About Adena
About Adena
About Me
Hi, I’m Adena.
I’m a licensed educational psychologist who specializes in math learning challenges and disabilities. For more than a decade, I’ve worked with middle and high school students who struggle with dyscalculia, ADHD, anxiety, and other barriers that prevent them from accessing instruction and learning math.
What makes my work unique is the combination of perspectives I bring to understanding why students struggle with math and how to provide meaningful support. As a psychologist, I understand the cognitive, emotional, and environmental factors that impact learning, and I have a deep clinical skillset that allows me to assess students’ learning needs and support the whole child. As a math educator, I understand how mathematical understanding develops over time, and I have deep pedagogical content knowledge that allows me to teach flexibly and help students build deep understanding and strong problem solving skills.
Through my work, I have developed insights into the many factors that contribute to students’ math learning challenges, and approaches to teaching and supporting students that unlock learning and help them to access instruction. These insights and approaches are the foundation for my work supporting struggling math students, and the parents and educators who support them.
My Philosophy
All Kids Can Learn Math
Students with learning disabilities are just as capable of learning math as neurotypical and mathematically advanced students. When given the instruction and accommodations they need, it’s possible for ALL students to develop deep mathematical understanding and become strong mathematical thinkers and problem solvers.
Learning Should Be Meaningful
When students are struggling with math, it usually means they aren’t truly or completely understanding the concepts or skills being taught. Learning becomes easier (and more fun) when students have a solid understanding they can use to make sense of problems and solve them.
Learning is a Developmental Process
For students to become successful (and happy) mathematical thinkers, there are many things we can help them to develop over time. These include developing conceptual and procedural math skills; problem solving and reasoning abilities; active learning skills; and confidence and positive beliefs about themselves as learners.
Students Learn Best When Their Needs Are Met
Students often struggle with math due to brain-based, social-emotional, and/or environmental challenges that block them from learning. Instruction and supports will be most effective when they address students’ underlying learning challenges and meet their individual learning needs.
Professional Background
Foundations in Learning & Development
I began teaching math almost 30 years ago when my local school district hired me as a high school peer tutor. Subsequently, I spent summers during college working first as a teaching assistant and then a lead math instructor for UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP). I saw my summers at ATDP as a valuable apprenticeship where I learned from talented math teachers how to create engaging math lessons and cultivate rich learning opportunities.
As an undergraduate, I studied neuroscience at UCLA. I had originally intended to go to medical school, however, my deeper interest was in understanding what was happening in students’ brains when they learned math. Although I chose not to pursue a career in neuroscience (in the early 2000’s we didn’t yet have the technology to pursue my research interests), my background in neuroscience has given me a valuable understanding of the brain and a biological foundation for understanding learning and development.
While in college, I also completed coursework in applied developmental psychology and early childhood education. This coursework included an internship at a preschool, where I learned how to connect our understanding of how kids develop to the ways that we teach and support them. I continued to work in preschools after graduating, teaching 3-5 year olds in Santa Monica and San Francisco, CA, until I decided to pursue graduate school.
School Psychology & Math Education
I completed my doctoral studies in School Psychology at UC Berkeley. At Cal, I was trained as a scientist-practitioner, developing clinical skills in psychoeducational assessment, school-based mental health consultation, and counseling; studying education and psychology through developmental and ecological systems lenses; and learning special education laws and procedures. Through this training, I became a credentialed school psychologist and licensed educational psychologist in California.
I have worked as a school psychologist for school districts across the San Francisco Bay Area including Oakley Union, South San Francisco, Brentwood Union, and Oakland Unified. As a school psychologist, I provided psychoeducational assessment, school-based consultation, and counseling in schools serving students from grades Pre-K through 8th grade. I also completed a predoctoral internship at Lincoln Child Center, a nonpublic school for students with emotional and behavioral challenges, and have worked as a learning specialist for Black Pine Circle School in Berkeley and a lecturer for the UC Berkeley School Psychology Program.
While training as a school psychologist in graduate school, I also continued to pursue my interest in math education. I studied how factors like self-efficacy and metacognition impact students’ mathematical thinking and performance and participated in research groups led by math education professors who were studying various aspects of how students learn math. I presented my original research at national conferences and published several studies in peer-reviewed journals.
In graduate school, I also continued my work with ATDP, moving beyond classroom teaching to developing programs and supporting other math teachers as a math department chair, study lab coordinator, math club organizer, and interim director.
Supporting Struggling Math Students
In 2014, I opened my private practice specializing in support for students with math disabilities and other significant math learning challenges. Combining my skills as a school psychologist and math teacher, I created my own approach to supporting struggling math students that I call Psychoeducational Math Support (PEMS). I have spent over 4,000 PEMS sessions working with and learning from my students, and have had the pleasure of watching them develop into strong, confident, and independent math learners.
At the same time, my work with schools has evolved to focus on helping educators to better support struggling math students. I now use my skills as a school psychologist to help math teachers understand their students’ learning challenges and develop effective interventions. I have also enjoyed giving guest lectures on math disabilities for school psychology and teacher education training programs at universities including UC Berkeley and St. Mary’s College of California.
Today, I continue to support students and educators in my private practice through Psychoeducational Math Support and Professional Learning & Consultation for Schools. In addition to working with students and educators directly, I have started to look for ways to share what I’ve learned with parents and educators beyond my private practice. I have developed math disability guides and an online course, and have begun presenting at professional conferences including the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, and the California Math Council.
I am excited to continue learning through my ever-evolving work with students and teachers, and to continue finding more ways to reach struggling math students.
Training & Credentials
Degrees
Ph.D. Education (School Psychology)
University of California, Berkeley
M.A. Education (School Psychology)
University of California, Berkeley
B.S. Neuroscience
University of California, Los Angeles
Professional Licenses
California Licensed Educational Psychologist
License #3475
California Pupil Personnel Services Credential
School Psychology Authorization
Academic Research
Publications
Doctoral Dissertation
Young, A. E. (2010). Explorations of metacognition among academically talented middle and high school mathematics students (Doctoral dissertation). Available from Proquest UMI Dissertation Publishing database. (Proquest No. 2128952731)
Book Chapters
Worrell, F. C., & Young, A. E. (2011). Gifted children in urban settings. In T. L. Cross & J. R. Cross (Eds.), Handbook for counselors serving students with gifts and talents (pp. 137 – 152). Austin, TX: Prufrock Press.
Saxe, G. B., Gearhart, M., Shaughnessy, M. M., Earnest, D., Cremer, S., Sitabkhan, Y., … Young, A. (2009). A methodological framework and empirical techniques for studying the travel of ideas in classroom communities. In B. Schwartz, T. Dreyfus & R. Hershkowitz (Eds.), Transformation of Knowledge in Classroom Interaction. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Journal Articles
Young, A. E., & Worrell, F. C. (2018). Comparing metacognition assessments of mathematics in academically talented students. Gifted Child Quarterly. doi:10.1177/0016986218755915
Young, A. E., Worrell, F. C., & Gabelko, N. H. (2011). Predictors of success in accelerated and enrichment mathematics courses for academically talented adolescents. Journal of Advanced Academics, 22, 558-577. doi:10.1177/1932202X11414821
Presentations
Research Presentations
Young, A. E. (2011, December). Profiles of mathematics giftedness. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the National Association for Gifted Children, New Orleans, LA.
Young, A. E. (2011, April). Examining the context-specific nature of metacognition in mathematics problem solving. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Young, A. E. (2010, August). Examining the construct validity of Junior Metacognitive Awareness Inventory scores. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Diego, CA.
Young, A. E. (2010, August). Contextualizing metacognition and academic achievement: An examination of students’ thinking during problem solving. Poster presented at the Student Affiliates in School Psychology Mini-Convention, San Diego, CA.
Young, A. E. (2008, April). Predictors of mathematics achievement among academically talented middle and high school students. Roundtable presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.
Saxe, G. B., Shaughnessy, M. M., Earnest, D., Cremer, S., Platas, L. M., Sitabkhan, Y., & Young, A. (2007, October). Fractions on the number line: The travel of ideas. Paper presented at the Twenty Ninth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Reno, NV.
Interested in Working Together?
Whether you’re seeking support for a student or professional learning for a school, feel free to reach out and connect.
Or learn more about Psychoeducational Math Support or Support for Schools.