Strategies to Develop Executive Function Skills

1.Impulse Control

Impulse Control helps a student think before acting. Students with weak impulse control might blunder out inappropriate things. They’re also more likely to have an interaction in risky behavior. Strategy to improve: Provide students with a “Wait 5” strategy–counting to 5 before verbally responding to an input within the classroom, and a “Wait 3” in personal conversations to think before speaking in pairs or groups.

2.Emotional Control

Emotional Control helps students keep their feelings under control. Students with weak emotional control often overreact. They’ll have trouble addressing criticism and regrouping when things fail. Strategy to improve: Help students see the link between thoughts and feelings. As their ability to control and reframe their thinking, their emotions can benefit in parallel.

3. Flexible Thinking

Flexible Thinking allows students to regulate to the unexpected. Students with “rigid ” thinking don’t “roll with the punches.” they may get frustrated if asked to give some thought to something from a distinct angle. Strategy to improve: Create weekly journal prompts that need students to try to do exactly that–see things from multiple perspectives. A toddler drops a frozen dessert cone before their friends. A teacher screams at a player. A shy student wins an award–describe these situations from the multiple perspectives of various participants.

4. Memorizing Memory

Memorizing Memory helps students keep key information in mind. Students with weak remembering have troubled remembering directions–even if they’ve taken notes or you’ve repeated them several times. Strategy to improve: Use memory games or apps like Fit Brains Trainer or Luminosity, or use memory-based team-building games that need students to recollect something as a part of a classroom activity–names, colors, favorite things, etc., and so celebrate their success.

5.Self-Monitoring

Self-Monitoring allows students to judge how they’re doing. Students with weak self-monitoring skills could also be surprised by a foul grade or feedback. Strategy to improve: ‘Stop & look’–periodically call bent on the category, ‘Stop and look’ so, they’ll intentionally pause at any given moment and assess what they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what their engagement level is, and the way they’re or aren’t making progress towards a private goal.

6. Planning & Prioritizing

Planning and prioritizing help your child settle on a goal and an inspiration to fulfill it. Students with weak planning and prioritizing skills might not know which parts of a project are most significant. Strategy to improve: Have students to crate mock projects–video games, music albums, books, businesses, apps, etc.–and then contrive how they may accomplish that goal, then pair-share that map to open for feedback from partners within the classroom (which also helps with Emotional Control, and versatile Thinking as well).

7. Task Initiation

Task initiation helps students take action and obtain started. Students who have weak task initiation skills may freeze up because they need no idea where to start. Strategy to improve: Create daily prompts of varied tasks to complete, and have students brainstorm different “starting points,” then share out.

8. Organization

Organization helps your child keep track of things physically and mentally. Students with weak organization skills can lose their train of thought–as well as their mobile phone and homework. Strategy to improve: Organizational apps. Checklists. Planners. Various things work for various students. Experiment, persist, and find what works to assist students organize themselves.