Advanced Strategies to Improve Emotional Regulation & Executive Functioning in Children and Adolescents

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Jason D Mathison, PsyD, NCSP, ABSNP Related seminars and products

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Jason Mathison, PsyD, NCSP, ABSNP, is a licensed psychologist and certified school neuropsychologist in Maryland and Virginia who has worked with children and adolescents for over 20 years. Dr. Mathison is also the owner and director of Psychoeducational Consultants where he provides neuropsychological testing and conducts workshops on brain-behavior relationships for educational staff, mental health professionals and families. Dr. Mathison spends much of his time providing executive functioning coaching for both clients and their families.

In addition to multiple publications on executive functioning, Dr. Mathison has served on an expert panel at National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) on the teenage brain. He has served as a school psychologist for Prince George’s County Public Schools for 20 years where he works with students and teachers to diagnose and provide interventions to enhance executive functioning and maximize academic success.

Dr. Mathison earned his doctorate in school psychology from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he published with faculty and served as an adjunct professor before graduating and continued adjunct appointments at both Loyola University in Baltimore and the Chicago Professional School of Psychology for several years.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Jason Mathison is the owner of Psychoeducational Consultants and has employment relationships with Prince George’s County Public Schools and The Better Brain Center. He receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Jason Mathison has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Additional Info

Program Information

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com

Objectives

1. Choose strategies to manage oppositional, defiant, and disruptive symptoms.
2. Distinguish between the function of behavioral episodes and psychiatric conditions.  
3. Determine how to do a skilled observation of behavior to improve participation in school. 
4. Identify how to treat oppositional behavior to improve function in daily activities.  
5. Develop a behavior intervention plan and safety plan for home and school.  
6. Analyze Harvard’s three types of brain functioning that underpin executive functioning.    
7. Define the role of the cerebellum, amygdala, and orbital frontal circuits in thinking and behavioral control.    
8. Identify how to assess and treat the 10 primary executive functions in school and at home.    
9. Match executive functioning strategies with childhood disorders, including ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder.   
10. Use emotional regulation interventions to improve activities of daily living.
11. Utilize neurocognitive strategies to improve social and emotional health.    
12. Determine higher order strategies to increase engagement in school. 

Outline

DAY ONE

Treating Behaviors that Make Us Crazy

• Tantrums
• Meltdowns
• Running Away
• Noncompliance
• Anxiousness
• Lack of follow through
• Not following directions
• Screaming
• Bullying
• Nagging

The Most Challenging Disorders
Be A Jedi Master at Telling Them Apart!

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Anxiety disorders
• Depression with irritability
• Bipolar Disorder
• Mood disorders
• Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)

Functions of Behavior Assessments
Know Whether the Behavior Is Rooted In

• Fear, escape, pain, control
• Attention, connection, sensory seeking
• Neuropsychological and direct approaches!

Mental Health Disorder or Behavior Problem?
Unpack the Most Difficult to Treat Childhood Disorders

• Is ODD nature or nurture?
• ADHD and ways to overcome the heterogeneity problem
• The ubiquity of sensory processing dysfunction
• DMDD versus bipolar disorder versus clinical depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Disorders of trauma
• The spectrum in autism spectrum disorder
• Physiological underpinnings of challenging behavior
• Using motor memory to treat the most challenging behaviors
• Overactive versus the underactive amygdala: 20 strategies for each!
• Gray matter versus white matter problems and solutions
• The role of neurotransmitters in childhood pathology
• Sensory processing dysfunction

The Best Strategies for School Staff!

• Ways to stop classroom tantrums and meltdowns
• Muscle memory strategies for lower functioning children
• Create task analysis for any behavior!
• The ultimate self-report card for any disruptive behavior
• Proven ways to label emotions to reduce volatility
• Teach social skills through microexpression interpretation
• Self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility

The Best Clinical Strategies for Home!

• Teach personal responsibility using the “accountability pie”
• Self-report cards to bridge home and school
• Ways to stop tantrums and meltdowns at home
• Clinical assessments for schools to create IEPs and 504 plans
• Artful thinking routines for perspective taking and reasoning
• Self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility at home

The Best Clinical Strategies for Special Populations & Circumstances!

• Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder
• Divorced parents
• Pandemic fueled abuse and trauma
• Foster care and adoption issues
• Ways to work with parent dysfunction

DAY TWO

Executive Functioning (EF) Overview
How the Brain Contributes to Behavior, Cognition, and Emotional Regulation

• Harvard’s three-types of brain function
• Development and neurophysiology of executive functioning
• Treating “hot circuits” versus “cool circuits”
• How to manage the upstairs brain versus the downstairs brain
• The neurobiology of thinking and belief systems
• Role of nutrition and neurotransmitters in behavior and learning
• How and why we move to think!

Executive Function Assessment:
5 “Must-Knows” for Clinicians and Teachers

• The Mini-Neuro Assessment for EF, Gifted, LD and ADHD
• When does the child require an IEP versus 504 plan?
• Learn which accommodations work best for which EF symptoms!
• What we assess and why we assess it
• Which EF deficits are linked to which disorders

Top 10 Executive Functions in School and at Home
Age and Developmental Specific Strategies to Promote

• Self-regulation
• Emotional control
• Sustaining attention
• Cognitive flexibility
• Initiation
• Working memory
• Planning
• Organization
• Self-monitoring
• Time management

Executive Function Across Ages and Stages

• Developmental assessment of EF
• How EF develops differently in neurodiverse children
• Know the reasonable EF skills for a 7-year-old; 16-year old
• Intervention strategies for EF dysfunction from age 3 to over 35!
• The impact of EF dysfunction in high school & college
• New ways to get those grades back up!

Global Interventions, Strategies and Skill Building

• Integrate motor movement, cognitive skill development, and cognitive-behavioral approaches
• Build a hierarchy of EF skills and scaffold behavioral and academic skills
• Naturally regulate key neurotransmitters without medication
• 10/24/7 method of studying: Straight A’s guaranteed!

Target Audience

• Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• School Counselors
• School Social Workers
• School Psychologists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• School Administrators
• Teachers/School-Based Personnel
• Addiction Professionals