Specialist in Educational Psychology
San Diego Kids First Clinic Coordinator
“Kaydon was a dream to work with during the summers at Camp Jaycee. She worked directly with me on implementing supports for kids with special needs and behavioral challenges creating an incredibly inclusive environment for every single child in her care. She always had ideas to solve problems that arose and kept the children’s growth and social emotional development always at the forefront of every day.” Wendy Smith, Inclusion Director LFJCC
Highlighted Services: Individual Social/Emotional Learning Sessions, Academic Support, Targeted Academic Assessment, Multidisciplinary Evaluations
Kaydon Schanberger earned her Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from Texas A & M University and earned her Bachelors Degree in Integrated Studies with an Emphasis in Education from Point Loma Nazarene University. Additionally, she possesses a dual teaching credential in General Education and Mild-Moderate Special Education, and Associate Degrees in both Child and Human Development. Kaydon has had extensive training and experience working with children (within classroom and extra-curricular settings) in order to foster their successful inclusion in mainstream environments. She follows a relationship based management style, taking the time to get to know her students and families individually.
At San Diego Kids First (SDKF), Kaydon fills two important roles. First is her role as Specialist in Educational Psychology, offering the following individual and small-group services: Targeted Academic Assessments, Multidisciplinary Evaluations in conjunction with SDFK Clinical Psychologists, Social/Emotional Skills Development (Social Emotional Learning Curriculum), Dysgraphia/Fine Motor & Handwriting Skills Development (Learning Without Tears Curriculum), Dyslexia/Reading Skills Development (Orton Gillingham Curriculum), Individual academic support for Elementary School Learners in all subjects, Participation in 504/IEP planning, participation in 504/IEP meetings; 504/IEP design and implementation, School observations to assist in IEP/504 development, inclusion support, or educational planning, Executive Functioning Skills Development (e.g Homework Completion, Project Completion, Time Management, Study Skills and Inclusion support.
Second, in her role as San Diego Kids First’s Clinic Coordinator, Kaydon assists in the development of new clinical services, provides support to SDKF staff , clinicians, and parents, and is the central liaison in establishing and maintaining SDKF’s relationships with community agencies, clinics, and our referring provider partners.
In her free time, Kaydon loves to spend time outside with her dog Bayder, exploring San Diego.
What Others Say About Us
I’ve been referring my patients to Dr. Pontillo for the past several years with the utmost confidence that she will care and understand their developmental needs. Dr. Pontillo always provided them with a balanced and age appropriate intervention to help not only the child but the family as a whole.
Dr. Pontillo is an exceptional, and one-of-a-kind child psychologist. I have referred many children of my patients to Dr. Pontillo and she has always given them the best care and attention. Referring a patient to another professional is a big responsibility. I always look for a colleague who is efficient, professional, experienced and one who is able to come up with a clear diagnosis. I keep referring to Dr. Pontillo because of her expertise, efficiency and especially her warm and caring personality that is extremely necessary when dealing with children. I very highly recommend Deborah Pontillo, Ph.D as a child diagnostician, developmental and behavioral specialist, and therapist.
I am a general pediatrician with a special interest in ADHD, spending about 20% of my clinical time caring for ADHD patients. I have known Dr Pontillo since 2005 and have an enormous respect for her clinical skills and insights. She is my “go to” psychologist for more complicated developmental issues and for diagnosis of subtle high functioning disabilities. Dr. Pontillo’s interest in her patients and her ability to clearly delineate developmental problems allows parents to move forward with establishing a treatment plan. She is an invaluable resource to the San Diego Pediatric community.