Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

For a few years I have been working on integrating the showmanship and basketball skills of the Harlem Globetrotters into my 1:1 coaching work with kids and adults on autism spectrum, those with ADHD/ADD and/ or those with executive function skill deficits. I see the ball-handling skills exhibited by professional basketball players and such show acts as the Globetrotters in-line with the holistic executive function skill use I teach and model. I also see the body positions that are required to surf and skate well pop up as we move to rhythm and beat, beat to rhythm. I love it. As I dance before dawn early in the morning or late at night I get ideas on how to stay crisp, fresh, keep the fun present, sustain and quickly implement ‘real-time’ coach-student feedback, harness my energy, manage my students energy, and the observable positive results I am able to help trigger.  I’d be remiss to say that my basketball moves don’t flesh into my dancing. They mesh with the...

Is it wishful thinking that growth hacking executive function skills through ‘alternative’ methods work faster than pure ABA therapy when working with individuals on the autism spectrum? Its not.  Why do U.S. Special Education dollars in public schools get outsourced when talented Special Educators get paid next to nothing for their heart and soul sacrifice? Does a hybrid instructional approach work better? What professional SHOULD be playing ‘point guard’ as the main expert in instructing students with disabilities like autism or ADHD?  Over the last twenty years in U.S. public education their has been a seismic shift in Special Education. Special Educators have lost critical footing due to top-down educational decision-making that is disconnected from the actual teacher-student connection. for example, having BCBA’s or ‘Board Certified Behavior Analyst’ as alternative Special Educators coming in to give additional expertise via the route of a...

Nine years ago I was given a key position as the primary 1:1 teacher of a nine year old on the autism spectrum. It was intense ABA therapy with an oversight team focused on success and a DOE that was auditing to track performance.  I worked with her from 7 am in her home, through the school day in Wahiawa, Hawaii, then back to her home for homework and daily living activities until 5 or 6 pm. When i first met Kristin, she was living on a rug with her six year old sister in the living room of the family home. Her mother lived in a bedroom with her boyfriend next to the room where her two daughters slept and ‘took as their room,’ their space. The other room on the top floor belonged to her ex-convict uncle who kept the door locked with a padlock at all times. The grandparents lived downstairs in their own room.  In the mornings it was quite routine for the Mom’s boyfriend to be playing ‘craps,’ with 2-3 friends in the living room as Mom looked on or lounged in b...

You put them to meditate two times a day one minute for every year of their age, up to 20 minutes. Ideally in the morning and in the mid afternoon. I am gonna talk briefly about how to do this successfully and the value and benefits of integrating this ‘being still, eyes closed, slow deep breathing’ activity as daily as drinking water, eating and sleeping. Firstly, I am following the basic format of the widely studied TM or transcendental meditation. Instead of the secret mantra given, intermittent use of the breath as a refocusing tool to clear the mind and regulate back to that ‘calm zero state’ where the brain apparently does incredible processing that boosts all executive function skills, including, (drum roll please) emotional control, behavior modulation and impulse control. As if that is not enough, the daily practitioner of meditation also gains an increased emotional intelligence, or ability to manage ones emotions  in a goal-directed manner across a variety o...

First Gear... Establish rapport and trust Second Gear... Role out introduction of new routines Third Gear... Begin experimenting with routine establishment Fourth Gear... Deepen rapport and trust and raise challenge level to their performance threshold Fifth gear... Give them the wheel for a bit and set-up independent performance Sixth Gear.... Push challenge level to twice the capacity that they can handle. Allow for engine failure. You don't know where you are at until the engine fails. We need to identify that fine line so that we can go way past it. No race car is fit for the race if it doesn't go beyond maximum output on the practice track first. The wheels need to be pushed, the engine needs to be throttled, the driver needs to go 'eagle-eye' and feel the pull and push of each turn at high velocity. No race car driver is fit to lead his velocity machine unless he knows himself/ herself and the car they drive. That's Sun Tzu right there. Bring ...

Flash Street parties don't happen all the time... but they could. Meditation is older than the invention of sliced bread... okay way older than that. Both are as old as time itself. I want to bring them together in a series of free events, and am seeking the shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration of others. This can be done. This can and should be bigger than me and you. It is for them. I am one of the leading private Special Educators in the world and I seek to disrupt how we go about teaching. This means outflanking impractical methods (not people), stripping down instruction and focusing on motivating students, equating learning with fun, and getting a strenuous cognitive workout all at the same time.  Disrupting a market or industry means starting at the very bottom and persistently working one's way or one's product to the top of the market. One can still be a gentleman or  lady and be disruptive in this sense.   No Muscle grows unless you ...

What is the price of your childs executive function skills development? Does that price increase or decrease according to deficits and disabilities that they may have? How do you go about best empowering them without breaking the bank? How do you know if the abstract and concrete interventions being employed will bear fruit?  How frustrated are you with your child’s progress? Do you feel the school is not getting your child to ‘the promised land?’ That is to say, do you feel that if you just rely on school support,  the instructional approach and their instructional execution that your child will exceed your expectations of their overall executive function skill and hemispheric connectivity development? Experience tells me as a Private Special Educator of over 12 years across Massachussetts, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and Puerto Rico that relying on just the schools to catapult the mental/ emotional development of a child with ADHD or autism is as naive as th...

I first came across Mr. Jake L. Crosby  on Twitter while he was one of the editors at Age of Autism, a slightly edgy, mainstreamish autism awareness journalistic enterprise with some merit. Mr. Crosby is studying for a doctorate in Epidimeology at the University of Texas and is a pivotal blogger for The Epoch Times and Editor-in-Chief for Autism Investigated. Jake L Crosby is a man on fire in my book. He is younger than you would think for such an outspoken fellow,  but he  is a seasoned professional at hat he does and  what he brings to the table…. is better than gold for America right now. I’d like to very quickly tell you why I believe we are witnessing nothing less than a trailblazer in the ‘call’ for a different kind of autism awareness and why I believe the country needs level-headed men (and woman) of his caliber ‘calling it like it is’ and reiterating something integral to the fabric of this country... ‘doing the right thing.’ ...