our project-based learning and social activities.