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Showing posts with the label ADD

Engineering Growth: #PrivateSpecialEducator #CoachBill Drops the Rhyme / #autism #executivefunction

Part of my job as a Private Special Educator and Executive Function Skills Coach is to engineer, innovate and grow my tool and strategy base. I basically pop the hood and look at the motor all the time. I look at other motors, I try adding new parts, I take away parts, I look to streamline.  Generally, I use a notebook or a white board and a marker and start considering how to smartly grow my destablizing initiative to upend Special Education as we know it.  Like an actual enginneer, I prod, poke and test the importance, practicality, and effectiveness of the tools and strategies I use in my coaching. As of late, I have an old tool which I have dusted off thanks to a young boy who 'took me to school.' Recently, I was working in Marthas Vineyard with a band of brothers and the youngest started dropping rhymes with such execution and swag that it blew me away and captivated me. Not being able to back out of the challenge and in full view of one of his other brothers, this boy ba...

#Confessions of a Private #SpecialEducator / CoachBill.US #ADD #executivefunction #autism

When you think of Special Education, do you think of a classroom? Do you think of kids with impairments? What do you think of? If you are a parent with a child in Special Education, do you think of those wonderful team meetings? Do you think about the passage of time and the lack of progress with your child? How about if you use to receive some kind of special education? Do you feel like you have untapped potential? Do you feel like your child can do much more? Are you frustrated? Are you angry? Are you near your 'wits end,' and don't see a good light at the end of the tunnel? What if I told you that there is at least one private Special Educator out there with a drive for performance? The performance of your child to go above and beyond. There is a private special educator in America that wears his heart on his sleeve for his students to see, and challenges them to new heights completely outside the zone of what parents think feasible or attainable. No other Special Educat...

#CoachBill - Reversing Introversion by Having Music Rock you from the Inside-Out / #executivefunction #ADD #ADHD #autism

How about some quick tips to naturally boost executive function skills development in child who is somewhat introverted? This is great for a teenager, but it works with a young child or an adult too. Likewise, it works swimmingly well for an individual with attention deficits or even autism. By making it a point to let loose and dance, be it by yourself or with someone else you grab at the potential of 'rocking the house.' In other words, dancing softens peoples obstinances, and  introduces increasing degrees of mental flexibility when it is engaging. People 'turn on' and smiles appear, little annoyances do a 'fade-away,' and all that matters is moving to the beat and having a grand time. Getting people to learn to dance early in life is like learning a whole new language. In fact, in a world where 93% of communication is said to be non-verbal, dancing can communicate a great deal about how we feel, and it can take how we feel and completely change it. Dancing c...

Against All Odds w/ #MountainClimbing as an #ExecutiveFunction Tool

How can I as a Special Educator take my understanding and application of best instructional practices and methods (pedagogy) to uncharted territory?  How can I ensure I am still innovating for the benefit of my students? What are the metrics to stay effective as an Executive Function Skills Coach to infants, kids and adults with executive function skill deficits, ADD/ADHD or autism? Can athleticism become an analogy for the abstract and concrete challenges and obstacles individuals face on a daily basis? Recently, a student I mentor and coach climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his father. The teenager has a form of high-functioning autism referred to as Asperger's. Don't tell him though. He likes to act like that is no big sweat. He wants to climb the seven summits of the world and has just completed 1/7th of his journey by reaching his first summit with Kilimanjaro. His trip involved brutal cold, 12-14 hour days of hiking in thin air conditions and moving only at night to avoid sl...