Why Smart Strategies Can Fall Short: The Overlooked Barriers Driving Student Behavior and Academic Struggle

This session integrates cognitive and systems-level frameworks to reveal how overlooked auditory and visual processing difficulties, compounded by classroom dynamics, contribute to persistent learning and behavior challenges. Participants will gain practical tools to identify hidden barriers, create emotionally supportive environments, and apply strategies that improve learning access and student self-regulation. Participants will be able to: 1. Recognize signs of auditory and visual processing problems that contribute to academic and behavioral challenges in students with learning disabilities, applying cognitive-based frameworks to better identify and understand these often-hidden barriers. 2. Utilize systems-informed strategies to create emotionally supportive, proactive classroom environments that foster student engagement, build trust, support self-regulation, and effectively address the emotional and behavioral consequences linked to processing difficulties and classroom culture. 3. Integrate targeted instructional adjustments, differentiated accommodations, and collaborative team approaches that reduce cognitive overload and improve equitable access to learning, ensuring supports comprehensively meet students’ academic and emotional needs.