When many students disengage from school, the issue is no longer academic, but rather psychological. Studies show that students with learning disabilities (14.8%) are three times more likely to have experienced chronic school absenteeism. This outcome may often be rooted in sustained shame, frustration, and a belief that effort will not change results. When learning becomes a repeated source of failure, children may internalize the message that something is wrong with them, long before they ever stop trying.
Lisa Judson believes this is precisely the moment educational therapy is meant to intervene. She describes it as a discipline many families need, but few understand. "If you had asked me what educational therapy was ten years ago, I would have shrugged and moved on," she says, pointing to a widespread lack of awareness, particularly outside the West Coast. As an educational therapist specializing in ADHD and executive functioning challenges, Judson believes the work fills the gap between diagnosis and day-to-day functioning.
"An educational therapist, by design, is trained to analyze an individual child's learning challenges and the behavioural patterns they display to work around or mask their deficits," she explains. "Our work is to reach out to kids and help them overcome these deficits, enabling them to do their very best work."
"Education is somewhat in a crisis," she says, pointing to rising anxiety, academic pressure, and families who feel stuck without clear guidance. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 11.4% of children in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD, while anxiety disorders currently affect 11% of children aged 3-17. These statistics, Judson believes, are reflected in the children she works with every day. "The kids who struggle and their families really don't know how to get out of the place they're in," she says, "and that uncertainty often deepens frustration rather than resolving it."
For such children, Judson positions educational therapy as an effective methodology. She categorizes educational therapy as the "how" behind the modalities provided to children rather than the "what." In her view, educational therapy begins with understanding what motivates the behaviour in a child. "What we want to teach is the how," she says. "Meaning how a child learns, plans, organizes, and regulates emotion." This approach, she emphasizes, is the crux of executive functioning.
Explained as "the management system of the brain," executive functioning delves into a child's working memory, flexible thinking, concept formation, and inhibitory control, which can often be compromised among children with learning disabilities. "Executive functioning is often at the heart of the problem for many children I deal with," she adds. Educational therapy, she notes, can be leveraged to address executive functioning challenges.
"Educational therapy is all about cultivating relationships," she says, describing a one-to-one connection with the student that extends to the family. "Many parents arrive frightened and exhausted, often after evaluations and school meetings that provide diagnoses but little day-to-day relief. "Parents are desperate to help their child, and they don't know where to turn," she says, noting how quickly family life can become dominated by homework battles and emotional distress.
She believes trust is the foundation that allows learning to happen. "I have to go in and earn their trust. I am not their teacher, and I am not their parent," she says. "I'm not judging them." That relationship, she explains, allows students to take risks without fear of shame. She begins by learning what motivates each child and uses those strengths to build confidence. "Once they see that I care about them, not about what they know in history, they become motivated to learn," she says.
Progress, she believes, must be visible and owned by the child. Judson works with students to set small, meaningful goals rather than imposing adult expectations. "When they start to see success in small goals, the relationship deepens," she says, "and students become more willing to try, to fail safely, and to persist." For resistant students, she acknowledges that the process can take months. "Most of the kids are very resistant," she says, "and that resistance comes from years of feeling like they can't do it."
Her work combines practical structure with emotional awareness, making abstract expectations concrete through written systems, planners, and visual strategies. She models tasks before gradually transferring responsibility, a process she says builds confidence rather than dependence. She also addresses emotional regulation directly. "They're so frustrated they can't focus, and that's their cortisol spiking," she explains. "They don't know that. They just feel like everything is out of control."
Anxiety, Judson believes, is one of the defining challenges facing students today. "There's a tremendous amount of pressure," she says, describing workloads that feel endless to children who already struggle to keep up.
Ultimately, Judson sees educational therapy as an essential complement to traditional education. Whether delivered in person or online, she believes its effectiveness lies in focused attention and human connection. "What I do is focus on the schoolwork by focusing on the child," she says. Her goal is not simply improved grades, but restored confidence. As she puts it, "Once kids learn how they learn, they can move forward without fear, and that can change everything."
