By: Clark McKown, Ph.D., Executive Director Over the past two weeks, I did a completely non-scientific poll of colleagues, friends, and family. The results were striking. Every single respondent reported that that this summer flew by with unprecedented speed! Most also reported that the school year snuck up on, causing sudden changes to the rhythms of life. For some, the
By: Michael Smith, Education Specialist at RNBC What are the qualities of a good student? Take a minute right now to answer that question. Feel free to grab some scratch paper and jot down some of your ideas. Done? Great! Now let’s see how your answers compare to those of some actual students… Every summer, the Rush NeuroBehavioral Center offers Executive
Susan B. Noyes Founder & Publisher — Make It Better Media & Make It Better Foundation: “Geeks, nerds, socially awkward and autism spectrum really are all the same thing—and Silicon Valley is full of them,” declared Temple Grandin, Ph.D., during a recent interview and her speech to 1000s In Northwestern’s Welch Ryan Arena. She should know. Grandin is one of them —
By: Amanda Weigel, PsyD Mention the word adolescence to many parents and the response is more often than not rich with worry and concern. Despite the challenges for both teens and parents during this developmental period, it can be easily navigated with knowledge, appropriate boundaries, and empathy. During this stage, adolescents are taxed with many important developmental tasks including developing
Results from several independent studies conducted over the past ten years have pointed consistently to the relationship between success in school, academically and socially, and competency in executive functions skills. Executive functions are the cognitive processes occurring in the frontal lobe area of the brain that oversees higher-order competencies such as planning, organizing, making decisions, paying attention, regulating behavior, solving
I see a lot of third graders. That’s because third grade is usually the time when children start having to do homework. Most kids adjust to the new responsibility, but those with issues relating to executive function (the ability to organize, schedule, and plan) often find themselves falling behind. Usually there’s trouble with parents and teachers because of lost assignments,
By: Erin Anderson OTR/L As adults we realize how fun and yet stressful the impending holiday season can be. Over time we have developed strategies to make it a more enjoyable time and to find ways to decrease our stress in order to increase the fun the holidays can offer. We may schedule to take a quick walk on a
By: Michael Smith & Georgia Bozeday At first glance, college might seem much easier than high school. If you think about it, most college freshmen will have two-to-three classes a day that meet only two-to-three times a week. Plus, college classes usually do not assign nightly homework. Compared to the high school schedule of sitting through at least eight periods
Until he hit fifth grade Matt was the kind of child I rarely see professionally. Outgoing, athletic, good-natured, and active, he was also extremely bright. He was the child his teacher chose to read stories to the first graders or to peer-tutor a classmate in math. He tackled difficult spelling words with ease and did his homework in a matter
I first saw Janice Jeffries when she was twelve. A thin, shy, serious girl with long dark hair, she sat in my waiting room intently reading The Odyssey. She was a gifted child, precociously articulate, but she had some problems that made the social aspects of school a torment. She suffered from anxiety. Among her many fears—of being alone, of