Executive Function and School Performance: A 21st Century Challenge - Página 2

Here are a few strategies to use as starting points. See the “series” articles listed at the end for more details.)

Goal setting

• Help your child to set attainable goals that are well-defined.
• Break goals down into smaller steps and talk about alternative approaches.

Shifting / Thinking Flexibly

• Expose your child to jokes, riddles, and puns which are enjoyable ways of learning to shift between different meanings.
• Teach your child to think flexibly when solving math problems by comparing their estimates with their answers to word problems or discussing a variety of approaches to a problem.

Organizing Ideas

• Encourage your child to use outlines, graphic organizers or webs to organize ideas for a large project.
• Encourage your child to use two- or three-column notes when reading or studying.

Organizing Materials

• Work with your child to develop a system for organizing materials in folders, backpacks, and lockers.
  • Make sure your child has a designated place for completed assignments.
  • Encourage your child to clean out his or her backpack once a week. 
  • Provide space at home to file old tests and study guides that may be needed at a later date.

Prioritizing

• Have your child “divide and conquer” upcoming assignments and projects by planning to complete larger assignments in steps to avoid last-minute panics.

Accessing Working Memory

• Encourage your child to create his or her own silly sentences, acronyms, or cartoons to remember information.
• Help your child to create songs, stories, and acronyms to remember the steps involved in completing and checking written papers and math problems.

Self-monitoring/Self-Checking

• Children need to learn to check their schoolwork before turning it in. Help your child to develop personalized checklists to correct his or her most common mistakes.

Encouraging children and teens to use executive function strategies puts them on the path to success in school and in life. For more information and suggestions read the other three articles in this series:

• Executive Function: Flexible Thinking Strategies for Life-Long Success
• Executive Function: Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking for Independent Learning
• Executive Function: Organizing and Prioritizing Strategies for Life-Long Success

 
Recommended Resources

• Executive function in education: From theory to practice by Lynn Meltzer (ed.)
• Promoting executive function in the classroom (What works for special-needs learners series) by Lynn Meltzer 
• Strategies for success: Classroom teaching techniques for students with learning differences (2^nd ed.) by Lynn Meltzer, Bethany Roditi, Joan Steinberg, et al.
• Parent guide to hassle-free homework by Judith Stein, Lynn Meltzer, Kalyani Krishnan, Laura Pollica, Bethany Roditi

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Lynn Meltzer, Ph.D., is the President and Director of Research at the Research Institute for Learning and Development (ResearchILD) and Director of Assessment at the Institute for Learning and Development. She holds appointments at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Tufts University. She is also a fellow and past-president of the prestigious International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities. Her work includes numerous articles and books for professionals and parents with an emphasis on assessing and teaching executive function strategies.

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Michael Greschler, M.Ed. is the Senior Research Associate at the Research Institute for Learning and Development and the Assistant Program Coordinator of ResearchILD’s SMARTS Executive Function and Leadership Program. He has an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and 8 years of experience teaching academic skills to struggling students using fun, innovative techniques.

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