Margaret Dawson – Executive Dysfunction at Home and at School: Smart but Scattered
Faculty:
Margaret Dawson
Duration:
6 Hours 25 Minutes
Format:
Audio and Video
Copyright:
Feb 26, 2020
Description
Children who have deficient executive skills often have trouble getting started on tasks, get distracted easily, lose papers or assignments and forget to hand in homework. They make careless mistakes, put off work until the last minute and have no sense of time urgency. Workspaces are disorganized and teachers often refer to their backpacks or lockers as “black holes.†Often considered chronic underachievers, these children are at risk for academic failure as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Dr. Dawson, co-author of the best-selling books Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, 3rd Ed. (2018), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart but Scattered Teens (2013, Guilford) uses case examples along with interactive discussion to demonstrate how the executive skills manifest in daily home and school activities. Learn how to assess these skills and take home evidence-based strategies to help children and adolescents overcome executive skills weaknesses.
Finish this recording with a set of tools that includes strategies for task/environmental modifications, skill development through cognitive/behavioral techniques and creation of incentive systems. You will be able to give teachers and parents a means for developing and improving the following:
Organization
Time management
Impulse control
Goal-directed persistence
Executive skills critical for independent functioning
Handouts
Manual – Executive Dysfunction at Home and at School (3.02 MB)
59 Pages
Available after Purchase
Illinois Educators Self-study Instructions (28.5 KB)
Available after Purchase
Illinois Educators Evaluation Form (1.2 MB)
Available after Purchase
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
Behavior 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
Coaching: An Effective Strategy for Building Executive Skills
Description of 2-stage process
Coaching with younger children
Clinical case examples
Research studies supporting the efficacy of coaching
Faculty
Margaret Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP Related seminars and products: 11
Peg Dawson, Ed.D., 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 to disclose.
