Successful Learning Conference 2024

Learning is like climbing a mountain—it's challenging and takes effort, as learning should. But the way we "do school" creates barriers for students that makes the climb harder than it needs to be. Our requirements for students to sit still, to focus on one thing for a long time, to listen and remember verbal information and directions—are all rocks and boulders in students’ paths up the mountain.

These barriers affect students differently, as each student comes to the base of that mountain with different tools in their packs: some students naturally have pick axes and hiking poles to climb over those “sit still” boulders. Other students arrive with different tools: a shovel, a chisel… a snorkel. Those are great tools to have—they’re useful for digging, carving, and swimming—but they're not as helpful for traversing that “pay attention” barrier.

Teachers have the power and responsibility to reduce the impact of these barriers. Using tier-one supports creates a safety net to prevent barriers from crashing down in students’ paths.

In this keynote presentation, we will first identify the strengths and different needs of neurodivergent students and those who live with disability. Then we will examine barriers typical schooling creates, problematising the unexamined demands of school culture, and the ways these barriers impact different types of students. Finally, we will explore starting points for universal, tier-one strategies to support students’ executive functioning, language, and sensory needs.

Students are always going to come to school with different brains, different strengths, and skills. Thoughtful tier one supports can help teachers redesign classrooms to be places where “snorkel kids” can succeed alongside everyone else.

Aaron Lanou, Educational Consultant, Aaron Lanou Consulting, LLC, US

Aaron Lanou is an educational consultant supporting schools and organizations to reach all kids with inclusive, strengths-based practices. He coaches teachers and others to teach and support autistic students and all kids with a variety of academic, executive functioning, and social support needs. A member of Carol Gray’s Team Social Stories, Aaron also provides Social Stories workshops and collaborates with Carol and the team to continually update and refine the Social Stories philosophy and approach.

Through the lens of Universal Design for learning, Aaron works with educators to consider the kid in context, examining the environment, demands, and expectations as the starting point for helping students be successful in school. He specializes in helping teachers use clear and purposeful visual supports, focused graphic organisers, clarity and structure in instruction based on principles of learning and memory, and a range of executive functioning supports and other scaffolds. Committed to centering disabled perspectives, Aaron has learned from and alongside his students with disabilities and has collaborated frequently with autistic colleagues and presenters.

A former special education teacher, Aaron was previously Director of Professional Development and Executive Director of the Nest Support Project at New York University, leading the nation’s largest inclusion program for autistic students, the NYC Department of Education’s Nest Program. In his time at Nest, Aaron coordinated and provided professional development and consultation in Nest schools; oversaw the program’s expansion to more than 50 K–12 schools across New York City; developed the middle and high school model with a team of secondary educators; and led a three-year grant to adapt the Nest model in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. He went on to help develop the Path Program, an inclusion program for students with social-emotional support needs based on the Nest model, created by NYU and the NYC Department of Education.

Aaron has been adjunct faculty at Hunter College and NYU, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on instructional methods for students with learning disabilities and teaching students with complex support needs.

Speaker’s biographies and topics will be available shortly. Please check back for updates.

Confirmed topics will be available shortly.  Please check back for updates.