Building Happier Learners and Better Thinkers

20+ Proven & Effective Thinking and Self-Regulation Strategies: For Children with Sensory Disorders, Learning Disabilities, Anxiety & ADHD

Lynne Kenney, PsyD www.lynnekenney.com

The Bloom Collaborative MindsetImproving Skill DeficitsThe Science of How We Think Feel and DoMusical ThinkingThinking InterventionsImproving Challenging Behaviors

Today’s Landscape

Children want to behave betterChildren want to feel connectedChildren want to be a part of something bigger and more meaningfulWe teach them, not punish them into their new skills

The Bloom Collaborative Mindset

Believing we can consequence children into new skill sets

The Discipline Trap - What it is and how we get caught in it

Using Top-Down strategies instead of teaching foundational skillsCollapsing ClassroomsStart bottom up and inside out

Damage Control

What are the Roadblocks?

• Poverty, trauma and grief• Skill deficits• Emotionally-Physically

unsafe learning environments

• Mythical belief systems

Teach foundational social and academic skills firstBegin with a culture of kindnessPartner and collaborate with the childrenTeach the children HOW their brains workModel “You can!”Encourage learning through creativity and movementMove around the defensive brainReduce anxiety/stress, they interfere with cognition

Let’s Turn Education Right-Side Up

Create Cultures of Kindness

Improving Skill Deficits

MedicationDevelopmental, Behavioral, Learning Interventions

NeurotransmittersExerciseFood/NutritionSleep

Characteristics of children and teens with whom we work

Attention Memory Approach Cognitive Flexibility Sequencing Inhibition Impulsivity

Have difficulty paying attention to tasks that are not interesting to themAre easily distracted, often attending to people, things, noises and events that are not central to the task at handWhen they drift, they do not know when to re-alert and re-select to salient targets

Attention

Do not have a consistent method for encoding or retrievalOften in overwhelm and overloadCannot hold directions in their heads May need to be told several times what to doUnable to discern salient details from less important information

Memory

Not able to consider details of a task as well as the big picture at the same timeHave trouble knowing where to begin a taskWork better when tasks are broken down into partsHave difficulty completing all aspects of a task, may do some parts but not others, seems to leave a lot undoneHave trouble planning out a project, difficulty with time estimation, allocation and monitoring

Approach to Tasks Previewing, planning, sequencing

Stick with a plan, even when it’s clear the plan isn’t workingHave trouble adjusting to changes in a plan or activityMay appear rigid, inflexible or unadaptableHave difficulty switching gears from one activity to anotherMay have difficulty making or revising decisions

Cognitive Flexibility

Do things in a hurry, perhaps in a messy way, desiring to just get through thingsOften act without thinkingMay get into binds they need to work their way out of, because the approach is not well-planned

Impulsivity

Misbehavior is Brain + Body Function

Let’s Begin with the Developmental World of The Child

LanguageCognitionSocialSensoryTemperamentMotor

•Developmental Delays•Executive Function•Grief•Trauma•Illness•Low blood sugar•Over-stimulation•Boredom•Misunderstanding•Sabotage•Anxiety

Brief Assessment

Data

Drives

Interventions

Asynchrony + Intensity

Why are we putting sand in our gas tanks?Cellular foundations of nutritionWe cannot starve a brain and then consequence a bodyThe whole foods grocery listMaking the shift to whole real foodToxins, herbicides and pesticidesOther biological bases of misbehavior

“Behavior Management Begins in the Grocery Store.” Wendy Young

Nourish at the Cellular Level

Nighty Night

Consistent wake and sleep timesSleep routineDark cool roomMorning sunMorning movement

Neuroscience and Behavioral ChangeHow The Brain is BuiltThe Caveman, The Thinker + BootsThe Power of EntrainmentTeaching Children HOW Their Brains WorkThe Pre-Skills

The Science of How We Think, Feel and Do

Learning is a biological process.It happens in your brain.

The Biology of Learning

How The Brain is Built

Musical Thinking is a cognitive empowerment strategy utilizing music, movement and rhythm that teaches children how they think and learn helping them gain better control over their approach to daily

tasks and activities related to learning and behavior.

Entrain Me!

Rhythm is biological, material and meaningfulHow to bounce a ballWhen to bounce a ballWhat ball bouncing teaches us

Having a Ball

How we build neuronal highwaysWhite MatterGray MatterGlial Cells

Cortical control is a whole brain response, not simply the response of one part of the brain. The brain works more like an orchestra than simply a section of instruments.

From Plasticity and Beyond!

Neuroscience and Behavioral Change

Social DNARhythm, Tempo, TimingObservation/ImitationPatternsRepetitionMotor to CognitionBuilding neuronal highways

Biological Components of Learning

Exercise and NutritionBrief Assessment - Brief NeuroPsych, Mindprint Learning, SLP, OT, PTInterventions - ACTIVATE , MC2, EF Coaching, Cogmed, neurofeedback, Bal a Vis XStrategies - Picture schedules, task modification, verbal cueing, visual cueing, feedback

Interventions Landscape

readingObservationOral-Motor MovementSound productionBabblingSymbolsMatching symbol to phonemesMeaningful communication

The Pre-Skills

mathQuantitySizePatternsSymbolsRepresentationRelationships

Sequencing + Tempo

Musical Thinking

Musical Thinking

Musical Thinking is a cognitive empowerment strategy utilizing music, movement and rhythm to teach children how they think and learn helping them gain better control over their approach to daily tasks and activities related to learning and behavior.

Movement precedes cognition.Rhythm is a foundational component to perceiving language, reading and math.Deficits in fine and gross motor control, rhythm, and timing have been consistently reported in the literature across several diagnostic groups including ADHD, developmental dyslexia, reading, math and speech-language deficits. Movement paired with increasingly complex cognition is likely to improve executive functions.

Foundational Cognitive Exercise Research

Musical Thinking

“Teaching children HOW they think,

not simply what to think.”

When we make the application of executive functions to learning transparent and easily understood, children gain better control over what was previously mysterious to them, that is, the process of thinking and learning.

Transparency

You are a cognitive scientist (direct instruction)Your brain is musical(patterns, tempo, rhythm, timing) Cognitive-Exercise

The 3 Part Process

Teach the children how their brains are structuredTeach the children how their brains learnTeach the children that their brains are musicalIntroduce The Love NotesUse the Cueing Cards and Compositions to apply new skills in real life

5 Simple Steps To Musical Thinking

The #1 thing we need to do to learn is put things into our brains then take them out again, over and over.

Slow-Mo – We encode in slow notes.Quick Rick – We retrieve in quick notes.

Learning + Memory

Patterns, Sound, Tempo and Rhythm in Brain Function

Let’s play with tempo, timing, patterns and rhythm.

Learning (memory, attention, inhibition)SEL (communication, self-awareness,self-compassion)Mastery (confidence, increased motivation, decreased anxiety/stress)

Musical Thinking Outcomes (what’s on your list?)

Notes

Measures are Magic!

Measures of music have an interesting correlation to cognitive processing. In 4/4 time, there are four beats to a measure.Each beat can help children experience a part of a thought, action or piece of educational content. Since we learn by understanding the sequences of content, knowledge or actions, we are able to teach children better executive function skills by associating content or knowledge with each beat.

What’s In a Measure?

Cognitive Exercise

Nacho Arimany the value of the the ¾ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Shall We Dance

The Cognitive ConversationWhat are Executive FunctionsThe THINK CardsThe Attention CycleThe Flashlight TechniqueCognitive Cueing

Thinking Interventions for Better Learning

Teach children HOW their brains work no simply what to learn

How the brain is builtHow we learnYour brain is musicalExecutive functions are cognitive skillsYou have the power to build your cognitive skillsWith music, art, and movement through practice

Survey and previewPlan, organize, sequence, initiate and execute tasksHold, manipulate and retrieve memory Shift focus, sustain attention, tolerate and adapt to changes in expectationsStop, think, decide, respond, reviseManage time

What every student needs to know how to do

Organization, planning, approach and time managementAttention (alert, select, sustain) distractibilityCognitive control, shift and flexibilityMemory, input, manipulation, outputProblem solving, decision makingEmotional regulation and modulationImpulse control and managementMotor management planning, pacing, initiation, maintaining, stopping

Executive Function Domains

Challenging and Complicated BehaviorsThe Sensing BrainCo-regulationHelp Me PlansMantras, Soothing and Self-Regulation

Improving Challenging Behaviors

Be a force multiplier.You have the power to change the trajectory of children’s learning!