SMARTER Intervention

SMARTER Intervention We have a deep desire to change the lives of struggling readers. You feel stuck because you’re not sure what to do next. That's where we come in.
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You see their brightness, their creativity, but you worry that their love of learning will begin to dim.

If we're being honest, when we started supporting executive functioning, we were a little (okay...a lot) overwhelmed. We...
01/16/2026

If we're being honest, when we started supporting executive functioning, we were a little (okay...a lot) overwhelmed.

We knew executive functioning mattered. We had great resources. We understood the research. We believed deeply in the importance of helping students develop strong EF skills.

But we had no idea where to start or which skills to focus on.

We were trying to target attention, planning, organizing, working memory, flexibility, initiation, self-control, perseverance, emotion regulation, metacognition, inhibitory control, time management, goal setting… the list goes on and on!

And while all of these skills are important, it wasn't until we stopped trying to teach them in isolation and developed a system that we actually made meaningful progress with our students.

In our blog, "What is Executive Functioning?" we are breaking down what EF is and how to support students across grade levels, in case you're feeling stuck like we were.

👉 Click here to read more: https://smarterintervention.com/blog-highlights/whatisef?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blogs

I (Mikayla) remember almost 10 years ago when Corey and I started talking about this term I had never heard of called "e...
01/15/2026

I (Mikayla) remember almost 10 years ago when Corey and I started talking about this term I had never heard of called "executive functioning."

As I learned more about it, I realized that EF deals with a LOT of different skills. Things like planning, organizing, sustained attention, emotional regulation, time management, and so on.

Some of these skills were things I had heard about growing up. You know, things like "don't wait until the night before to start your paper" or "you should keep your locker organized so you don't lose things." But when it came to supporting students who needed help with these skills, I wasn't sure where to start.

Fast forward to 2026, and it seems like more and more teachers are being asked to support EF skills without a ton of information about what that actually looks like.

I know when I started digging into these skills, I had a lot of questions. And honestly, it took me a while to find my footing in this space. After a lot of trial and error (and collaboration with the rest of our team), I finally feel equipped to support these skills when students need my help.

So, if you're anything like me and feeling unsure about where to begin or want to talk through these skills with someone, drop a comment or send us a message. We'd love to chat more with you!

Then, be sure to follow along as we share more about our journey and what's worked for us and our students in the coming weeks!

Do you know this student? The one who gets frustrated and lashes out during your lesson. The one who says, "I don't care...
01/15/2026

Do you know this student?

The one who gets frustrated and lashes out during your lesson.
The one who says, "I don't care" or "I don't want to be here."
The one who, no matter how you structure your lesson, says "this is boring" or struggles to remain engaged?

We talk about these students a lot during our team meetings.

For the last few years, we've noticed heightened emotional reactions during our lessons. Whether it be tears, apathy, distractibility, or frustration, it seemed like our students were struggling more than ever before.

The simple reality is that kids are struggling. The context they are growing up in is unlike any generation before them. In a world of constant stimulation and stress, kids are getting more and more overwhelmed.

Many educators are noticing changes that weren’t as pronounced even five years ago. We’ve seen this in our work with our own students. Lessons that once held attention for 60 minutes now require more breaks, more movement, and more regulation built in. We used to have students who could easily practice more independently, but now many of our students are struggling to get started, follow through, and persist when tasks feel challenging.

When students feel overwhelmed by their internal or external world, their ability to regulate emotions, sustain attention, initiate tasks, and make adjustments begins to break down. These are executive functioning skills. And right now, many students need more support developing these skills than ever before.

We started using this 5-Part EF Framework to help support students' EF skills and provide both structure and clarity to our lessons. We've noticed that by working through these 5 simple steps, students gained a sense of control and calm that helped quiet some of the overwhelm they (and we!) had been experiencing.

It has been really helpful for our students and in our literacy intervention. We wanted to share it with you in case it might be helpful for you, too.

👉 You can download it here: https://programs.smarterintervention.com/EF-slides-opt-in?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=freeresources

I've worked with students for my entire career. And while each child I've worked with has faced his or her own struggles...
01/13/2026

I've worked with students for my entire career. And while each child I've worked with has faced his or her own struggles, it seems like, for the last few years, my students as a whole have all been struggling more.

I'm not going to lie, that really started to weigh on me as an instructor.

I was trying all of my usual tricks and strategies to keep them engaged, to build rapport, and to support their literacy skills. And yet...the struggles continued.

It wasn't until I really started to step back and look at the bigger picture that I was able to start making progress.

The truth is, the context students are growing up in has changed.

Today’s students are navigating a childhood unlike any generation before them.

Researchers, including Dr. Haidt in “The Anxious Generation” and Dr. Brené Brown in “Strong Ground” (both absolutely phenomenal books if you’re looking for something to dive into), point to a convergence of factors shaping student development:

📱 A phone-based childhood with constant access to stimulation

🤳 The rapid rise of social media and comparison culture

😷 Prolonged disruptions from the pandemic

😟 Ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and collective stress

⏱️ Increasing academic demands paired with reduced downtime

🧠 The fast emergence of AI and shifting expectations around learning

For adults, this is a lot to process (honestly, too much to process). For our students, it can be absolutely overwhelming.

The struggles I was seeing weren't apathy or disengagement.

It was the students' nervous systems under strain. In a world that feels chaotic, kids need a sense of calm.

When I started supporting students' Executive Functioning skills, so they could make sense of expectations, feel grounded enough to engage, experience success again, and regain a sense of control over their learning, that's when things started to turn around.

In our blog, "Why Students Seem to Be Struggling More Lately," we dive into this in more detail and share a free EF resource in case it's helpful for you, too. 🫶

👉 Click here to read more: https://smarterintervention.com/blog-highlights/is-my-child-struggling-with-executive-functioning?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blogs

Right before winter break, a teacher I know sent me a text that really stuck with me. He said...📱 “Left the building yes...
01/13/2026

Right before winter break, a teacher I know sent me a text that really stuck with me. He said...

📱 “Left the building yesterday and not sure if I want to teach anymore.
Had the single worst class I’ve ever had. The struggle is real.”

If you’ve had moments like that, I want you to know you’re not imagining things. Teaching truly does feel harder than it used to.

Not because we are doing less, but because our students seem to be struggling now more than ever.

The world our students are growing up in has changed dramatically. The pace is faster, the stress is higher, and the demands feel greater. Many students are walking into classrooms already overwhelmed before instruction even begins.

When I responded to him, I told him something I still believe deeply. Teachers are one of the last strongholds shaping the future our students will inherit. Kids need adults who can model calm problem solving, reflection, flexibility, and follow-through, especially when things feel hard.

You can't give up. You're it. These students need you.

And here's the thing: things are harder right now. That’s not your fault as an educator, and it’s not their fault as kids. It’s simply the reality of where we are.

What many of us are seeing as disengagement, apathy, or behavior is often a nervous system under strain. When the world feels chaotic, that chaos shows up in learning. But when we can create calm, predictability, and structure, something begins to shift.

That’s where executive functioning comes in. Not as another initiative or compliance tool, but as a way to help students make sense of expectations, feel grounded enough to engage, and experience success again.

I wrote more about this in a recent blog post, including what’s changed for students over the last few years and why executive functioning feels more important than ever right now: Why Students Seem to Be Struggling More Lately (and why EF matters more than ever)

👉 Click here to read more: https://smarterintervention.com/blog-highlights/is-my-child-struggling-with-executive-functioning?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blogs

You’re doing meaningful work in a really complex moment in education. While we can’t slow the world down for our students, we can help them learn how to navigate it as best as we can.

I was working with a student a few years ago who never seemed to want to be there. No matter how many games I pulled or ...
01/11/2026

I was working with a student a few years ago who never seemed to want to be there. No matter how many games I pulled or "high-interest" passages I found, he just would not engage with the lessons.

It wasn't until later that I realized he didn't see how anything we were doing connected to things he cared about.

To me, it was obvious that the work we were doing was important. Reading and writing are key skills that are necessary for school, for jobs, and for everyday life. But to him...they were just more "hard skills" he wasn't good at.

Once I was able to learn more about his goals and aspirations, I was able to explain how the work we were doing could help him accomplish what he wanted to do...and that changed everything.

Sometimes students struggle with motivation and buy-in because they just don't see how what's happening in the educational setting aligns with anything they care about. By knowing your students' goals, you can start to tie back how the things you're doing in your lessons will help them achieve THEIR goals.

What are your students hoping to accomplish this year? We encourage you to try this strategy this week. Then, we hope you'll let us know how it goes!

01/10/2026

You know you’re a literacy interventionist when...your student tells you they’re bored and you find a way to turn it into a vocabulary lesson. 😅 All jokes aside, this is why the EF framework can be such a valuable part of your lessons. Beyond helping students assess their readiness for learning, it’s a great way to build emotional vocabulary.⁠
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speechtherapy slpeeps schoolslp speechies speechpathology speechlanguagepathology slp slplife specialeducation spedteacher instaslp teachers iteach specialeducationteacher speechpath spedtribe scienceofreading SOR

If you caught our last couple of posts, we've been sharing about how we used the executive functioning process we use wi...
01/10/2026

If you caught our last couple of posts, we've been sharing about how we used the executive functioning process we use with our students ourselves to start off the year. As I worked through this same 5-step process myself, it really changed the way I was thinking about students.

Working through this 5-Step EF process myself helped me slow down enough to notice something that’s easy to miss when you’re moving fast.

When I wasn’t regulated or clear, I couldn’t plan well. I couldn’t focus my attention. And I definitely couldn’t push myself toward goals that didn’t feel grounded yet.

And that’s when it really hit me how often we ask students to do exactly that.

We ask them to meet expectations, stay on task, regulate their emotions, and keep moving forward, even when they don’t yet have the executive functioning skills to do so consistently.

So when a student shuts down, reacts strongly, avoids work, or gets labeled as a “troublemaker,” it’s rarely about them not caring or not trying.

More often, it’s about a student who doesn’t yet have a clear path for how to pause, plan, adjust, and try again.

That’s why executive functioning matters so much.

When we explicitly teach these skills, we’re not just managing behavior. We’re helping students experience success. And when students experience success, they start to feel more confident, more capable, and more willing to engage.

If you’ve ever felt stuck trying to support a student whose behavior doesn’t quite make sense on the surface, we get it. In this blog, we share what we've felt and experienced with so many students and why executive functioning is such a critical bridge for so many learners right now.

👉 Click here to read more: https://smarterintervention.com/blog-highlights/a-letter-to-teachers-about-their-troublemaker?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blogs

As our team got ready for 2026, we used this process to outline how we want our year to go.Now, while this is the 5-step...
01/09/2026

As our team got ready for 2026, we used this process to outline how we want our year to go.

Now, while this is the 5-step process we used for ourselves, you can begin to see how that exact same process/framework can support students as well.

🏅 We start by having them identify "what is the goal" and how does that align to what they want?

🚶‍➡️ Then we pause to have them consider how they're feeling. Where is their energy in their body?

💭 Next, we transition to having them think about where they need to direct their attention. Instead of telling them, we ask them!

🗺️ After that, we work together to create a plan of action.

✅ And then finally, once we're done, we reflect back on what worked, what didn't.

They don't need to actually journal this out (although for older students, that can be a super effective strategy). This can just be a group discussion that builds agency and autonomy in problem-solving and reaching goals.

If you want to try it, we put together a 5-Step Reset Journal you can work through. It’s a simple, guided way to walk yourself through this same process because clarity creates momentum. And when you’ve experienced that clarity yourself, you’re better able to model it, teach it, and support your students as they learn to do the same.

📝 You can download the free 5-Step Reset Journal and move through it at your own pace. No pressure, just a simple way to begin again with a fresh start for the new year.

👉 Click here to check it out! https://smarterintervention.com/reset?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=freeresources

As we start the new year, I've thinking about something important.A fresh start isn’t only something we need when things...
01/08/2026

As we start the new year, I've thinking about something important.

A fresh start isn’t only something we need when things feel hard.
It’s something we need anytime we want to pause, get clear, and begin again in a way that actually aligns with what we value.

Sometimes that pause comes after a difficult year.
Sometimes it comes after a good one.
And sometimes it comes simply because you don’t want to keep moving forward on autopilot.

What helped me (Corey) wasn’t trying to manufacture motivation or force a big goal. It was slowing down and walking myself through a clear, structured process that helped me reflect, realign, and move forward with intention.

In teaching, we talk all the time about I do, we do, you do.

This was the "I do."

I worked through the same 5-step executive functioning process we use with students to help them reach their goals, except I turned it inward first. I started by getting clear on how I wanted this year to feel, noticed where I was at, focused my attention, made a flexible plan, and reflected as I went.

If you want to try it, we put together a 5-Step Reset Journal you can work through. It’s a simple, guided way to walk yourself through this same process because clarity creates momentum. And when you’ve experienced that clarity yourself, you’re better able to model it, teach it, and support your students as they learn to do the same.

📝 You can download the free 5-Step Reset Journal and move through it at your own pace. No pressure, just a simple way to begin again with a fresh start for the new year. (And while I'm usually an InkJoy girl myself, I actually used a pencil for this one because I wanted this process to be flexible, I was subtly giving myself permission to change my mind, these mechanical colored led pencils are the absolute best!).

👉 You can download the journal for free here: https://smarterintervention.com/reset?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=freeresources

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If you're coming back from break and feeling the "semester scaries" (this is the "Sunday scaries" at a completely differ...
01/07/2026

If you're coming back from break and feeling the "semester scaries" (this is the "Sunday scaries" at a completely different scale)... it may be a signal that your EF system needs a little support.

In this week's podcast episode, I shared exactly how I managed my own "new year scaries" using the same EF process we use with our students.

If you’d like to listen, you can find the episodes linked below:

👉 Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smarter-literacy/id1787936814?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast

👉 Click here to listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FkYqlRiRgY44B8h7t6HCW?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast

👉 Click here to listen on our website:
https://programs.smarterintervention.com/podcasts/smarter-literacy/episodes/2149132303?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast


Or if you're feeling calm and collected but realize that your students may need a little extra support, we share our step-by-step process for supporting EF through the grade levels in this month's Spotlight PD training. Send us a message if you want to learn more about it!

It's the first Monday of the new year, and maybe you have family members like me who are pressing you for your goals for...
01/05/2026

It's the first Monday of the new year, and maybe you have family members like me who are pressing you for your goals for the New Year....

But have you ever reached a point where you’re supposed to set goals, but all you can feel is tired?

That’s where I was when we first sat down to plan for 2026.

Not because I don’t love this work. I do. More than words can begin to express.

But because 2025 took more out of me than I realized, and I couldn’t quite see clearly enough to figure out what should come next.

All I could articulate clearly was what I didn’t want for 2026.

At first, that felt unsettling, especially because a big part of my role is to hold vision and set direction for what's next. But the more I sat with it, the more familiar it felt because it’s exactly what we see with some of our students.

When students can’t meet expectations, we don’t start by pushing harder. We pause. We regulate. We focus attention. We make a plan that’s flexible. And we reflect.

So I did the same thing for myself.

This week’s podcast episode comes from that place. Not from having it all figured out, but from walking myself back to clarity and finding my spark again using the exact same 5-step executive functioning framework we use with students.

If you’re starting this year feeling burnt out, unsure, or maybe your spark feels dim, you’re not alone. And if you’re not in that place, this process can still be an incredibly helpful way to reflect and realign for the new year. You're doing amazing work. Your students are lucky to have you.
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If you’d like to listen, you can find the episodes linked below:

👉 Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smarter-literacy/id1787936814?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast

👉 Click here to listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FkYqlRiRgY44B8h7t6HCW?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast

👉 Click here to listen on our website:
https://programs.smarterintervention.com/podcasts/smarter-literacy/episodes/2149132303?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=podcast

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Friday 7am - 6pm

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Why We Built This...

We believe that effective reading instruction should be accessible to everyone.

We work directly with students and families providing educational diagnoses such as dyslexia and dysgraphia in addition to research-based instruction to help get struggling students to grade level and beyond.

It’s awful watching a child struggle. You see the brightness, the creativity, but you worry that their love of learning will begin to dim or burn out altogether if something doesn’t change. You feel stuck because you’re not sure what to do next.

We get it. With all the information available out there, it’s hard to sort through what’s reputable from what’s not. And that’s where we come in.