Who We Help · Schools & Educators

individualized programs, inside your school

Public and private schools have benefited from collaboration with NACD for decades, in tailored forms: individual programs for special needs students implemented within the school, hybrid home-and-school programs, and cognition tools that work for entire classrooms.

Email info@nacd.org to learn how your school can work with NACD.

How Schools Work With NACD

Three collaboration models

Public and private schools have over the years benefited from collaboration with NACD. That collaboration has come in a variety of tailored forms.

In-school individual programs

NACD, working with parents, designs comprehensive programs for individual special needs children that are implemented within the school. NACD then assists in training and overseeing school staff in program implementation, and provides periodic assessments and program modifications.

Hybrid home-and-school programs

Hybrid programs are very common: the family carries out part of the program in the home, and the school assumes responsibility for additional implementation within the school. Everyone works from one coordinated plan.

Maximized 1:1 time

Many schools provide 1:1 assistance for special needs children, but rarely are specific programs designed for each child. NACD can fill that role and maximize the 1:1 opportunity, so aide time produces development instead of just supervision.

For The Whole School

Building cognition, ten minutes at a time

More and more educators are learning the significance of sequential processing, and understand that building short-term and working memory, and thus cognition, can dramatically increase the function and future of children. NACD has been at the forefront of understanding not just the importance of these vital pieces but developing the tools to do it.

Simply Smarter, schoolwide

NACD’s online Simply Smarter program has been utilized by schools around the world for over a decade, helping children in as little as ten minutes a day.

Activities for 1:1 time

NACD has many individual activities that can be carried out during 1:1 time in school, turning aide minutes into targeted developmental input.

Whole-class methodologies

Methodologies that can be used by entire classes and incorporated into the curriculum, so cognition-building is part of the school day, not an add-on.

Case Study

NACD / Wasatch Peak Academy School Model Program

How a Utah public charter school partnered with NACD, with statistical analysis of student digit spans against state standardized test results in Math and Language Arts.

Read the Case Study

Questions

Common questions from educators

How does a collaboration with NACD start?

With a conversation. Email info@nacd.org and tell us about your school and your students. Collaborations are tailored: some begin with a single student’s family, some with a special education team, and some schoolwide with Simply Smarter.

Who designs the student’s program?

NACD does, working with the parents, from a full neurodevelopmental assessment of the individual child. The school implements its portion of the program with NACD’s training and oversight, and NACD provides periodic assessments and program modifications as the child progresses.

Does NACD train our staff?

Yes. NACD assists in training and overseeing school staff in program implementation, so the people running the activities day to day know exactly what to do and why, with NACD staff available for questions throughout.

How do hybrid home-and-school programs work?

The family carries out part of the program at home, and the school assumes responsibility for additional implementation during the school day. It is one program with one design, split across the two places the child already spends their time. These are very common.

We already provide 1:1 aides. What does NACD add?

The program. Many schools provide 1:1 assistance for special needs children, but rarely are specific programs designed for each child. NACD fills that role: the aide’s time gets a targeted developmental plan, specific activities, and periodic reassessment, so 1:1 minutes produce measurable development.

What is Simply Smarter?

NACD’s online program for building sequential processing, short-term memory, and working memory: the cognition underneath all learning. Schools around the world have used it for over a decade, in as little as ten minutes a day per student, individually or across whole classes.

Does this disrupt our curriculum?

No. Individual programs run within the structure you already have (1:1 time, resource periods), Simply Smarter takes about ten minutes a day, and NACD’s whole-class methodologies are designed to be incorporated into the curriculum rather than compete with it.

How are outcomes measured?

Concretely. Individual programs include periodic assessments and modifications, and processing measures like digit spans give hard before-and-after numbers. The Wasatch Peak Academy case study on this page shows the kind of statistical analysis a collaboration can produce.

What does a collaboration cost?

It depends entirely on the form of the collaboration, from a single student’s program to a schoolwide implementation. Email info@nacd.org with your situation, and we’ll map out what a partnership would look like for your school.

I’m a parent, not an educator. Where do I start?

With our free Get Started program: a free application and interview, your child’s evaluation, and a program you can run at home, alongside school or instead of it. Many school collaborations began with one family bringing NACD to the table.