Executive Functioning- The Basics

Executive Functioning- The Basics

Executive functioning skills enable students to manage their workload and plan for the future. These skills allow students to break down a task and organize it as well as create a time lime for completion. ……There has been a tremendous amount of information and conversation about executive functioning skills and success. Executive functioning skills are often discussed as the CEO or manager of your thought processes. Here is a quick overview of executive functioning components:

▪   Initiate: start

▪   Plan and Organize: stop, think and plan a strategy

▪   Organize Material: materials available and organized

▪   Inhibit: able to stay on task and avoid distractions

▪   Emotional Control: resilient when frustrated and overwhelmed

▪   Working Memory: able to hold and work on two mental concepts at once

▪   Shift: can move from one activity to another easily

▪   Monitor:  can check work and make changes as needed

While teaching executive functioning skills is important for any student that lacks them, a common complaint I hear from parents is that students aren’t using the skills they are taught. So, what is missing? There is the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”  I have found that executive functioning skills can be taught successfully, but for some students it takes more than teaching the skills to get the students to use them.

Excerpt taken from “What do students with strong Executive Functioning Skills have? Grit!” written by Melissa Mullin PhD from the K&M Center

For the whole article click here http://www.kandmcenter.com/blog/?p=466

An excellent resource- The K & M Center, Santa Monica CA http://www.kandmcenter.com/index.html