Facilitating Executive Skills Development

Edward C Taylor PhDChild and Adolescent PsychologistAugust 18, 2010

The Millennial Experience

The Millennial Environment

Socially and Cognitively, Neither Here Nor There

High Volume of Data Presented Rapidly

Rapid Shifts in Topic or PlaceCompressed SpeechEnvironmentally Directed AwarenessDigital and Visual DataMulti-Tasking

Environment Directed Awareness

Reacting, Not Planning or ReflectingSomeone else is making decisions

about what, where, how, how long, and how much

Control over the life experience is externalized

What Can The Teacher D0 ?

Facilitate Development of the Executive Skills in Order to Internalize Control Over the Student’s Life Experience

Executive Skills

Facilitate getting the job doneFacilitate our growth over time as a

consequence of our experiencesAllow us to gain greater control over

our future

Broad Categories of Executive Skills

Self-ActivationSelf-RegulationSelf-AwarenessSelf-Determination

Self-Activation

Lighting Up

Self-Regulation

InitiatingModulatingGaugingFocus – SelectiveFocus- SustainingStopping-InterruptingShifting Inhibiting

Self-Regulation

OrganizingForeseeingGeneratingAssociatingBalancingStoringRetrievingPacingTiming

Self-Regulation

ExecutingMonitoringCorrecting

Self-Realization

Direct cognitive processes that promote self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-analysis

Cue cognitive processes to use this self-knowledge to initiate, sustain, or alter behavior

Self-Determination

Foresight, Long Term Planning, and Goal Generation

Direct cognitive processes to construct visions of the future and to reflect on the past in order to improve or alter behavior in the future

Executive Skills Facts

Effectiveness is Domain Specific Sensation-Perception Emotion Cognition Action

Effectiveness is Arena of Operation Specific Intrapersonal Interpersonal Environment Symbol System

Executive Skills Facts

Development begins in first years of life and continues through the life span

Development occurs in spurtsNatural maturational delays can

occurThere is intra-individual unevenness

in developmentThere is inter-individual unevennessThere is gender unevenness

Can the environment influence the development of a biologically based

set of skills ?

The Statue Test 1940 vs 2001

1940

3 year olds 0 minutes

5 year olds 3 minutes

7 year olds long time

2001

3 year olds 0 minutes

5 year olds 0 minutes

7 year olds 3 minutes

Imaginative Play and the Executive Skills

PLAY IN FIRST HALF OF 20TH CENTURY

Unsupervised Child directed In groups Imaginative Activity focused Improvisation Symbolic toys Kids made the rules At home and at school

PLAY IN SECOND HALF OF 20TH CENTURY

Adult organized and directed

Toy or object focused Real toys with a

specific purpose or theme

Rules are given TV, video games, or

lessons Schools focus on

cognitive skills development to pass the test

The Play Connection

Imaginative play promotes self-regulatory self-talk

Self- regulatory self-talk promotes Control over emotions Impulse resistance Planning Plan execution Execution monitoring and self-evaluation Task persistence

Can the environment influence the development of a biologically based

set of skills ?

YES

The Pathway

Facilitate through play and experience

ModelingDirect instructionEnvironmental engineeringProcess awarenessManage the developmental angst

Two Step Intervention Model

Attempt to Generate Internal GrowthApply External Control When

Necessary

Two Step Intervention Model

Attempt to Generate Internal GrowthApply External Control When

Necessary

     “The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to

say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.”

A Corry Story: Watch Your Language

Never help a child with a task at which s/he feels s/he can succeed.

Using Language to Promote Internal Control

Internalize, don’t externalize the dilemma

“You are the boss of the soup.”What is your priority ?Not deciding is decidingHow is that working for you ?

Techniques to Promote Internal Control

Model and Use Self-Talk Encourage Self-Talk, Aloud Model and Use Self-Administered Rewards Model and Use Self-Regulation Routines Teach Self-Regulation Skills Encourage Self-Regulation Behavior Develop a Common Vocabulary for

Discussing and Signaling Need for EF State the Goals of Learning Activities Provide Feedback About Performance

Two Step Intervention Model

Attempt to Generate Internal GrowthApply External Control When

Necessary

The Velvet Gloved Dictator

Strategies For Teaching Executive Skills

Classroom routinesClassroom rulesClassroom organizational systemsLearning strategy trainingClassroom process meetingsManaging developmental angstWatch your language

Classroom Routines

Beginning the day routine Hand in homework Discuss and make plan for the day’s work Prepare materials for the day’s work

End of the day routine Homework assignments written in the planner Backpack materials check Instructions review Review plans for next day Prepare space for the next day

Classroom Routines Development

Teach explicitlyModel consistently and overtlyPrepare to spend two monthsUse checklists at first and then fade

themUse buddy check systemPeriodically count frequency of

target behaviors to determine effectiveness

Classroom Rules

Establish boundaries and moresTrain in the same way that routines

are taughtPost them

Pre K and Kindergarten

Teachers are the children’s frontal lobes in many instances

Young children learn and communicate through play

Strategies To Facilitate Executive Skills Development

Simon Says Thinking Impulse inhibition

Complex Imaginative Play Sustained for 30+ minutes Of the 1940’s style

Strategies To Facilitate Executive Skills Development

Activities requiring planning Games with directions and goal seeking Construction activities Pattern recognition activities Cooking

Joint Storybook Reading Process the characters self-regulatory

behavior promoted modeling Mastery models not Expert models

Elementary Years

Environmental engineeringSkills building and introduction of

tools

Organizational Systems

Folder systemNotebook systemsA place for everything and

everything in its placeGantt charts for projectsMake consistent across classesTime management aids: clocks,

calendars, timers, and schedules

Middle School

Pre-Copernican Thinkers

Middle School

Pre-Copernican ThinkersZen Buddhist Naturalists

Learning Strategy Training

Teach explicitlyDiscuss content and process

simultaneouslyPost-mortems on tests, papers, etc.

Weekly Process Meetings

The post-mortemWhat’s working and what’s not Identify reoccurring problemsEncourage student brainstorming Individualize

Instructional Strategies

Offer feedback and opportunities to re-work or re-study, based upon a self-assessment of what did not work

Offer multiple choices for demonstrating knowledge and skills

Offer pop quizzes as a self-assessment tool

High School and Beyond

Take advantage of the capacity to self-observe and self-evaluate

Facilitating Executive Skills Development In The Older Student

High school is about not having to have your mother go to college with you

Internalizing the dilemmaGiving voice to the resistanceManaging the anxietyThe student as teacher and mentor

Child Constraints

Developmental lagDisorders that involve frontal lobe

functionThe child’s non-school environmentQuestion:

Lacking capacity ?▪ Developmental ?▪ Static ?

Possesses capacity but lacks desire ? Possesses capacity but lacks training ?

Systemic Constraints

Emphasis on knowledge rather than problem solving

The thirty-nine week yearThe 45 minute hour

References

iBrain, Gary Small, MD and Gigi Virgan The New Brain, Richard Restak, MD The Overflowing Brain, Torkel Klingberg, MD Executive Functioning. George

McCloskey,PhD. Learning and the Brain Conference. Boston, MA, 2007

Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents. Dawson, P. & Guare, R., Guilford Press, New York, 2004

Executive Functioning in Education. Lynn Meltzer, Ed. Guilford Press, New York, 2007