Workshop

Introducing The Calming Kitchen
Learn the impact of our food on attention focus, memory, and performance. From the information you gain during this session, you will be able to guide parents, students, and adult clients in eating for maximum brain performance. Of course the choice will still be theirs, but knowledge is very powerful in convincing our clients to do what works.    You will receive a copy of AThe Calming Kitchen@ which includes rationale, recipes, and nutritional tidbits to tempt even the pickiest eater.

Working with Groups:
You may want to think creatively in maximizing those after school hours by adding a group session to benefit your students. Whether you want to focus on reading growth, attention training, math facts, or memory development, group activities can accomplish your goal. You might choose to have students enjoy a one hour individual session followed by a group hour where they can practice their new skills. Or start with the group session and then disperse for individual fine-tuning.   A win-win situation for students and service providers.

Memory Development:
Repetition is the heart and soul of learning! This is likely why young children want to hear the same story read over and over and teens listen to the same song over and over. The more times we experience something the easier it is for us to remember, understand, and use it.
We will review the three types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, and procedural and look at how we build skills with these memory forms.
By building a student=s memory skills we are establishing the basis for learning independently.   Our purpose in training memory is to establish the ability to be self-sustaining, independent learners.   Without strong memory skills a learner is stuck in being a stimulus > response robotic processor.

Advanced TOVA Interpretation:
This will be a catch-up and continue -on training to learn to interpret the Test of Variables of Attention and easily explain results to parents and adult clients.   The summer workshop in 2011 started with this discussion. Now that participants have had a chance to practice administration and seen results from clients we will work on developing a comfort level for explaining this information.    This is a complex instrument which provides very important information to speed -up student learning or inhibit it. You want to be able to predict from the information you have the extent of a difficulty and the most rapid route for success.

Our goal has always been greatest progress in shortest period of time. Every moment we work with students counts. Activities need to be multi-skilled, fast paced, challenging, intense, individualized and FUN. These techniques are kid-tested and they love them. They work with different ages and different skill levels. All group activities can also be easily adapted to working with individual students.

Scripting, conditioning (introducing the task and enabling the student to do it successfully), identification of skills being practiced, possible pitfalls, and how to deal with them will be addressed. The workshop will be highly interactive with hands-on participation. All participants should come prepared to be challenged, learn, laugh, and have fun. Materials will be provided, available for purchase or resources provided for purchasing.

Groups are a powerful medium. Kids integrate social skills, learn to work together,, support one another, feel proud, successful and connected, affirm one another, cooperate, and compete against themselves instead of each other.

Your Instructors:

Dr. Joan Smith ~
Educational Psychologist, Speech Pathologist, Nutritional and Therapeutic Chef.     Author, educator, and researcher on learning, attention, and memory.

Susan Smith, M.A. ~
Educator, Counselor, and specialist in working with small groups. She has developed a number of special techniques to increase reading, attention, and learning skills.

Workshop Dates:    April 13-15, 2012
    Friday: 10:00-4:00
    Saturday: 9:00 - 4:00
    Sunday:   9:00 - 12:00
      Lunch (salad, soup, dessert) provided Friday and Saturday

Fee:   $475.00
Lunches included Fri/ Sat
Includes copy of The Calming Kitchen

Location:   Markham Ranch Clubhouse
Corral de Tierra/Highway 68 (Monterey/Salinas Highway) Salinas, CA 93908
Driving instructions available on web-site in contact us.
Www.edu-therapeutics.com

CEUs :    CA Board of Behavioral Sciences or
CA Speech Pathology / Audiology Board 14 hours

Spring Workshop:    April 13-15, 2012
Location: Markham Ranch Clubhouse
Monterey/Salinas Highway > Corral de Tierra > Markham Ranch

Friday:
*   Memory Development
*   Working with Groups (reading skills)
*   Case Study Dialogues

Saturday:
*    The Calming Kitchen (learn how nutrients support attention, memory, and learning)
*    Group Techniques (memory, perception, attention)
*    Case Study Dialogues

Sunday:
*     Advanced Test of Variables of Attention Interpretation for Therapy
*    Case Study Dialogues

Enrollment limited for maximum interactive learning.