This podcast features a one-on-one interview with Dr. Marie-Josée Gendron, school and clinical psychologist, who discusses the various executive functioning skills, screening and identification considerations, and the relationship between executive functions and learning disabilities (LDs).
Level: Intermediate
Hosted by: Lawrence Barns, President & CEO of the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario
Click here to access the transcript of this podcast.
Note: You may listen to this podcast while you are on the LD@school website, or you may download to your portable audio player and listen while you are on the go.
Reflection Questions
Before you listen to the podcast, read the reflection questions below. Once you have listened to the podcast, take the time to answer the questions.
- Listening to this podcast raised the following questions…
- What strategies are currently in place to support students who have difficulties with executive functions? How can I improve my practices?
- When reflecting on students who seem to have difficulties in executive functions, have I considered their developmental age and other socio-emotional factors that may influence their executive functioning?
- In order to put my learning into practice in my classroom, I can…
Relevant Resources on the LD@school Website
For introductory information about executive functioning, click here to access the article Executive Functions and Learning Disabilities.
Click here to access the evidence-informed article, “Working Memory and Cognitive Load”
Click here to access the practice-informed article, “Checklists and Achievement Charts”
Additional Resources
About the speaker
Dr. Marie-Josée Gendron, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Dr. Gendron has been a school and a clinical psychologist for the past 15 years, specializing in the mental health of children and youth. She has often taken an eclectic approach to understanding mental health, borrowing from cognitive-behavioural theories of behaviour. She has worked in various school boards, helping students and their families. More recently, she has been a mental health leader, working with various ministries to develop and implement an overall mental health strategy, focusing on positive mental health for all students. Over the years, she has given numerous workshops, spanning the entire mental health continuum, from suicide prevention and awareness to developing resiliency and promoting positive mental well-being.
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