1. February 23, 2015 Resource Teacher Training Karen Horner
Executive Function

2. Do you know anyone who is…..
Disorganized?
Not able to complete homework or assignments?
Unmotivated except when a topic interests him or her?
Rarely able to get things done?
Easily angered?
Having difficulty with social situations?

3. … Difficulties with Executive Function may be the culprit!
Can’t versus won’t
Is this ‘behaviour’?
Is this an act?
Is this student just lazy?
Why can’t this bright student get assignments handed in?
… Difficulties with Executive Function may be the culprit!

4. Executive Function is not the same as intelligence…
…so then what is Executive Function?

5. What did your brain have to do?
How different would your day have gone if your brain didn’t work in an efficient manner?

6. Executive Function
“High level cognitive functions which enable us to manage our emotions and monitor our thoughts in order to work more efficiently and effectively….. These skills help us to regulate our behaviour”
(Dawson and Guare, 2010)

7. Executive Function
Executive Skills are built in, but are not necessarily developed at birth.
Read about Brain Development pg. 2-4 (Dawson and Guare)

8. It Starts With the Brain and Brain Development

9. Prefrontal Cortex and Frontal Lobe
Frontal lobes are the last of brain structures to myelinate. Young adulthood is complete around 24 years of age. This is the same time that executive functioning should be fully developed.

10. How do executive skills develop?
Through a process called myelination. Myelin acts as insulation, increasing the speed with which nerve impulses are transmitted. The faster the impulse, the better the skill.

11. When is brain development complete?

12. A teenage brain is like a Ferrari…
The teenage brain is like a Ferrari: it's sleek, shiny, sexy and fast, and it corners really well.  But it also has really crappy brakes. May look like a well developed brain but struggles a lot  

13. All skills, including executive skills, improve with practice…
The more you practice, the better the skill.
Practice also makes the task less effortful

14. Executive Function is Like a Conductor or….

15. An Air Traffic Controller

16. Executive Function
The following information is from the Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders (POPARD) Handout on Executive Function
Executive Function for students with Autism has been divided into two categories:
Hot Executive Functions
Cold Executive Functions
Show POPARD handout on doc cam

17. Executive Function – Hot Functions
“Affective, motivational processing – includes:
inhibition and emotional regulation,
shifting and flexibility,
initiation and
self monitoring
Most closely associated with behaviour and emotional regulation in social situations.”

18. Executive Function – Cold Functions
Cold Executive Functions:
“Abstract, de-contextualized processing includes cognitive tasks, such as:
working memory,
planning organizing, and
sustaining attention
Most closely associated with academic performance in learning situations” – thinking about thinking

19. 8 Elements of Executive Function
Thinking About Thinking (Cold)
Behaviour Regulation (Hot)
Initiation
Inhibition
Planning
Shifting Attention
Organization
Emotional Control
Working Memory
Monitoring
Metacognition

20. Thinking About Thinking: Task Initiation
The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion.
getting started; paying attention; finishing work

21. Thinking About Thinking: Planning/Prioritization
The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important.
Taking an issue apart, analyzing the pieces, reconstituting and organizing it into new ideas (complex problem solving).

22. Thinking About Thinking: Organization
The ability to design and maintain systems for keeping track of information or materials.

23. Thinking About Thinking: Working Memory
The ability to hold information in mind while performing complex tasks. It incorporates the ability to draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or to project into the future.
Working memory and recall (holding facts in mind while manipulating information; accessing facts stored in long-term memory.)

24. Thinking About Thinking: Monitoring/ Metacognition
The ability to stand back and take a bird’s eye view of oneself in a situation. It is an ability to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self monitoring and self evaluative skills.
self-monitoring and prompting

25. Thinking About Thinking: Time Management
The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines.  It also involves a sense that time is important

26. Behaviour Regulation: Flexibility
The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes.  It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions.
If there is a bad match between student and environment may look like: withdrawl, overwhelming anxiety, anger, fear months (coinciding when they start to get mobile). We need to be the surrogate frontal lobes! Need to design environments that operate as external frontal lobes.
Flexibility – need to understand the expectations all of the time. Once they make a decision, they are full in – that is scary! Put your agenda on the table so they know! Picture schedules, pre-planning, preparing them.

27. Behaviour Regulation: Sustaining Attention
The capacity to attend to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom

28. Behaviour Regulation: Response Inhibition
The capacity to think before you act. This ability to resist the urge to say or do something allows us the time to evaluate a situation and how our behaviour might impact it.
changing activities, stopping existing activity, stopping and thinking before acting or speaking

29. Behaviour Regulation: Emotional Control
(Also called self-regulation
or affect)
The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behaviour.
using "self-talk” to control one's behavior and direct future actions

30. Executive Function and the Impact on Learning, Behaviour and Socialization
ADHD
Learning Disabilities
Autism
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Depression
Head Injuries
Etc…..

31. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students?
Ask without thinking
Easily over-stimulated and has trouble calming down
Interrupts others
Gets stuck on one topic or activity
Overreacts to small problems
Gets overly upset about :little things:
Upset by change in plans
Out of control more than peers
Overwhelmed by large assignments
Can’t come up with more than one way to solve a problem
Talks or plays too loudly
Low tolerance for frustration
Doesn’t notice impact of behavior on others
Acts wild or out of control
Don’t see their behavior as part of the issue
These have to do with behaviour regulation – response inhibition challenges

32. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students?
Doesn’t write down assignments
Forgets homework/forgets to pass it in
Forgets directions
Leaves long-term assignments or chores until the last minute
Forgets to bring materials home
Can’t break down long-term assignments
Runs out of steam before finishing work
Sloppy work
Choose “fun stuff” over homework or chores
Messy notebooks
Passive study methods (or doesn’t study)
Loses or misplaces things (books, papers, notebooks, mittens, keys, cell phone, etc.)
Can’t find things in backpack
These are metacognitive challenges

33. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students on ASD Spectrum?
Overreacts to small problems
Gets stuck on one topic or activity
Upset by changes in plans
Gets overly upset about ‘little things’
Overwhelmed by large assignments
Out of control more than peers
Resists change of routine
Can’t come up with more than one way to solve a problem
Doesn’t notice impact of behavior on others
Low tolerance for frustration
Don’t see their behavior as part of the issue

34. What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students on ASD Spectrum?
Difficulty With:
Monitoring behaviour/performance/emotions
Regulating behaviour/emotions
Inhibiting automatic/overlearned responses
Shifting from one task/situation to another
Flexible problem solving
Changing expectations
Adapting to change
Planning/organizing an activity
Applying past learning to new situations

35. 3 Key Strategies for Managing Executive Skill Weaknesses
Intervene at the level of the environment
Intervene at the level of the child by:
Teach the student the weak skill
Motivate the student to use the skill

36. 3 Primary Ways Adults Can Help Students with Weak Executive Skills
Change the environment both to reduce the impact of weak executive skills and encourage the use of executive skills.
Help the student learn and practice executive skills.
Use incentives to help students to use skills that are hard for them.

37. Move from External to Internal: Critical Dimensions
EXTERNAL INTERNAL CHANGE CHANGE ENVIRONMENT STUDENT EXTERNAL CUE SELF-CUE

38. Executive Function
How do you support a student with Executive Function deficits?
……Be their ‘external brain’!

39. Executive Function
When planning to accommodate for deficits in these areas it helps to determine which executive function is being challenged and based on that, what would be the best intervention to support the need *
Give out Abridged Executive Control Skills Checklist and show Dawson and Guare book

40. Prevent Change the Environment Adapt the Task Provide cues
Provide modeling

41. 1. Change the Environment
Start here
Changes depend on the area of need
Impose structure
E.g. messy desk due to organizational problems
Text books kept on the shelf not in desk, binder system

42. Environmental Modifications
Task domain/Executive Skills
Classroom/Home Support
Change the social environment
- Response inhibition
- Emotional control
Reduce social complexity (e.g. fewer kids, more adults, supervision on playground, structured play vs. free play)
Change the ‘social mix’ (seating arrangements in class, special table in cafeteria)

43. Environmental Modifications
Task domain/Executive Skills
Classroom/Home Support
Change the physical environment
Response inhibition
Sustained attention
Task initiation
Organization
Add barriers (gates, laws)
Seating arrangements (e.g. place distractible kids near teacher, away from windows)
Reduce distractions (e.g. music as white noise)
Use organizing structures (e.g. clear plastic containers with labels, consistent space on blackboard for writing homework

44. Environmental Modifications
Task domain/Executive Skills
Classroom/Home Support
Modify tasks
Sustained attention
Task initiation
Working memory
Flexibility
metacognition
Make tasks shorter or build in breaks along the way
Make steps more explicit
Help kids track time

45. Environmental Modification
Response Inhibition
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Increase external controls
Cue the child (external to internal)
Restrict access
Teach wait/stop
Post home or classroom rules and review regularly
Teach delayed gratification

46. The Marshmallow Experiment
The Zimbardo Experiment

47. Environmental Modification
Working Memory
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Use orthotic memory devices
Principle of ‘off-loading’
Directions/Past experience (prompt them to access it)
Agenda books/calendars
Generate options and have them choose (or elicit options from student)
Notebooks (to do lists)
Mentally rehearse association between cue and working memory
Electronic devices & apps (iPad, iPhone)
Choiceworks app

48. Environmental Modification
Emotional Control
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Reduce or eliminate triggers
Teach kids to recognize situations or early signs
Give child a script to follow
Graded exposure/guided mastery
Remove student from problem situation
Teach coping strategy
Rehearse the strategy repeatedly until it is internalized

49. Environmental Modification
Flexibility
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Limit flexibility demand
Increase support
- reduce novelty
- highlight similarities
- provide a template
- put in place a default
strategy
- turn open-ended tasks
into closed-ended
tasks
- make steps more explicit
- normalize errors
- present expectations
- walk them through the
task
- give plans or rules for
managing situations
- think aloud

50. Environmental Modification
Sustained Attention
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Reduce distractions
Teach self-monitoring/peer coaching
Prompt to attend (look, listen, respond)
Have the student identify something to look forward to
Modify/limit task length or demand (end in sight)
Build in variety/choice
Choose best time of day
Immediately reinforce

51. Environmental Modification
Task Initiation
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Provide cues/prompts
Have the student select cueing system
Reduce perceived effort/task demand
Help the student limit initial demand
Walk through first step – build behavioural momentum
Help the child select reinforcer
Make help readily available
Help the child make a plan for doing the task
Establish set time to do non-preferred tasks

52. Planning/Prioritization
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Demonstrate what a plan is
Walk through the planning process
Help student design a plan/template
Have them apply plan to a simple task and gradually prompt kids to do more of the planning themselves
Provide planning tools (calendar, agenda, apps)
Ask questions to get kids to prioritize (What do you need?, What should you do first?)

53. Environmental Modification
Organization
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Demonstrate principle of off-loading the example from their lives
Help them walk through the process. Have them motorically practice it (a long-term process, requiring that they put a system in place that’s monitored, initially on a daily basis)
Work with them to create scheme, template or picture
Ask students to evaluate current systems and challenge them to improve them
Show organizational tools and have them try them out

54. Environmental Modification
Time Management
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Make schedules and time limits explicit
Help kids learn what time means (time gaps in behavioral contingency)
Work with kids to make a schedule to follow and prompt each step of the way
Picture schedules
Clocks, alarms
Tablet/phone apps
Timers
Show them ways to mark time and let them practice
Practice how to estimate how long it takes to do something
Help them to follow schedules (daily events to homework plans)

55. Goal-Directed Persistence
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Establish goals with kids
Point out to kids how they already set goals but they may not know what they are. Define goals as something that people want to get better at or to change
Reward kids for persistence (sticking with difficult tasks)
Ask kids to set small, achievable goals, or a goal for something they want to do outside of school or set class goals
Make sure the goal or benchmark is in sight

56. Environmental Modification
Metacognition
Environmental Modification
Teaching Strategy
Specify what is to be evaluated and how (goal or objective)
Help student on how performance will be evaluated
Evaluate performance for the student
Have the student evaluate her performance
Provide sample to match or error-monitoring checklist
Compare evaluations
Teach students to ask questions
- What’s my problem?
- What’s my plan?
- Am I following my plan?
- How did I do?

57. After the Fact… Label what the student did well
Talk about the situation (s)
Ask for feedback from others

58. More Strategies
Break complex tasks down into manageable tasks with deadlines
Goal
Estimated Time Needed:
Start Date
__/__/__
Deadline Date
Done 1. 2.

59. Resources… See Resources Handout for more ideas
First Class – Special Programs – Resources – Executive Function