Presentations, Interviews & Speaking Engagements

With a vastly improved understanding of the application of scientific theory to learning methods, we are equipped with evidence-based, scientifically validated principles underlying how we learn.

By better understanding these principles, we are able to become more effective, life-long learners. These principles underlie the way we process and store information, as well as the way we manage, analyze, and apply the information we’ve learned.

These principles have important implications for the way we teach, as well as a student’s ability to manage and optimize his or her own learning. This workshop aims to share these insights so that educators may inform their teaching practices and students may better manage their own learning behaviors and study habits.

Scientists are innately skeptical while parents and clients are usually optimistic particularly when it comes to the promise of improved brain function, which is why marketing can seek to capitalize on consumer vulnerability. We’ve learned more about the brain in the past couple of decades than in all of human history combined, which has led to the proliferation of companies claiming to do wonders through brain training. Like with anything else in life, there are no life-changing solutions despite the abundance of online players and slick franchisors making such claims.

In this workshop you’ll learn to identify bogus claims, learn about
what is scientifically possible, what ingredients are necessary for a program to work and how to evaluate a programs effectiveness.

Memory is essential to learning and better memory is easily attainable and sustainable through proper teaching of technique, drilling of exercises and coaching to apply / generalize the gains. Despite the scientific knowledge supporting the ability to improve memory, why isn’t memory training more common? This is particularly important for students, patients recovering from illness or injury, relevant to most professions and of benefit to our personal relationships. Most of us grew up tasking our memory without thinking about improving our memory.

This workshop explains the various types of memory, how we use these in various settings and how we can improve memory with the proper mix of proven techniques, training and coaching.

Many people do not realize that a child can be gifted and also have learning disabilities. As a result, children with special needs that result from both their high abilities and their learning struggles are rarely identified and are often poorly served. The gifts of twice-exceptional students often remain invisible to teachers and sometimes even parents. In fact, it is common for a student to be both bored and frustrated, while only one of these symptoms is visible. More can often be done to cultivate the learning of twice-exceptional students, leading them to uncover strengths while helping to remediate a struggle that may be holding them back.

This workshop aims to educate on how to identify and better serve twice-exceptional students.

Frontal lobe injuries are among the most common for brain injury patients, affecting: attention, working memory, processing speed and executive function abilities. How effective are common ABI treatments at restoring these after injury? How well do treatments target these cognitive skills given what we know is scientifically possible to accomplish? This workshop provides a review of the most common approaches and best practices for treating/restoring cognitive impairments.

Previous talks on this topic have included a review of the following two main points:

1. Recognize what constitutes an effective intervention for treating/restoring cognitive impairments that affect executive function, attention, working memory and processing speed.
2. Overview of available methodologies will be presented along with a review of the scientific literature that supports cognitive skill malleability (ability to restore cognitive skills) with various approaches.