Cajal Academy is redefining what’s possible, and fostering the next generation’s most innovative thinkers.

Cajal Academy offers a whole new educational model that’s redefining what education can and should do. We foster the critical thinking, executive function, social collaboration skills and growth mindset that kids with high intellectual abilities need to turn their innovative ways of seeing things into the cultural and scientific leadership that we all need for the future.

Project-based learning is at the center of a groundbreaking educational model, exclusive to Cajal Academy, that leverages the last thirty years’ worth of neuroscientific advances in understanding how kids learn, socialize and grow. Our students take intellectually-stimulating deep dives to solve real world problems that integrate math, science, ELA and social studies curriculum, while providing runway for their strong analytical reasoning and creative thinking skills as students manifest their learnings through short films, 3D models and more.

At the same time, we accelerate growth for kids who have learning or social-emotional differences through a fundamentally new approach to identifying and addressing the challenges that hold kids back, which goes beyond accommodating children’s challenges to actually remediating them. This starts with getting below labels like “ADHD” or “dyslexia” and digging into the data in their neuropsychological and neurophysio profiles, and then using the science of neuroplasticity to rewire them, unlocking their gifts by addressing any weaknesses in their otherwise strong profiles. We teach kids how to leverage their brain-body connections to propel their academic and social growth. Just as important, they learn how to foster neurodiverse communities, through highly-personalized social-emotional curriculum and coaching that gives them agency over their internal growth by helping them understand how their unique profile influences both their internal experiences and their social interactions with others. Then we teach them the science behind it all, empowering them to optimize their own learning, social-emotional and physio experiences, leading to growth they can feel in school, in the community and at home.

The results can be transformative, redefining what’s possible for a child, and for K-12 education as a whole.

Cajal Academy is a small school, growing towards a cohort of 50 kids. We are an inclusive community for students who have very high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills, including students who have executive function, learning, social-emotional, neurophysio and/or medical differences, and students with “scattered” or complex learning profiles. We integrate occupational therapy, physical therapy, craniosacral therapy, psychology and clinical neuropsychology into our program, so kids are free to be kids after school. We are the only school in Connecticut or Westchester County that provides both academic programs and therapies tailored to students having these profiles. We are the only school in the world to do what we do, and have developed a whole new educational model that we are excited to share with other educators for an impact far beyond our walls.

Apply today to find out if Cajal Academy would be a good fit for your child, attend an information session to learn more about our program or make a donation to support our work.

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Cajal Academy offers a whole new approach to education, based on the neuroscience of how kids learn, socialize and grow.

What started as one mom’s determination to ensure that bright and gifted kids in Connecticut and Westchester County have access to a school with the opportunities and supports they need turned into a whole new model for schools that modernizes education to match current neuroscientific research.

Here are some of the things that make Cajal Academy unique:

We apply modern neuroscience to reduce the challenges that hold a child back—not just accommodate them.

overcoming learning differences

Students and their teacher closely observe a running stream — We prepare tomorrow’s thought leaders to solve complex, real world problems and deep dive project-based learning.

project-based learning

We integrate diagnostic and clinical expertise in OT, PT, SLP, psychology & neuropsychology into all we do, so kids are free to *be kids* after school.

integrated therapies

We empower kids to start living their best lives today, through strategies and support to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their unique needs.

social-emotional learning

Instead of fighting kids’ need to move, we leverage movement as a powerful learning tool.

body-informed learning

We help kids move past their fear of failure and step outside their comfort zones to take on challenges that are outside their own areas of interest.

growth mindset

We empower parents with the information you need to understand and support your child’s growth.

We give kids the social-emotional skills and understandings they need to foster inclusive, neurodiverse communities.

fostering community

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Modernizing education to match modern science

Two core scientific premises are at the heart of Cajal Academy’s first-of-its-kind approach. Both are now well-established in the scientific literature. Until now, neither has been operationalized in our schools.

The first is “Neuroplasticity”: the uncontroverted fact that the human brain is constantly rewiring itself to improve its ability to do the things we ask it to do. Our work remediating learning, neurophysio and social-emotional challenges demonstrates that we can drive that process to unlock students’ gifts, through carefully designed interventions delivered by licensed therapists.

The second is that connections between the body and the brain play a big a role in our learning and social-emotional experiences (both positively and negatively), just as our emotions do. Most teachers are taught to understand students’ actions through a psychological lens. We add a neurophysio perspective that provides actionable insights to move students forward, and avoids shaming them for hidden neurophysio events that even their own doctors may not yet know how to control. This benefits all students—and opens the door to true inclusion and growth for students with sensory processing disorder, difficulty regulating core body temperature, orthostatic intolerance/POTS, connective tissue disorders and other chronic medical conditions.

Watch this short video to understand how these two understandings fundamentally shift what education can and should be all about.

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“Modern neuroscience reveals that kids’ life-lived experiences, from ADHD to anxiety to learning disabilities, are influenced by connections between the body and the brain. We’re using that science to give kids agency over their own outcomes.”

— Cheryl Viirand, Cajal Academy Co-Founder & Head of School

Read Testimonials from Cajal Academy Parents

Testimonials

“The first day Heather Edwards met my son, she lay down on her stomach next to him and started teaching him the scientific names for different types of sensory inputs. I told her after their session that I didn't think he was ready for that—after all, he was only 5! Turns out I was wrong--and soon he was attending mainstream camps with no 1:1, because he knew how to advocate for what his sensory system needs in terms his counselors couldn't ignore. It was a game-changer!”

“…I was unprepared for what I found at Cajal. Instead of skepticism, they knew exactly what I was talking about, and not only that, they would go further and explain what was going on with our kids and why; and even further, explain what they could do at Cajal to address that problem; and further explain how they work to teach kids to understand their condition and how to maintain their health and keep from spiraling downhill (the usual depressing outcome for kids with hEDS). I felt heard and validated for the first time!…”

“After his first semester at Cajal, my son attended a winter break camp at the same camp he had attended over the summer. At the end of the camp, the counselor took us aside to tell us that she had observed how much he had changed since the summer. He was more regulated, able to deal with transitions, and work through difficult moments without melting down. She couldn’t believe the difference in just six months.”

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