In this ninety-minute video, best-selling author Dr. Tina Payne Bryson (co-author with Dan Siegel of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline) discusses the primary ways she brings the brain into her work with the children, adolescents, and parents who visit her office each week. Focusing on both the latest research and clinical application, Dr. Bryson will explain how she helps her young clients better understand themselves and their own brains, thus helping them overcome anxiety and develop resilience within themselves.

Using stories and case examples, Dr. Bryson explains ten simple, scientifically-grounded strategies that can help psychotherapists better understand the brains of the kids they work with, and communicate that understanding to parents and the children themselves so that kids can feel less anxious and more in control of their bodies and emotions.

10 Brain-Based Approaches for Children

Connection between body, brain, and emotions, and what produces feelings of nervousness and fear; Learn to recognize anxiety and other negative emotions as messages sent by the body and brain; Use strategies and effective responses that "work for your brain and body"; Understand neural plasticity and how kids can affect their brains by understanding and responding to their anxiety; Describe the brain as an association machine, by understanding mental and neural associations, kids can more effectively respond to what they're feeling; Help kids understand that the brain's job is to get a need met, and recognize their anxiety as a signal that the brain needs some sort of shift; Demonstrate how nervous system arousal works, and how resilience is about remaining in the optimal window for well being and happiness; Show how discipline and learning are guided by nervous system arousal, and how we determine at what point anxiety impairs this process; Introduce kids to the role mindfulness plays in addressing fear and anxiety; Teach tools of the mind and tools of the body, which allow children to overcome anxiety and build skills that help them control their anxious emotions and make good and healthy decisions.

We’re back to school and soon children will be bringing home loads of homework. For many children academic tasks such as worksheets, projects and homework can feel overwhelming!

In Dr. Lynne Kenney’s new book, 70 Play Activities for Better Thinking, Self-regulation, Learning and Behavior (2016), she shares over 40 executive function skills. Teachers, clinicians and parents can easily implement these activities to improve sequencing, initiation, execution, task management, attention and memory skills.

Dr. Kenney will provide you with key research findings relevant to your everyday work, and transform that research into practical activities and worksheets to help your students:

• Improve pacing and memory
• Learn encoding and retrieval Improve motivation and attention
• Learn preview and planning
• Maximize homework approach, initiation and execution

OBJECTIVES

• Describe the cognitive science behind learning and memory in a practical, activity-based manner.
• Explain how to become a "Cognitive Detective" to better see what executive functions might be road blocks to a specific student’s achievement.
• Model how to have "Cognitive Conversations" with students to help them move from feel distressed about their learning to feeling like empowered thinkers.
• Show how to fill your tool-box with 10 activities that will immediately transform your students’ learning.