In our Menlo Park tutoring practice, we have seen the term “executive functions” bandied about with an increasing frequency in the last few years. In the field of learning differences, the term refers to a set of mental processes that help perform activities such as planning, organizing, time management, and paying attention to and remembering details. Any time you have promised to meet up with friends at a specific time, written an essay, or met deadlines, you have used your executive functions skills. People with working memory, i.e. the memory we use to “hold” something in the front of our thoughts, weaknesses often have more challenges using executive function skills.
Executive functioning skills weaknesses manifest in several ways, but tend to become most apparent when children enter the later years of elementary school. At this stage in their scholastic careers the demands tend to become more complex, with independent schoolwork triggering warning signs. This can manifest in a host of ways such as: struggling to get to school on time, having difficulty with organizing thoughts and ideas when trying to write an essay, completing homework on time, or keeping school papers organized in a binder, leading to a struggle to complete the work and a feeling of helplessness. This helplessness can lead to the child giving up and as a result underperforming to his/her capabilities. This is often perceived as laziness or a lack of caring about the schoolwork when in reality it is a subtle cry for help.
Fortunately, there are many strategies to employ at home that can help to improve a child’s executive function, and they are fairly simple:
- Set Goals: Just like anything else in life, you need to set goals and make sure they are well defined. Nebulous targets are hard to hit, but if you set your sights on something clearly, and break it down into steps, you can give your child a long-term goal that won’t overwhelm or leave him/her stranded.
- Shifting/Thinking Flexibly: Word games and jokes are great way to get your child to think about something from a different direction.
- Organizing Ideas: Depending on the size and type of project, encourage your child to use outlines or webs when organizing ideas.
- Organizing Materials: The old adage of a cluttered desk being a cluttered mind might not be true for everyone, but a bit of organization never hurts. Make sure your child cleans out his/her backpack and desk on a regular basis, so he/she knows where everything is and has plenty of room to spread out when the need to be messy presents itself – and it will.
- Prioritizing: Just like in setting goals, your child should complete a larger project in steps to avoid being overwhelmed.
- Self-Checking: Your child needs to learn to check schoolwork before turning it in. A personalized checklist can work well for this.
An important thing to remember is that while these practices may be something you have already learned to use, they can be an entirely new set of experiences for your child; do not assume that he/she will figure this out without guidance. Be patient and try to figure out what works best for your child and when. He/she may not be able to master all of these at once and may take time to learn to use even one. Every child learns differently, and some tactics might be better than others. Remind yourself that “successive approximations” of the desired behavior should be praised and that incremental gains are what lead to lasting success.
