Description
LIVE STREAM: April 23, 2026 from 8:30am – 4:00pm (Vancouver, BC) Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone.
ON-DEMAND: Recorded footage & course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until June 1, 2026. Please allow 3 – 5 business days for footage to be processed. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.
Mastering the Art of Executive Skill Conversations
Presented by Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP
8:30am – 10:00am (90 minute session)
High school success is about more than a curriculum; it’s about the underlying skills that make learning possible. When high school students struggle, it’s more likely to involve executive skill deficits than any other learning challenge. This presentation will give teachers a framework for integrating executive skills into the way they structure classroom routines and lessons. It looks more like a conversation than a curriculum, and the webinar will give teachers tools to frame those conversations effectively to provide executive skill support as a natural part of teaching, not an “extra” on a to-do list.
Teaching Executive Function – From Awareness to Action
Presented by Marcy McIver, B.Ed. (SEN), M.Sc
10:15am – 11:45am (90 minute session)
Effective teaching and learning is more than a robust curriculum and engaging differentiated lessons; it largely depends on students’ executive function (EF) skills to access learning. When students struggle to pay attention, stay organized, get started, or manage impulses, the challenges are often related to lagging executive skills rather than motivation, compliance, or effort.
In this webinar, teachers will explore the 11 key executive function skills and learn how to use an EF lens to understand how the everyday classroom challenges they experience are often the result of lagging EF skills rather than “bad behavior.” With this new lens in place, participants will take part in an introductory EF lesson, experiencing firsthand how to introduce an EF skill using a simple lesson-based framework grounded in the science of learning. Teachers will then learn how to extend this foundation into daily student-centred problem solving using the EF Action Planner.
The session emphasizes practical, immediate classroom application, providing teachers with the lesson and problem-solving structure, starter strategies for EF skills, and an Executive Function Needs Assessment to help identify which skills may be getting in the way to guide instructional focus.
The Developing Brain: Advanced Executive Functioning in Children and Adolescents
Presented by Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
12:45PM – 4:00am (180 minute session)
Effective support for executive functioning (EF) requires a deep understanding of the biological “hardware” that drives cognitive performance. While many school-based interventions focus on teaching external tools—like planners or timers—this workshop focuses on the internal neuro-biological mechanisms that must be online for those tools to be effective.
In this session, we shift the focus from what a child won’t do to what a child’s brain is currently optimized to do. We will explore the standard trajectory of prefrontal cortex development and the biological factors that cause “asynchronous development,” where a child’s intellectual ability far outpaces their executive control. By examining the brain through the lens of neuro-developmental maturity, professionals will learn to identify why certain children remain “stuck” despite high-quality instruction.
Participants will gain a sophisticated understanding of the “Bottom-Up” approach to EF. We will discuss how to optimize the classroom and clinical environment to reduce cognitive load and stabilize the brain’s arousal systems, creating the necessary conditions for executive “top-down” control to emerge and flourish.
