POWERS is an evidence-based executive functioning and social-emotional learning curriculum that enables children to thrive!

POWERS is an acronym that stands for six basic skills:

Prioritize

Prioritize means figuring out how to decide what to focus on and when. It means learning to differentiate between what we need to do and what we want to do. When we prioritize, we put things in order from most to least important. We do what needs to get done first. Learning to prioritize is also an antidote to feeling overwhelmed and an essential life skill necessary to reach our goals.

WHY POWERS?

Develop Executive Functioning Skills

Many bright children struggle in school because of difficulties remembering assignments, planning ahead, keeping track of work, regulating their behavior, attention, and emotions, or managing their time. It is stressful and difficult to balance academic, social, family, sports, and community activities.  The pervasive presence of electronic devices and social media, along with recent pandemic challenges, have only compounded the problem. Students are expected to structure themselves and manage their time like never before. 

Developing emotional intelligence as well as executive functioning skills is more important than ever, as a means of alleviating stress, enhancing success, and managing our lives and responsibilities.  

Who is POWERS for?

POWERS was developed for parents, students, and educators to provide executive functioning and social-emotional learning support and training.
parents
students
educators

What is POWERS?

POWERS is a philosophy, a language, and a research-based executive functioning and social-emotional curriculum for parents, students, and educators.

POWERS is a…

Methodology for educators to empower students to be successful, organized, and emotionally and behaviorally regulated.
Mindset shift for parents, providing skills to raise internally motivated and self-driven children.
Toolbox of skills that enables students to be “in the driver's seat” of their own lives.
Language that enables us to grow and best manage our own lives.
Check out our What is POWERS? section for more information.

"The road to POWERS has truly been a life-long mission and passion project. I feel deeply that as parents and educators, the greatest gift we can give our children is the skills to authentically learn how to manage themselves (socially, emotionally, and academically). If we can do this before they go off to college, then we can sleep at night knowing that they are safe and fortified to become contributing members of society."

- Tamar Z. Kahane, Psy.D.

POWERS in action

POWERS at The Kahane Center
POWERS at Lehman College
POWERS at Washington School
POWERS Kids

What parents, students, and educators say about POWERS

“I am blessed to be a proud father of a POWERS Program graduate - my daughter! It was her transformation over the 10 monthly sessions that my wife and I noticed drastic improvements in our daughter's behavior, school work, and social relationships. The POWERS Program is life-changing. We need to do all we can to let parents and children know that there is a program called POWERS which can shift a negative mindset to one of hope and optimism.”
– Michael D. Kuchar, Ph.D. Department of Education, Leadership, Management, and Policy, Seton Hall University
"Our daughter has really embraced the program, techniques, and skills and is trying to use them in her life. I found myself referring to each of the “letters” of the program to help her recall some of the strategies. This week has started a transformation of how her words and actions impact others and this is enormously useful to her overall well-being."
– Parent, 15 year old
"I learned many new and wonderful skills. I think POWERS is going to help me in my school life and at home too. I made new friends and I wish that POWERS was not over so soon. I hope I can come back next year."
– C.A., 11 year old
“As a parent and a professional educator, I cannot express enough the impact of The POWERS Program for children and young adults. Executive functioning skills are essential for children to succeed.”
– Dr. Philip Nisonoff, Assist. Supt. of Schools, Emerson Public Schools
“POWERS is being piloted here [at Washington School] and we’re seeing less behavior issues and behavior referrals since the beginning of the year. The vocabulary I hear students using is a complete change. They are words that I’m hearing students use today that I have never heard 5th graders use before.”
– Tom Lawrence, Principal, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“My role is to test the effectiveness of the POWERS Program. We’ve been collecting data for the last three months looking at the students' changes in their cognitive function, their test scores, as well as their physical activity levels over time. I’ve also learned a lot personally from the program and I’ve tried to incorporate some of what I learned at home as a mom of two young children.”
– Mindy Feldman Hecht, doctoral student at Teacher's College Columbia University
“POWERS has added a lot of perspective for me as a teacher. It’s given me more of a full lens on my students and how to tap into their academics, as well as their social-emotional, and physical behaviors. I’ve already seen how POWERS has influenced me as a teacher, as a mom, and as a person. My children know a lot of the POWERS core skills and I’m watching them apply it to their everyday lives as well.”
– Nicole Maliia, Teacher, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“I’ve been teaching for 18 years. I’ve taught everything and when this was first introduced, I was very reluctant to do it but I see the benefits of the kids using it. They enjoy it and I believe that it can help kids not only in the classroom but in their personal lives.”
– Diane Nasse, Teacher, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“One of the things that I appreciate about the program is the language. I always aligned with the concepts but I never had the background language to use with the students or had a program that brings everything together as well as POWERS does.”
– Doel Lugo, Teacher, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“Sometimes things can be very stressful and I have a lot of anxiety so POWERS helps me calm down. It helps me focus on my work sometimes. I'm very forgetful so the checklist and the fixed location really helps me manage where my stuff is. I'm starting to do that at home and at school because it helps me manage where all my stuff is and I'm not looking for things all the time.”
– 5th grade student, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“My brother annoys me a lot and sometimes I would yell at him to get out of my room or stop being a pain in the neck, so I was using a harsh inner voice and power is helping me to use a kind inner voice.”
– 5th grade student, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“What POWERS taught me was to be mindful of things, that there's choices you can make in life and you can be the boss of yourself.”
– 5th grade student, Washington School in Bergenfield, NJ
“This program is for kids who have a tendency to either forget to bring homework home, leave their belongings in a trail behind them, have trouble with self discipline, organization, or prioritizing. This program really helps and hits all those buttons.”
– Dana Koenig, POWERS parent