Strategies for Success | Executive Functioning

Mike’s performance has been unpredictable all year! He is so bright and creative and his teachers report that he participates in classes. However, homework is a daily battle that I dread. Mike’s teachers recently told me that he is often late with papers and projects and that he is lazy. (Parent of a 5^th grader)

Academic success in our 21^st century schools is increasingly linked with children’s mastery of a wide range of skills that rely on their use of executive function strategies. The crucial role of executive function processes begins in the preschool years and increases as students progress through middle and high school when they are expected to master complex skills that involve summarizing, note-taking, and writing. Success depends on students’ ability to plan, organize and prioritize tasks, materials, and information, separate main ideas from details, think flexibly, memorize content, and monitor their progress. It is important to help children to understand how they think and learn, and to teach them to use strategies in five major executive function areas:

Shifting/Thinking flexibly
Organizing
Prioritizing
Accessing working memory
Self-monitoring/Self-checking

The Impact of Executive Function Weaknesses on Academic Performance executive-function-model

When I have to write a paper, I try to write but I can’t figure how to get my mind unstuck. I get so frustrated when I have written only a few sentences after an hour so I give up. (John, 7^th grade)

When students like John need to coordinate the skills required for tasks such as writing or completing long-term projects, they often become “stuck,” the information gets “clogged,” and they struggle to produce.

This model* of a “clogged funnel” (Meltzer, 2007, 2010) best explains the challenges faced by students with executive function weaknesses who often:

struggle with open-ended tasks (e.g., organizing their calendars) because they are unable to prioritize and organize the various steps;
have difficulty shifting between different aspects of the task (e.g., switching from outlining to writing, from one academic subject to another, or from calculating a math fact to checking the answer);
over-focus on the details, ignoring the bigger picture;
struggle to take notes or to outline because they lose track of the main ideas;
have difficulty checking their work without structure or guidance;
forget to hand in completed work.

Students who cannot “unclog the funnel” may have difficulty showing what they know. Their grades often do not reflect their ability and, in spite of their effort, they may be labeled as “lazy.” As they enter middle and high school, where the demands for independence and efficiency increase, they often become frustrated, lose self-confidence, and, as a result, make less effort in school.

Executive Function Strategies: An OverviewMy success is due to the strategies I learned and the confidence and self-understanding I gained after I used the strategies and got higher grades. (Sarah, 11th grader)

Executive function strategies provide an important foundation for improving students’ academic performance, confidence, and effort. Students like Sarah who use strategies develop a deeper understanding of their unique strengths and weaknesses and begin to see improved grades. Encourage your child or teen to use strategies and, in doing so, keep the following principles in mind:

Don’t assume that your child already knows how to use a strategy.
Children and teens need to learn when to use which strategies and in what contexts. Not all strategies work for everyone all the time.
You know your child! Help your child to personalize the strategies that work best so that these techniques become more meaningful.

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:

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

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.

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.