Boosting Academic Success with Executive Function Strategies

This article is specifically for parents and educators with children displaying behavioral or academic challenges in school which could be related to poor Executive Function skills. This article defines the term Executive Function and how the delay in mastering specific skills can be mistaken for other disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This article provides a few strategies parents can begin using at home to help their scholar overcome the challenges they may be facing in the academic setting.

When academic or behavioral concerns arise in the classroom, teachers and parents, often, rush to request for testing. I must admit, during my earlier years in teaching, I was on the “testing” bandwagon, too. But now, with over 20 years of teaching, I have learned that every scholar learns differently and has a different learning style. I have also learned that teaching disengaged scholars with challenging behaviors requires patience and a belief that every child can learn. The academic and behavioral challenges, exhibited by hard-to-reach, disengaged scholars may simply be a result of underdeveloped Executive Function skills.

What Exactly is Executive Function?

Neurologists describe Executive Function as the brain processes that drive our ability to focus, solve problems, and organize oneself, remember information, learn from mistakes, and manage impulses, all of which help us learn and develop important social skills (Searle, 2013). There are six major subskills of Executive Function:

1. Planning and Problem Solving: Students usually struggle with beginning a task or meeting goals. They are reluctant to set and stick with goals that challenge them (Searle, 2013).
2. Memory: Students are less likely to feel comfortable responding in class or participating in class discussions and are more likely to “zone out” when tasks or conversations are demanding (Searle, 2013). A weak executive memory system can also impact planning and problem solving executive skills.
3. Organization: Students are often labeled “sloppy” or “unreliable.” They become frustrated with keeping track of time, space, and materials, which make completing learning tasks difficult.
4. Focusing Attention: Students have difficulty maintaining attention or making adjustments and transitions. They make careless mistakes and have difficulty with refocusing themselves as they move from one activity or situation to the next (Searle, 2013).
5. Impulse Control: Students usually display difficulty with how to keep their responses proportional to the issue at hand; their conversation may not be related to the topic of discussion. Students usually have a mentality of “do now, think later” (Searle, 2013).
6. Self-Monitoring: Students usually have a sense of hopelessness because they are unable to accurately assess the quality of their work, they struggle to identify ways to improve their performance.

Strategies that Support Students with Underdeveloped Executive Function

Before testing, medicating, and punishing students, teachers and parents should try some of the strategies listed below. These strategies can also help to build confidence in scholars and help them understand that with a little effort, they can become GREAT scholars.

1. Planning, Problem Solving, and Organization: Display an agenda in class that list all of the activities that are planned for the day. When scholars know what to expect during class time they become less anxious and more comfortable. For example, each day when my scholars enter the learning environment, they can see, displayed on the board, a list that shows all of the learning tasks and activities they will experience. At home, a large dry-erase calendar can be displayed a wall that shows weekly or daily activities, such as household chores or extracurricular activities. These agendas and calendars help to organize time. Another device that can help with organizing time is a timer. Timers can be used to help improve pacing and keep students on task.

2. Memory: The use of visual aids should always be used with information that scholars need to learn, especially when introducing new concepts. For example, in math class when introducing fractions, a diagram, such as a circle sectioned into one half, one third, or one fourth (See image below). Visual aids help organize information into mental images that make relationships and patterns obvious to scholars and help them make sense of the information (Searle, 2013).

3. Focusing Attention: The previously mentioned strategies all have the capabilities to capture the attention of scholars. In addition, the use of graphic organizers, will help focus students’ attention on the topic or skill being studied. With graphic organizers, teachers should provide the topic or focus point, and teachers should also explain how to use graphic organizers correctly. My scholars enjoy using graphic organizers when reading articles because it helps them to understand the information better (See Image Below).

In conclusion, teachers have to think outside the box and try new strategies that have never been used before to capture and keep the attention of our scholars. Using a variety of instructional strategies that will engage our scholars in their learning is worth a try. So let’s engage our students and increase student achievement!

Reference

Searle, M. (2013). Causes and cures in the classroom: getting to the rood of academic and behavior problems. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.