The human brain is like a complex orchestra,. These roles, or neurological functions, desperately need to be coordinated, integrated, and synchronized.

As with any orchestra, each player's role varies depending upon the situation. Just as the strings or woodwinds may be highlighted in music, different neurological functions take the lead when students study English or math, have to write a report, or take part in athletic activities. And, just as instruments create harmony in an orchestra, the different neurodevelopmental functions interact to enable students to acquire certain knowledge, skills or sub-skills, or to accomplish specific school tasks, such as being well-organized, efficient, or strategic planners. 

When students are having difficulty with a particular academic skill, the task of parents, teachers, and clinicians is to pinpoint the areas of difficulty, to specify the weak sub-skills, and to create a plan for strengthening strengths and areas in need of improvement. 

There is a need to ask: Where is the breakdown occurring? Which sub-skill is not playing its role? And within that sub-skill, which related functions are not operating well? For example, students with strong vocabulary skills and memory abilities may still have problems remembering words. In this case, the difficulty might lie with their word retrieval ability, a very specific sub-skill that enables students to remember words on the spot.

At any point in life, students come to school with "neurodevelopmental profiles." Such profiles are, in essence, balance sheets of individual strengths and weaknesses in the various neurodevelopmental functions. Each profile facilitates work in some areas, while hindering work in others. Some students have strengths that make them strong achievers at six years old, but weak performers in high school. Others may have early difficulties and find success in later years. Just as expectations change over time, so do students' performances. 

In order to better understand how students' profiles affect their learning and performance at any time, those profiles are divided into "neurodevelopmental constructs." Constructs are groupings of related neurodevelopmental functions. They help to organize thinking and communicate about learning differences by focusing on the roles and interactions of neurodevelopmental functions with regard to specific behaviors. They also allow for flexibility in the ways that differences in learning are evaluated, while at the same time, pinpointing areas of learning breakdown and creating very specific plans for helping students succeed. 

The constructs used to organize students' profiles are listed below:

* ATTENTION: Attention is more than just "paying attention." It includes such aspects as the ability to concentrate, to focus on one thing rather than the other, to finish tasks one begins, and to control what one says and does. 

* TEMPORAL-SEQUENTIAL ORDERING: Whether it's being able to recite the alphabet or knowing when to push a button to give a response on "Jeopardy," being able to understand time and sequence of various items or pieces of information is a key component of learning. 

* SPATIAL ORDERING: Closely related to the functions of time and sequence, spatial ordering is the ability, for instance, to distinguish between a circle and a square or to use images to remember related information. On a more complex level, spatial ordering helps musicians, for instance, to be able to "see" a piano keyboard, and enables architects to "imagine" the shape of a particular room. 

* MEMORY: Even if, in the moment, people are able to understand, organize, and interpret the most complex information, if they cannot store and then later recall that information, their performance often suffers dramatically. 

* LANGUAGE: Being able to articulate and understand language is central to the ability to do well as students and learners. Developing language functions involves elaborate interactions between various parts of the brain since it involves so many separate kinds of abilities-pronouncing words, awareness of different sounds, comprehending written symbols, understanding syntax, and telling stories. 

* NEUROMOTOR FUNCTIONS: Whether students are trying to write their first words, catch a football, or punch away at a computer keyboard, their brains' ability to coordinate their motor or muscle functions are key to many areas of learning. 

* SOCIAL COGNITION: One of the most often overlooked components of learning is the ability to succeed in social relationships with peers, parents, and teachers. Students (and adults) may be strong in other construct areas, and yet have academic difficulties because of an inability to make friends, work in groups, or cope effectively with peer pressure. 

* HIGHER ORDER COGNITION: Higher order cognition involves the ability to understand and implement the steps necessary to solve problems, attack new areas of learning, and think creatively.

Specific breakdowns in learning manifest themselves in observable phenomena. Observable phenomena are behaviors that are seen every day - both in the classroom and at home. For example, students may have trouble finding words to express their ideas or have difficulties with handwriting because of poor muscle control. Such behaviors may or may not show up in a formula or in a series of test scores, but observable evidence proves they exist. 

By becoming aware of the critical observable behaviors of students in a content area or at a grade level, educators will be better able to recognize and attend to learning breakdowns. As such, third grade teachers watch for language processing breakdowns as children read aloud, while high school physics teachers look for classroom behaviors that indicate problems with non-verbal concept formation, and athletic coaches pick up on sports performances that relate to both muscle and memory difficulties. 

Looking for observable phenomena is a model that avoids labeling students, classification, and loss of individual richness. Labels on students can be reductionistic, pessimistic, and can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Instead, the focus is on labeling the phenomena. This model is much more precise, specific, and less stigmatizing. 

Description over classification is favored, without any categories, without any labeling. In an effort to support students and to find more effective solutions to their problems, the phenomena, the profile, the breakdowns, the strengths, and the affinities are the focus. 

In order to understand problems, observing students in as many situations as possible and looking for patterns of behavior or breakdown are needed. Testing alone cannot supply all the answers. Educators, clinicians, parents, and students can all contribute to the understanding. Each has a different perspective and different insights. 

When this input is combined, using the observation tools and techniques that have been developed, the organization of the findings can pinpoint recurrent themes in students' learning and performances - themes upon which individualized management plans can be created.