4/20/15 Special Agents of Change Spring 2015 Webinar Series The New - PDF document

4/20/15 Special Agents of Change Spring 2015 Webinar Series The New Science of Learning: Trip Hawkins & Janice Toben, M.Ed. WATCH WEBINAR Effective Approaches for Older Students How Games Can Help Children with Special Needs Develop Critical Life Skills ONLINE Dr. Shari Robertson WATCH with Autism and Attention Disorders WEBINAR How to Become a Change Agent for Better Readers With Early Collaborative Partnerships ONLINE Dr. Martha Burns Apr 21 Presenter: Martha S. Burns Ph.D. Scientific Learning Corp & Northwestern Univ 10AM PT The New Science of Learning: Effective Approaches for Older Students with Autism & Attention Disorders 1PM ET University Moderator: Clay Whitehead Co-CEO and Co-Founder, PresenceLearning Dr. Frances Stetson May 21 10AM PT Five Easy Ways to Fail in Education 1PM ET Watch the webinars at plearn.co/change-2015 #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead April 21, 2015 The New Science of Learning: Martha Burns PhD Effective Approaches for Older • ! Over 40 years practicing speech Students with Autism and Attention language pathology Disorders • ! On the faculty of Northwestern University, department of communication sciences and aa disorders • ! Consultant to The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for 35 years • ! Dr. Burns is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association • ! Dr. Burns has authored 3 books and over 100 book chapters and articles #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead Why This Topic is Important The Latest Brain Science New brain science helps us understand how and why: How does the latest brain science inform us about how we can …? o ! Brain maturation differences among some students affect learning o ! Individualize services o ! Attention and self regulation pose primary learning o ! Help our students challenges in the adolescent o ! Pay closer attention to oral instruction o ! Educational services can be individualized to meet o ! Develop self-regulation skills each student’s unique needs o ! Complete assignments on time o ! Meet educational goals #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead 1

4/20/15 Learning Outcomes o ! Know how to apply new research on the neuroscience of autism spectrum and attention disorders in older students o ! Understand how instructional and technological interventions can maximize auditory attention in the classroom and drive better results. Understanding brain maturation o ! Be able to implement instructional tools and methods to enhance self-regulation skills and decrease behavioral management issues in the classroom #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead Moving beyond the older anatomical view of the human brain, here’s Brodmann’s area map and colored outlines by process. #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead Networks in the Brain #SPEDAhead 2

4/20/15 Understanding Networks Requires Understanding Network Theory: “ Neurons that Understanding How Regions are Connected: Fire Together Wire Together in Networks.” The Neuronal Communication System Tracts Mature at Different Rates Lebel, et al. 2008 Lebel, et al. 2008 So What is Autism Spectrum Disorder? The Bottom Line Most brain research indicates that the brains of ASD is a very complex neurological children with ASD mature differently disorder that is caused by genetic o ! Long association fiber tracts do not mature like those of typical mutations that have various negative children (see especially Wolff et al, 2012) for complex reasons: o ! Certainly genetics play a role – ASD is a polygenetic disorder effects on brain development and (see especially Sanders, 2013 and State and Levitt, 2011) maturation o ! Synaptic pruning deficits may lead to this altered maturation (Tang, G. et. al. 2014) o ! Hormonal disregulation that may increase inflammation and cell death has been identified in boys with ASD (Al-Zaid et al., 2014) #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead 3

4/20/15 Identification of multiple De Novo Newly Born mutations in the same gene reliably distinguishes ASD risk-associated mutations (Sanders et al., 2013) So what might these genetic mutations do? #SPEDAhead Trajectories of Mean Fractional Anisotropy for High-Risk Conclusions (Wolff et al, 2012) Groups, Limbic (Fornix) and Association (ILF and Uncinate) Fiber Tracts (J. Wolff, et al 2012) o ! The core behavioral manifestations of ASD are due to atypical patterns or connectivity that… o ! Differ across systems and time o ! Are not specific to one brain region or behavioral domain #SPEDAhead Dendritic Spine Pruning Defect Early Identification: in the ASD Brain (Tang et al, 2014) Karen Pierce, UC San Diego o ! Increased dendritic spine density with reduced o ! 5 minute checklist for pediatricians developmental spine pruning in layer V pyramidal (April 28, 2011 Journal of Pediatrics) neurons in postmortem ASD temporal lobe o ! 10,479 babies screened at one year checkups o ! Layer V pyramidal neurons are the major excitatory neuron o ! 24 questions o ! Enhanced local excitatory connectivity, a feature of ASD, is proposed to … o ! Accurately predicted problems in 75% of children o ! Cause failure in differentiating signals from noise o ! False alarms for 25% o ! Prevent development of normal long range cortical-cortical and cortical-subcortical communications o ! And, underlie neocortical excitation/inhibition imbalance #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead 4

4/20/15 Autism Treatment in the First Year of Life A Pilot Study of Infant Start, a Parent-Implemented Intervention Pierce, continued for Symptomatic Infants (Rogers 2014 ) 12-week, low intensity parental intervention ! ! Lack of shared attention – babies should try to pull your attention to their world o ! 4 matched control groups o ! Maintained skills after treatment ended. ! ! Lack of shared enjoyment – may smile at mom but not engage if other people play peek-a-boo o ! Treated group of infants Results ! ! Repetitive behaviors – like spinning a car wheel rather than playing with the car o ! Significantly more symptomatic than most comparison groups @ 9 months of age. ! ! Language problems seen with any of the above o ! Significantly less symptomatic than the two most affected groups between 18 & 36 months. o ! At 36 months, the treated group had much lower rates of both ASD and DQs under 70 than a similarly symptomatic group who #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead did not enroll in the treatment study. And, the best news! Because ASD affects white matter development — educational, speech and language, OT and social interventions drive neuroplastic changes in the white matter development Education and intervention do work! What are the neurological factors that lead to attentional problems? #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead But Children With Attentional Problems Also Attention: Typical Maturation Allows for Changing Exhibit Problems With Cognitive Control! from Global to Focused (Selective Attention) Attentional maturation depends upon Two different information-processing systems in the brain battle for control of our response maturity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to temptation: —It is a core component of cognitive control 1. ! Impulses : aimed at immediate gratification 2. ! Reason: helps us pursue long-term objectives. Drains on our cognitive resources, such as working memory, can render us less able to withstand temptation. The dual-systems model of self-control 1. ! Failure at low levels of self-control may stem from strong impulses regions involved in reward (e.g.,ventral striatum) and social information (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex) 2. ! Failure at higher levels (DLPFC) may result from weak control See especially, Albert &Steinberg, (2011) Too, Wong, Fan and Goo (2014) #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead 5

4/20/15 Components of the Dual Systems Model of Self-Control Components of the Dual Systems Model of Self- – High Level: Dorsolateral Pre-frontal Cortex (DLPFC) Control – Low Level (Albert & Steinberg, 2011) (Albert & Steinberg, 2011) Central to the incentive processing system is the Prolonged refinements over the course of childhood ventral striatum (VS) involved in reward, and the (Too et al., 2014) and adolescence (Casey et al, 2008) medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) especially involved in (DLPFC) and posterior parietal lobe associated with in aspects of social processing Cognitive Control are thought to support reasoned —these are integral parts of the limbic system behavior and adolescents’ emerging capacity for the early developing, primitive emotional/reward behavior regulation processing systems of the brain Posterior Parietal Lobe DLPFC Medial Prefrontal Cortex Ventral Striatum Diagram adapted from The Human Limbic System Smith E & Jonides J, Science (2 009) #SPEDAhead #SPEDAhead Plots of grey-matter density (based on data by Gogtay et al. 2004) illustrate the local grey-matter density in the Components of Cognitive Control Network mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in red and the posterior parietal lobe in blue compared with other o ! Selective and sustained attention regions of students with typical brain maturation o ! Working memory o ! Self-regulation o ! Goal setting Posterior Parietal Lobe Mid-Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex #SPEDAhead Working Memory Can Be Trained … And Working Memory When Trained, Helps Reasoning Skills o ! Working memory is your RAM o ! It is closely tied to and can build fluid intelligence (ability to solve novel problems you have never seen before) o ! It is a core component of executive function Jaeggi, et al., 2008 #SPEDAhead 6