Smart But Scattered: Executive Dysfunction at Home and at School

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Margaret Dawson, EdD, NCSP Related seminars and products

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Peg Dawson, EdD, NCSP, is a school psychologist and for over 20 years has worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she specializes in the assessment of children and adults with learning and attention disorders. She is co-author of the bestselling books on executive dysfunction, Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: 2nd Edition (Guilford, 2010), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart but Scattered Teens (Guilford, 2013).

Peg is a past editor of Communiqué, the newsletter of the National Association of School Psychologists, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, including retention, ability grouping, reading disorders, attention disorders, the sleep problems of adolescents, the use of interviews in the assessment process, and homework.

Peg has many years of organizational experience at the state, national and international levels and served in many capacities, including president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the International School Psychology Association.She has also participated in many of NASP’s leadership initiatives, including the Futures Conference and the development of both the second and third Blueprint for the Training and Practice of School Psychology. She is the 2006 recipient of NASP’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Peg received her doctorate in school/child clinical psychology from the University of Virginia.

 

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson is an author for Guilford Press and receives royalties. She is an author for Amacon publishers and receives royalties. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.

Non-financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Alternate Options

Objectives

1. Assess the relationship between the executive skills and brain development/function in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
2. Propose strategies to accommodate and strengthen weak planning and organizational skill, to improve client level of functioning.
3. Appraise assessment tools used to identify deficits in executive functioning to better inform your choice of treatment interventions.
4. Determine how executive skills impact performance and activities of daily living at home and school for the purpose of client psychoeducation.
5. Utilize environmental modification strategies to support deficits in executive skills thus improving treatment outcomes.
6. Implement strategies that transition children from being externally prompted to internally regulated.

Outline

Executive Skills

• Underlying theory
• Executive skills in the context of brain function and child development
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

Assessment of Executive Skills

• Parent/teacher/student interviews
• Behaviour rating scales
• Observations
• Informal assessment
• Formal assessment

Intervention Strategies

• Environmental modifications to reduce the impact of weak executive skills
• Teaching strategies to help children develop/improve executive functioning
• Using incentives to help practice or use skills that are difficult

Keys to Effective Intervention Design

• Match the child’s developmental level
• Use the child’s innate drive for mastery and control
• Begin with environmental modifications
• Effortful tasks and ways to make them less difficult
• Use incentives to augment instruction
• Provide the minimum support necessary
• Apply supports and interventions until the child achieves mastery or success
• Gradually fade supports, supervision, and incentives

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

• Limited empirical evidence for the approach
• Approach integrates evidence-based practices such as ABA and RTI
• No “one size fits all” for any treatment modality

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Teachers
• School Guidance Counsellors
• Case Managers
• Nurses
• School Administrators
• Educational Paraprofessionals
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Other Helping Professionals Who Work with Children

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