Executive Functioning

In a system that typically emphasizes subject area content, students with deficiencies in executive functioning can go unchecked for some time. Through some likely combination of intelligence, good behavior, and manageable expectations these students can often muscle through the earlier grades, earning decent, if not high marks.  While this is good news on certain levels, as academic demands grow, they will increasingly need these planning and organizational skills to manage workloads and experience academic success, however this may be defined. 

As an educational support specialist who has worked in independent high schools for more than ten years, I have observed the experiences of 9th graders who lack many of these critical skills.  While it is the student who receives most of the attention, this situation also creates many confounding challenges for parents and teachers. Until students learn to apply these "executive" skills on their own, life at school and at home often becomes needlessly stressful and chaotic.

To help students learn to manage and use limited time more effectively, I provide direct instruction in using technology and other hands-on tools to:

• Utilize and maintain a combination of daily, weekly, and monthly calendars
• Keep a to-do list of action items and address them
• Create a realistic schedule for work, outside commitments, recreation and rest
• Write down assignments and due dates
• Prioritize tasks and make progress incrementally
• Identify appropriate contexts for accomplishing tasks
• Communicate with teachers and other support resources so needed information is known
• Reflect on and refine time management efforts

For a partial list of tools that help accomplish these outcomes, please refer to the Toolbox pages of the website.