Welcome!

(back?)1. Pre-Survey on phone/chromebook:

http://bit.ly/2Pg5d9w

2. Post-its on your table

● What are 3 questions you have about the adolescent brain?

● What did you notice in the past two weeks that relates to the information about:

● The “Essence of Adolescence”?

● Growth Mindset?

Quick Review from Presentation #1

Why Are We

Here?“Most individuals have an array of

executive skill strengths as well as

weaknesses. The primary purpose

of identifying areas of weakness is to

be able to design and implement

strategies to strengthen those

weaknesses.”

Peg Dawson and Richard Guare

Peg Dawson-licensed clinical school psychologist.

Richard Guare- neuropsychologist

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What can we expect in middle school?

Executive Skills Development

Impact of Biology

❖ at birth Executive Skills exist as

potential-brain wiring present

❖ genetic component inherited

Impact of Experience

❖ physical trauma

❖ emotional trauma

❖ positive coaching/teaching

strengthens development

Executive Skills Development

11-12 years

❖ Prefrontal cortex

❖ Manage executive skills

❖ Birth to _____ yrs. old

❖ A flurry of growth and

pruning process

❖ Golden opportunity

● Sprouting-major surge

in growth in neural connections primarily in the frontal lobesActivated = Strengthened

● Pruning – the abundance of neural connections are reduced, like a garden. Circuits not used wither away

Sprouting/Pruning

Growing a Grown-up Brain

Neural Development

Integration

Adolescent brain remodeling

with its pruning creates a

more differentiated brain and

myelination links those

differentiated regions which

is really all about creating

more Integration

Integration creates self-

regulation— of attention,

mood, emotion, thought,

social interactions, and

behavior.

WHAT’S FIRING IS WIRING

Defining Executive Skills

❖ A concept for understanding what the

brain needs to do to get the job done.

❖ Brain-based skills that are required to

execute or perform tasks.

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Ten Executive Skills

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Executive Skills – 1 through 5

Thinking Skills

1) Organization – create a system

2) Time management/planning – create a timeline or a roadmap

3) Working memory – apply past learning to present and future situations

4) Meta-cognition – think about how we think which leads to self-evaluation and self-monitoring

5) Sustained attention – ability to focus

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Executive Skills – 6 through 10

Behavior Skills

6) Impulse control

7) Managing emotions

8) Task initiation – begin a task without procrastination

9) Flexibility – revise plans in the face of setbacks, new information, or mistakes

10) Task completion - Goal directed persistence

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Brain Development and Executive

Skills

FRONTLINE: INSIDE THE

TEENAGE BRAIN

● What’s going on in there?

● How science may help to explain the

mysteries of the teen years.

Which executive skill is most challenging

for your student?

Thinking Behavior

Organization Impulse Control

Time Management/Planning Managing Emotions

Working Memory Task Initiation

Self-evaluation (meta-cognition) Flexibility

Sustained Attention Task Completion

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https://answergarden.ch/795109

● Distribute handout. The handout lists each executive skill with a number line of 1 – 10 below each executive skill

● On a scale of 1 – 10 score yourself/your student

on each skill

● Table talk: discuss your executive skills’ scores

● Share out

Executive Skills Activity

★ Questionnaire

★ List of Executive Skills Strategies

★ Planning sheet

Setting Goals with a Targeted

Executive Skill

Step 1: Identifying your goal

Identified academic/behavioral challenge:

Identified executive skill:

Step 2: Environmental Modifications

What do I add to or take out of the environment to help me reach my goal:

Step 3: Coach the skill

What steps will be used by the student? What steps will be coached by the

parent?

Student’s Steps (Refer to “Talking Strategies to create a well-designed action

plan)

1.

2.

Parents’ Steps (What does the student need from parent)

1.

2.

Step 4: Incentives/Consequences

What incentives will be used to help motivate the student

How often?

If the student does not complete the steps then

Planning Sheet

Executive Skills: High School, College,

Life . . . .

PARENTING

VS

COACHING

Our Parenting Role Changes

PARENT

❖Makes Decision

❖ Fixes the Problem

❖ Parents have an agenda

❖ Punishment as consequence

The Change to Parent Coaching

● Straightforward, realistic strategies, backed by the latest research

● Calm, confident discipline (without timeouts, threats, spanking or grounding)

● A focus on connection and respectful communication

Become A Coach To Your

AdolescentA COACH:

● Asks questions, makes

suggestions/strategies

● Gives options/direction

● Provide accountability

and structure

● Rewards more effective natural consequences

● Help to develop skills that

will help an adolescent

achieve

● Questions that evoke discovery

What contributed to making that choice?

What caused you to do poorly on the test?

● If you did know, what would you tell me?

● It’s about provoking a thought….

● Exercise the upstairs brain

Strategy #5

Powerful Questioning

● On a scale 1 - 10

● Where are you now?

● Where do you want to be?

● How will you get there?

How to get there?

Strategy #6

Scaling Questions

Strategy #7

Automatic Negative Thoughts

1) Become aware of it - it is simply a thought

write it down

1) Challenge it - “Is this factual?”

1) Replace it with a

Positive and Affirming Thought (PAT)

Goal: create accurate thinking

Strategy #7

3 Simple Steps to Killing ANTs

Strategy #8

Focused Breathing Practice

2 Minute Breathing Meditation

Teenage Flare-Ups: What You Need to Know to Make a Difference

By Karen Young

How to Increase Your Influence with Your Teen By Karen Young

Hey Sigmund

http://www.heysigmund.com/category/with-kids/adolescents/

The student can’t do this work by themselves

It takes time, patience, and having them figure out

their own solutions

Use I statements

Forgive

Avoid negative communication

Accept feelings

Communication builders “I’d like to hear more about

that…”

A few tips for the

Remember, these are years of brain remodeling

Complete Student

Success Skills

Questionnaire with

your student

Plan a well-designed

action plan

1

2

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Teach your student

the handy model of

the brain.

Talk to your student

about the adolescent

brain.

3

4

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Hang the brochure on

the refrigerator or a

place it will be seen

Practice using this

information when a

situation arises

5

6

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Knowing How The Adolescent

Brain Works

Understanding and using this information:

PFC connects cortex with limbic, brain stem, body

Can result in:

Improved focus

Better relationships

Improved self-regulation

Improved executive skills

“Teaching, guiding, influencing

teens is like giving a fish a bath.

Teens will often see your efforts as

unnecessary, burdensome and

unwanted. But in the end they will

remember the energy, enthusiasm

and fun you put into bath time.”

By: Margaret Baldwin

Any Questions?

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Please complete the POST-Survey

http://bit.ly/2PcvVjg

ReferencesBrainstorm, by Dan Siegel

Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention by Peg Dawson, Ed.D and Richard Guare, Ph.D.

Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain, January 31, 2002

Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Function by Joyce Cooper-Kahn, PH.D.

Mindset by Carol Dweck, Ph.D.

San Diego Union-Tribune Parade Magazine, Inside the Teenage Brain by Judith Newman, November 28, 2010

Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential by Peg Dawson, Ed.D. and Richard Guare, Ph.D.

Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind by Michael J. Bradley, Ed. D.

DVD: Smart but Scattered, presented by Richard Guare.

Zits Cartoon by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

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