Supporting Elementary Executive Function Skills: Starting the New School Year off Right
A new school year is upon us which means students (and parents!) have a lot more responsibilities and things to remember in the morning. As an executive function coach, I help students and parents develop their executive function skills. What are executive function skills? These are skills such as task initiation, sustained attention, planning, and organizing that are so essential to success in school and life.
With the new school year in mind, I want to share some ideas for supporting your students in developing their executive function skills. These skills do not fully develop until between the ages of 25-32, so as a parent, it is your job to support your student and model strong skills until their prefrontal cortex develops.
If you have an elementary school student who struggles with executive dysfunction, chances are the morning routine is quite challenging. Here are 2 things you can try to make it go more smoothly:
On a weekend day (or a school day when you're not running late), have your child get ready as if they are going to school. Make sure they have on clothes, their backpack, lunchbox, water bottle, and anything else pertinent…shoes might be a good idea. Once they look how they are expected to look everyday going to school, take a picture of them. Print out this picture and put it up in their room or by the front door so they can visualize exactly what their goal is each morning.
Use a visual timer- this is great for building time awareness and it helps students SEE how much time they have. You can use this in a few ways:
You could set a get ready timer- students have X amount of time to get their clothes on, brush their teeth, and put their shoes on.
You could set a timer for when the student has to be ready, have eaten breakfast, and have all their school stuff ready to go.
Gamify it: Set a timer and challenge your kiddo to beat the timer!
I definitely cannot take credit for the photo idea, but it is very common in the world of ADHD coaching. The reason this can be helpful is because students with developing executive function skills or executive function challenges often have a hard time envisioning the end result and mentally planning out the steps to get there. If they know and can see what is expected, the activity can be accomplished a lot quicker.
