Executive Function Skills in School-aged Kids
There’s a mix of skills that live in various capacities in your frontal lobe - that’s the lobe right behind your forehead. It’s where we keep knowledge on things like perspectives, memory, planning and organizing tasks, cognitive flexibility, initiation of tasks, problem solving, and impulse control. And that’s not an exhaustive list. Executive Function skills are abundant and complex.
So what’s it look like if a child has challenges with executive functioning?
Depends on where they’re having trouble. In my experience, these kids (and we’re going to make some broad generalizations here!) can be the kids with the messy desks, the backpack full of papers, the one who has the homework done but it never gets turned in, or the kid who needs frequent reminders to get started on something & continue to the next step.
A lot of times, these kids get pinned as “lazy”, they “don’t care”, or they are “prompt dependent”.
How can we incorporate executive function skills into therapy?
Honestly, that’s a loaded question because there are so many areas where breakdown of skills can occur here. So we’re just going to scratch the surface with these recommendations and if you have further questions, reach out and we can chat more!
Functionality of task!
In therapy, we use what they’re working on or struggling with! If your child is having a tough time with an upcoming school project that contains lots of different pieces and deadlines, we’d be using that in our sessions.
If they’re having a tough time managing their day-to-day tasks (i.e. getting ready for school, finding all the materials needed for homework, etc.), then we can incorporate those tasks into therapy, creating strategies and support for that.
Basically, we don’t want to talk about the strategies you can use in an activity that’s not relevant for that child. (Isn’t that true most of the time anyways?!)
Skills have to be done more than once!
If you think you’ve supported your kid with that same task before (or one similar), guess what, you’re probably going to have to support them again!
Multiple repetitions and exposures to a process or use of a strategy is key!
Example activity for executive function skills:
Often the biggest thing we can do to support these kids is helping them break down big projects into smaller chunks. Have you ever watched the Great British Baking Challenge and seen them have to make something they’ve never made or seen before? Its mind boggling! Where do you start?!? How do you know what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done?! These are the challenges of our kids with executive functioning.
Start with talking about what the project will look like when it’s done!
I.e. I’ll be in my classroom, dressed as an astronaut, talking to my class about Neil Armstrong.
Then start thinking about what components you’ll need there (the smaller chunks)
Information about Neil Armstrong
An outfit to wear that looks like an astronaut
Pieces of the project that may have to be turned into the teacher ahead of time - rough drafts, organizers, etc.
Now, what materials are we going to need for each of those smaller components?
Do we need to break these smaller components down further?
Researching Neil Armstrong is loaded with things - maybe we break that down into his life as an astronaut, his personal life, his time as a child, etc.
Where do we find these materials?
Will we have to get the help of someone else to gather these materials?
Fading supports for kids with executive functioning challenges:
One of the very important pieces of working with children with executive function challenges is to think about from the beginning how we’re going to fade the support we’re offering. If the Neil Armstrong project is their first project and we’re offering a lot of support, we want to think about how to guide them to get themselves started on the next big project. For example, what do they remember that was helpful from a previous project? Did you use visual supports that they could recreate? A timeline? An agenda book or planner?
What’s next?
If this post resonates with you, reach out about our upcoming Executive Functioning Intensive! Let us do the work to get your child set up for success for the upcoming school year! This intensive includes:
5 individual 1:1 sessions
2 parent coaching sessions
25% discount on up to 3 additional, follow-up sessions
Recommended for late elementary and middle-school aged students
Cost: $425
Note: This bundle is private-pay only. Insurance benefits cannot be applied to this service.
