Executive Functions are cognitive control abilities that depend on the prefrontal cortex.�

Executive Functions

Core Executive Functions

• Inhibitory Control (self control)
• Working Memory
• Cognitive Flexibility

Higher Order Executive Functions:

• Problem solving
• Reasoning
• Planning

Executive Functions and Children in Poverty

Children in poverty experience an accumulation of risk factor:

• poor access to health care
• mental health and substance abuse problems in the home
• housing insecurity, food insecurity
• These factors disrupt neurobiological systems, especially self-regulation systems such as Executive Function.
• Parents are less likely to support the development of effortful control.

What is Executive Function?

Inhibitory Control/Self Control/Effortful Control

• The ability to resist a strong inclination to do one thing, and instead do what is most appropriate or needed.
• Resisting acting on impulse
• Staying focused on what is important-selective or focused attention.
• Self control- the ability to think before you act, resist temptation, avoid jumping to conclusions.

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Core Executive Functions

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Inhibitory Control: Focus

Core Executive Functions

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Inhibitory Control: Discipline and Self Control

Having the discipline to stay on task

• Persistence: Seeing a task through to completion even when it is tedious or difficult.
• Being able to stay focused despite distractions.
• Continuing to work for a future reward.

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Core Executive Functions

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Impulse Control

Marshmallow Test

Core Executive Functions

Working Memory

• Holding Information in mind while mentally working with it or while working on something else.
• Follow a conversation while formulating what you want to say in response.
• Remembering where something was hidden despite a delay and distractions before you get back to it.
• Holding in mind what happened earlier and relating it to what is happening now.
• Relating one idea to another.
• Relating what you read earlier to what you are learning now.
• Understanding cause and effect.

Higher Order Executive Function Skills

Working Memory

Higher Order

Executive Function Skills

Cognitive Flexibility

• Ability to change course when what you are doing isn’t working.
• Ability to adapt to change easily.
• Ability to take advantage and seize opportunities when they arise, even if it means changing course.

Higher Order Executive Function Skills

Effortful Control and Attention

• Focusing attention
• Shifting attention
• Inhibitory Control
• Examples:
• A student is engaged in one project, and it’s time to start something else.
• A student has a task to do-such as set the table as the helper but cannot stay attentive to the task because every time she sees a toy she likes, she is distracted.
• A student who is accidentally bumped by another child automatically responds by hitting or pushing back.

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What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students?

• Acts without thinking
• Interrupts others
• Overreacts to small problems
• Upset by changes in plans
• Talks or plays too loudly
• Resists change of routine
• Acts wild or out of control
• Easily overstimulated and has trouble calming down
• Gets stuck on one topic or activity

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What Do Executive Skill Weaknesses Look Like in Students?

• Gets overly upset about “little things”
• Out of control more than peers
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Overwhelmed by large assignments
• Can’t come up with more than one way to solve a problem
• Doesn’t notice impact of behavior on others

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Strategies that Support�Executive Function Must Be Developed�

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“Reinforcing a skill that isn’t there,

reinforces that the skill isn’t there”

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• Use visual schedules, checklists, and planners.
• Break tasks into clear, manageable steps.
• Provide models or exemplars of completed assignments.
• Implement daily routines with predictable structures.
• Encourage students to verbalize their plan before beginning.

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Strategies that Support Executive Functions

Problem Solving

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• Use videos to teach social skills, daily routines.
• Provide ongoing, non-judgmental feedback

Strategies that Support EF’s

Sustained Attention

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Assess how long it will take to complete a task? Then use a timing device.

Can you beat the time?

Can you go longer?

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Catch them doing good-PBS

Incentive Plans- First- Then (reward.)

Organization has to be taught

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• Use categories to focus on one topic at a time
• Identify the main idea and supporting details, categorize them, and encourage student to do the same
• Have the student practice organizational skills in other settings
• Create Lists/Agenda on the board
• Color-Coded Binders
• Calendars
• Limit the number of steps in a task
• Provide part of a sequence and have the student finish it
• Give cues such as, “Correct, but what do you think will happen next? What do we do next?
• Structure thinking processes graphically (e.g., time lines, outlines, flow charts, graphs, agendas etc.)
• Make “agenda” a morning activity. Use picture cues.

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Strategies that Support EF’s

Inhibitory Control

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• Teach self-regulation techniques (e.g., stop-think-act, deep breathing, yoga, meditation.)
• Create cue cards or signals for “pause” or “wait”.
• Use token systems or point systems for self-control.
• Provide structured choices to reduce impulsivity.

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Strategies that Support EF’s

Set-Shifting & Perseveration

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• Prepare students for transitions using timers or verbal warnings.
• Use transition cards or visual cues to shift attention.
• Practice switching between tasks through games or role play social stories.
• Offer choices to increase flexibility in thinking and behavior.
• Praise and reinforce attempts to try new approaches.

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Strategies that Support EF’s

• Reduce maladaptive behaviors and increase on-task efforts:
• What are a student’s daily routines?
• Use of visual cues to facilitate sequencing (agendas)
• Rehearse prior to each routine

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Executive Functions: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury

• Planning and organization
• Set-Shifting (Cognitive flexibility)and perseverative tendencies
• Abstract thinking
• Planning and problem solving
• Abstract thinking and analogical reasoning
• Inhibitory control
• Processing speed
• Working memory

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Why is mindfulness a superpower?

Practice Mindfulness

JusTMe Videos for Mindfulness

Rise and Shine

Andy Hobson “I am enough.”

Executive Functions and Mental Health

• Increase in addictions, ADHD, depression, conduct disorder, and schizophrenia are associated with impaired executive functions.
• Children with less self-control (more impulsive, less persistent, poor attention regulation) have worse health, earn less and commit more crimes as adults 30 years later (Terri Moffitt et all , 2011, National Academy of Sciences)

FINGER EXERCISE TO IMPROVE MEMORY