Smart but Scattered: Effective Executive Functioning Strategies to Empower Children to Thrive Emotionally, Socially, and Academically
- Speaker:
- Margaret Dawson, EdD, NCSP
- Duration:
- 6 Hours 18 Minutes
- Language:
- Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR, handouts in EN and FR
- Copyright:
-
Sep 30, 2025
- Product Code:
- POS059515
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
Children who have deficient executive skills often have trouble getting started on tasks, get distracted easily, lose papers or assignments and forget to hand in homework. They make careless mistakes, put off work until the last minute and have no sense of time urgency. Workspaces are disorganized and teachers often refer to their backpacks or lockers as “black holes.” Often considered chronic underachievers, these children are at risk for academic failure as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Dr. Dawson, co-author of the best-selling books Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, 3rd Ed. (2018), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart but Scattered Teens (2013, Guilford) uses case examples along with interactive discussion to demonstrate how the executive skills manifest in daily home and school activities. Learn how to assess these skills and take home evidence-based strategies to help children and adolescents overcome executive skills weaknesses.
Leave this seminar with a set of tools that includes strategies for task/environmental modifications, skill development through cognitive/behavioral techniques and creation of incentive systems. You will be able to give teachers and parents a means for developing and improving the following:
- Organization
- Time management
- Impulse control
- Goal-directed persistence
- Executive skills critical for independent functioning
Credit
Program Information
Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationshipsAll members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
NOTE: Tuition includes one free CE Certificate (participant will be able to print the certificate of completion after passing the online post-test (80% passing score) and completing the evaluation). Instructional methods will include PowerPoint, didactic lecture, and others.
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Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your profession's standards.
For Planning Committee disclosures, please see the statement above. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
Earn up to 6.25 CE hours. Please see below, for more details, as credit amounts vary by jurisdiction and profession.
PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association to offer continuing education for counsellors and psychotherapists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This self-study activity is approved for 6.0 credit hours.
PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This program is approved for 6.0 self-study continuing education hours. Full credit statement at: www.pesi.com/cpa-statement

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Course Level: Intermediate Format: Recorded asynchronous distance. Full attendance is required; no partial credits will be offered for partial attendance.
Canadian Social Workers: Canadian provinces may accept activities offered by providers approved by the ASWB ACE program for ongoing professional development.
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Handouts
| File type | File name | Number of pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual - Smart but Scattered (12.9 MB) | 85 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Smart but Scattered - French (12.9 MB) | 85 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Smart but Scattered - Italian (12.9 MB) | 85 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Smart but Scattered - German (12.9 MB) | 85 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Smart but Scattered - Spanish (12.9 MB) | 85 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Speaker
Margaret Dawson, EdD, NCSP Related seminars and products
Peg Dawson, EdD, NCSP, is a school psychologist and for over 20 years has worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she specializes in the assessment of children and adults with learning and attention disorders. She is co-author of the bestselling books on executive dysfunction, Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: 2nd Edition (Guilford, 2010), Smart but Scattered (Guilford, 2009) and Smart but Scattered Teens (Guilford, 2013).
Peg is a past editor of Communiqué, the newsletter of the National Association of School Psychologists, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, including retention, ability grouping, reading disorders, attention disorders, the sleep problems of adolescents, the use of interviews in the assessment process, and homework.
Peg has many years of organizational experience at the state, national and international levels and served in many capacities, including president of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the International School Psychology Association.She has also participated in many of NASP’s leadership initiatives, including the Futures Conference and the development of both the second and third Blueprint for the Training and Practice of School Psychology. She is the 2006 recipient of NASP’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Peg received her doctorate in school/child clinical psychology from the University of Virginia.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson is an author for Guilford Press and receives royalties. She is an author for Amacon publishers and receives royalties. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Margaret (Peg) Dawson has no relevant non-financial relationships.
Additional Info
Program Information
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepepesi.com
Questions?
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Objectives
- Assess the relationship between the executive skills and brain development/function in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
- Propose strategies to accommodate and strengthen weak planning and organizational skill, to improve client level of functioning.
- Appraise assessment tools used to identify deficits in executive functioning to better inform your choice of treatment interventions.
- Determine how executive skills impact performance and activities of daily living at home and school for the purpose of client psychoeducation.
- Utilize environmental modification strategies to support deficits in executive skills thus improving treatment outcomes.
- Implement strategies that transition children from being externally prompted to internally regulated.
Outline
Executive Skills
- Underlying theory
- Executive skills in the context of brain function and child development
Assessment of Executive Skills
- Parent/teacher/student interviews
- Behavior rating scales
- Observations
- Informal assessment
- Formal assessment
Intervention Strategies
- Environmental modifications to reduce the impact of weak executive skills
- Teaching strategies to help children develop/improve executive functioning
- Using incentives to help practice or use skills that are difficult
Keys to Effective Intervention Design
- Match the child’s developmental level
- Use the child’s innate drive for mastery and control
- Begin with environmental modifications
- Effortful tasks and ways to make them less difficult
- Use incentives to augment instruction
- Provide the minimum support necessary
- Apply supports and interventions until the child achieves mastery or success
- Gradually fade supports, supervision and incentives
Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks
- Limited empirical evidence for the approach
- Approach integrates evidence-based practices such as ABA and RTI
- No “one size fits all” for any treatment modality
Target Audience
- Counsellors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychotherapists
- Therapists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Speech-Language Pathologists
- Teachers
- School Guidance Counsellors
- Case Managers
- Nurses
- School Administrators
- Educational Paraprofessionals
- Occupational Therapists
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Other Helping Professionals Who Work with Children
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