Send us a text We are often astonished to read or hear in the news about a kid who grabs a classmate’s hair, or snatches food from their tray, or even kicks their teacher. The average person might focus on the obvious disrespectful and unacceptable in-school behaviors. However, we will be missing point if we think that kids should come to school already fully knowing how to behave “properly”. Instead, we need to receive them with open arms, find out what they can do, and provide them with the ne...
Jul 22, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Send us a text There is no generation like Gen Z whose stressors have been quadrupled by the times they have grown up in - the economic dotcom burst, highly skilled stressed out parents always in-between jobs, anxiety of a flattening world, and a technology/social-media enabled personal life. Naturally, the question emerges as to how do we help this generation of kids master their executive function and help them strive for personal self-sufficiency in spite of all the things considered. On this...
Jul 15, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Send us a text Nothing is more invigorating than watching a young mind at work. Fascinated by curiosity and deeply enthralled in untangling its pieces, learning brings joy and satisfaction to both the teacher and the learner. But how does one make sure that the learner falls in love with learning? How much of that is the responsibility of an educator versus a parent versus a student himself? And what are the ways to lay out a blueprint for increasing learner autonomy and locus of control so that...
Jul 09, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Send us a text Do emotions mess up clear headed thinking? For centuries, culture and science has dismissed the value of emotions when it came to thinking about intelligence, learning, and critical thinking. This may have led to classrooms with a certain level of sterility and emotional reciprocity. Instead however, by focusing on how students feel, what emotional connections they make during their learning experiences, and how they translate that experience into a personal narrative is proving t...
Jun 23, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Send us a text When talking about independence and self-sufficiency in their students, educators often use the term “Personal Responsibility” which refers to the set of mental skills that neuroscience describes to be Executive Function. Teachers recognize that in order to develop a level of independence and agency, educators must have a plan to transfer the “process tools” from the teacher to the students just as a relay-race runner passes his baton to the athlete that follows him. The question ...
Jun 17, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Send us a text Having difficulties can be discouraging and counterproductive. Children with ADHD experience far more defeats and discouragements compared to their counterparts. It’s no surprise that promote thriving in struggling learners depends on the right support, the right tools, but above all, the right environment that conveys a message of acceptance and hope. On this episode, our guest, Sharon Saline, Psy.D., an author and a clinical psychologist, discusses the unique needs created by th...
May 28, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Send us a text What do cooking, fishing, putting together a bookshelf, and a fixing a wall mount in the garage for your bike have in common? They are far easier to do by yourself than to teach it to someone. Those who teach recognize the challenge in going beyond learner engagement and external rewards or punishment; instead setting learners’ intrinsic motivation on fire by making them curious and engaged children. On this episode cognitive psychologist, prolific author, columnist for American E...
May 22, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 111
Send us a text Vincent van Gogh once wrote, “If I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it – keep going, keep going come what may.” Of course, this kind of striving and searching van Gogh is referring to is likely to guarantee one thing and that one thing is – encountering unsurmountable challenges. Sometimes we don’t even go looking, but still face unsurmountable challenges like right now, during this pandemic. Everyone can benefit from successful ways to cope with ...
May 14, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Send us a text Children are an enigma! Full of surprises and full of promise. However, one can be easily baffled when their boisterous high energy turns into an unmanageable rambunctiousness disrupting the household and relationships. Until recently, it was unconceivable for kids to have a mental disorder which made it hard to navigate the impact of various conditions on overall behaviors; particularly, maladaptive dysregulation. On this episode, our guest, developmental and behavioral pediatric...
May 05, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Send us a text The struggles of kids with ADHD are unmistakably unique and undoubtedly complex, but their lack of mental readiness to accept help is equally confusing. Nothing is more discouraging or draining for educators and parents than kids who resist direction instead of leaning into the help they receive. Since disrupted executive function in ADHD kids often interferes with their ability to accomplish tasks and manage personal success, their transition into young adulthood does not resembl...
Apr 24, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Send us a text The brain’s prefrontal cortex is often described as the “work in progress” intimating that there exists a continuum of neural development shaped by an interplay between biology and behavior; each influencing the other. Naturally, Executive Function, a set of skills controlled by the prefrontal cortex, emerges slowly allowing humans to form future goals and gain independence in order to become more and more self-possessed. Based on the past few decades of research, educational and ...
Apr 16, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Send us a text Nothing about the COVID-19 pandemic is business as usual. In fact, the social and economic stressors are taking a toll on every single person’s sense of well-being. Those taking care of children and those in frail health have the added burden of creating a safe home environment while providing critical support with patience, compassion, and positivity; in spite of feeling the opposite. The good news is that decades of research has shown that while being in home confinement and soc...
Apr 10, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Send us a text What do extinct dinosaurs, shrinking planet Mercury, pygmies from Africa, Mesopotamian pottery, Roman bath houses, and the COVID-19 virus have in common? These are topics that once children know about, can build their knowledge of the world and expand their world view. Considering that in modern America, education is the best hope in minimizing the effects of inequity, we are better off exposing children to expansive topics, stories, ideas, and concepts that can frame successfully...
Apr 01, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 105
Send us a text There is a widespread acknowledgement that experts are made and not born and those who investigate how experts become experts that have studied the fields like surgery, computer programming, chess, ballet, music, or even firefighting agree that excellent training, deliberate practice, and exposure to masterful mentors are some key ingredients that seem to matter. So those who teach could benefit from the evidence that in order to put forth the best teaching teachers need to witnes...
Mar 23, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 104
Send us a text The classroom neurodiversity happens to pose a challenge to educators not because we have a surge in the neurodiverse student body but more likely that we have acquired newer insights into how to differentiate different learners. The question remains however, what do we know about ways in which to impart knowledge and teach skills needed for their future? Since Executive Function challenges are insidious in nature, it is often hard for educators to distinguish the motives behind “...
Mar 12, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 103
Send us a text All parents want their children to grow up, be independent, and find happiness. Their conventional wisdom says, let me push my child to do well in school, work hard on stuff, and take part in various activities to “find” themselves. Because to a parent, the path to success has a formula “Education + Passion + Excellent Performance = Career” which equals to a life of bliss! And well-meaning parents want their children to find a career and then through that connect to their passion....
Mar 05, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 102
Send us a text Uncertainly, unceasing demands, and all around unrest can provoke the feelings of restlessness, a state of irritability, and intense worrying and general dissatisfaction. But clinically speaking, these feelings of being on the edge are the signs of anxiety and often when they exceed the threshold of bearability a sense of unending despair can follow. On today’s podcast, psychiatrist, author of the book “The Moment of Insight”, educator, and celebrated speaker, Dr. Suvrat Bhargave ...
Feb 25, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Send us a text Randomly scattered stars light up the night sky, but it is human inventiveness and imagination that has connected these cosmic dots into the constellations we know so well. As the podcast Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function celebrates its 100th episode, we have the same pleasure of connecting the scattered ideas that experts have shared with us over the past two years into a meaningful constellations of Executive Function concepts. We’ll explore these con...
Feb 07, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 100
Send us a text When you shoot before you aim you get bad results. But that’s what everyday impulsiveness looks like for someone with ADHD. Pencil tapping, restless legs, inability to sit too long, distracted mind, interrupting others, and getting bored too quickly are some additional commonplace behaviors that highlight the habits and symptoms of those with ADHD. But beneath the surface the mismanagement of the goals, missing the forest for the trees, shooting from the hip, or regretting bad dec...
Dec 20, 2019•48 min•Season 1Ep. 99
Send us a text The answer to the question “What percentage of 16 million children living below the poverty line have a book in their home?” is 33%. While that is devastating, the real question is, does this query truly capture the complexities of developing reading skills in children living in these disadvantaged circumstances and would the exposure to more books promote the development of reading. The first truth about reading is that it is a skill; a skill that needs to be learned and taught. ...
Dec 11, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 98
Send us a text Violet is the first to admit that people like her, who themselves have ADHD, suffer from “foot in mouth disease”. Getting herself in a jam by blurting out things, starting things but not finishing, procrastinating, and allowing chaos to continue without intercepting it with some remedy were a few things that made Violet’s life with ADHD harder than it needed to be. Becoming a parent to two kids with ADHD at a time when neither she or husband were diagnosed yet was brutal. But this...
Dec 09, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 97
Send us a text Thomas Wolfe said it best, “Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs”. A school culture and a home culture can have a profound impact on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Executive Function engages the brain’s self-guiding system that takes us from challenges to mastery, from self-blindness to self-awareness, and from indifference to self-compassion. And that’s why it is important that growing brains and young learners from kindergarten through high ...
Dec 07, 2019•50 min•Season 1Ep. 96
Send us a text Well-cultivated attentional processes help orient us to the right information in the environment which in return, presents us with the greatest opportunities for learning and success. But research shows that those diagnosed with ADHD possess far less interest in tasks and particularly, those tasks that present with delayed rewards. The entire academic experience – working hard on something that builds knowledge over time even though momentarily it appears to serve no purpose in th...
Nov 15, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 95
Send us a text Ancient wisdom has rightfully identified problems with the human mind which is ill-fitted to deal with the perceptual ambiguity that includes frequent gaps between one’s perceptions and reality. This creates a tussle between the intuitive system of the brain versus the reflective one, which often results in a “self-blind” mind that doesn’t know itself. As a result, the human mind and brain ends up spending a lifetime untangling the clash of the titans, or the intuitive and reflect...
Nov 07, 2019•48 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Send us a text 21st century living has put a strain on our brain’s capacity to plan for the future, process and retain information, and pursue the goals of a multifaceted life. And while moving through the highly-wired and totally connected world, one often wonders if we are truly benefitting from the advancements provided by the technology that has the potential to augment the brain’s limitations or are we being enslaved by it? Often the key is to take the time to assess and appropriate the use...
Oct 29, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 93
Send us a text In their song “Stuck in the Middle With You,” Scottish folk rock band Stealers Wheel’s lyrics go something like this –”Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you, And I’m wondering what it is I should do, It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face. Losing control, yeah, I’m all over the place.” These words capture the plight of a young and developing brain that often gets stuck in black and white thinking when caught in the throws of daily challenges, emotional setbacks, and unexpecte...
Oct 22, 2019•49 min•Season 1Ep. 92
Send us a text According to Dr. Stuart Brown, “divinely superfluous neurons” orchestrate a seemingly purposeless voluntary act that we call play. But let’s not underestimate the necessity and impact of play on the developing mind and overall human flourishing. Even though play is natural to babies, exciting to children, and helpful to even adults, not everyone gets equal opportunity to play and those who grow up with play deficits are known to either behave inflexibly or experience mild chronic ...
Oct 15, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Send us a text Americans were never that concerned about the issues of educating children until it dawned on everybody that children are in fact “economically useless, but emotionally priceless” as described by Viviana A. Zelizer. Since then, being over-consumed by current competition and future career success, well-educated upper-middle class affluent families, schools and communities are caught up in ensuring their children’s success, rather than preparing them for life. On today’s podcast, ou...
Oct 07, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 90
Send us a text No one is spared from the drama and trauma of growing up, not even affluent kids. However, as hard as it is to imagine, the children of highly-educated parents with abundant material comforts and lifestyles of privilege have their own set of challenges, which surface in their own unique ways. They are growing up in highly-competitive environments with an immense pressure to excel, are frequently exposed to social comparisons, and have highly-driven and extremely busy parents who a...
Oct 01, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Send us a text Seeing an under-producing, under-performing, or generally disengaged kid is quite painful. They often struggle to connect with purpose and persevere when school activities get challenging. Sometimes educators attempt to engage children with fear or praise or even by trying to entertain them, which too doesn’t always yield self-driven motivation. The world comes at these kids with a great deal of ideas and suggestions to engage them. So what’s the right way to coach children and ad...
Sep 25, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 88
