Executive Function Skills
Executive function skills are high-level mental processes that allow us to regulate behavior over time to achieve longer-term goals. Put simply, they help us get stuff done.
Nurturing these skills from a young age can have a bigger impact on your child’s education and long-term well-being than other factors -including IQ, school choice, or delaying kindergarten.
Nurturing these skills from a young age can have a bigger impact on your child’s education and long-term well-being than other factors -including IQ, school choice, or delaying kindergarten.
My approach is informed by researchers in the fields of education, psychology, and over 20 years experience as a teacher and educational consultant in public and K-12 independent schools. I provide learners with tailored recommendations and hands-on training using both assistive technologies and other, traditional learning tools and organizational strategies. Given the strong influence of the home environment, I strongly encourage parental involvement.
Executive function skills are all about self-regulation -the ability to do all it takes to focus on a goal despite distractions. Self-regulation skills are shaped by both heredity and the home environment. They continue to develop until around age 25, but are often delayed in people with ADHD and other learning differences.
My framework consists of the following:
Executive function skills are all about self-regulation -the ability to do all it takes to focus on a goal despite distractions. Self-regulation skills are shaped by both heredity and the home environment. They continue to develop until around age 25, but are often delayed in people with ADHD and other learning differences.
My framework consists of the following:
- Attention regulation: Attention is the doorway into learning. While largely chemical in nature, there are many environmental considerations that enable a focused learning environment. Without attention, there is no learning.
- Procedural regulation: Some students struggle because they have not been taught how to accomplish tasks that depend on certain cognitive skills in ways that work for them. Like pilots who use checklists to guide their actions and keep cool under pressure, students benefit from helpful learning tools that structure challenging academic and organizational tasks. (Time, task management; initiation; self-monitoring; organizing space/materials; transitions; working memory)
- Emotional regulation: How we feel about something often dictates how or whether we act on it. Emotions are the rudder that dictates a learner’s response to a problem. When a student has systems for juggling the complex demands of school, emotions are more likely to motivate and sustain effort than derail it.