Executive Functioning Skills Every Student Needs This School Year by Dr. Emily Levy, Founder & Director, EBL Coaching

Does your child lose papers, forget to turn in their homework, or wait until the last minute to start a project? If so, they may have weak executive functioning skills. Many students are bright and capable but struggle with organization, time management, planning, and following through on tasks. As academic demands increase, these skills become just as important as subject knowledge for success in school. By teaching your child strategies for building these skills now, you can help set them up for long-term success.

What Are Executive Functioning Skills?

Executive functioning skills enable students to plan, organize, regulate their behavior, and achieve goals. They help students learn and recall information, solve problems, and self-monitor their actions.

As schoolwork becomes more demanding, developing these skills can help your child become more confident, independent, and successful both in and out of the classroom.

What are Some Executive Functioning Strategies You Can Teach Your Child?

Time Management

Many students struggle with predicting how long they think an assignment will take to complete, often underestimating the required time commitment. They might think a book report can be completed the night before it’s due or assume a math sheet will only take ten minutes to finish when it actually requires an hour.

One technique you can teach your child is the ET vs. AT, or Estimated Time versus Actual Time strategy. To use this strategy, your child should select an assignment they need to complete and predict how much time they think it will take to finish that assignment. They should write down the ET, or estimated time. Then they should track how long the assignment actually takes to complete and write down the AT, or actual time. When students first use this strategy, there is often a significant discrepancy between the ET and AT. However, the more they practice the strategy, the more realistic they become about estimating their time, and the more their time management skills improve.

Organization

Many students struggle with their organizational skills and have difficulty managing their belongings, including their papers, digital files, and homework assignments. Teach your child this 3-tier organizational system to help them improve their organizational skills:

Tier 1 is the binder or folders/notebooks they take to school on a regular basis. They should designate one day per week to clean out their folders, notebooks, and backpack (perhaps every Friday or another day during the week), removing the papers and materials they no longer need to be carrying with them on a regular basis. They can either toss what they don’t need or file the papers they want to keep into Tier 2, which is an accordion file they keep at home. This accordion file should have three sections for each class: homework, notes, and test/quizzes. For example, they might have sections for math homework, math notes, math quizzes; social studies homework, social studies notes, and social studies tests/quizzes; and so on. When they clean out their backpack and notebooks, they should file the papers into the appropriate section of the accordion file and refer to them when it’s time for midterms or finals, or when they need to reference them for a project or assignment. Tier 3 is a filing drawer where they can put projects or assignments they are proud of and want to keep for the long run.

Planning and Prioritization

As students move through school, assignments typically become longer and more complex. Instead of having one homework sheet to complete per night, for example, they may need to juggle several long-term projects, homework assignments, and exams.

Help your child with planning and prioritizing these tasks by asking questions like:

• Which assignment do you need to complete first?
• Which task will likely take the longest?
• Which deadlines are coming up first?
• How can I break down this project into smaller steps?

Encourage your child to create simple checklists and come up with 1-2 priorities each day to help them feel less overwhelmed with their workload and more on top of what they need to get done.

Attention and Focus

In our current tech-filled world, it’s easy for students to become distracted, especially when working on their school assignments. One strategy they can use at home to help maintain focus and avoid distractions is called the Pomodoro Technique. To use this strategy, rather than trying to complete all their homework in one sitting, students can break down their work into timed segments, as follows:

They should start by setting a timer for 20 minutes and should work on their assignments for this time period, without taking any breaks and trying to avoid all distractions. Then, when the timer goes off, they should take a 5-minute break. This 25-minute window is called one Pomodoro Cycle. They should then set their timer again for 20 minutes, work for that time period, then take another 5-minute break. Once they have completed four Pomodoro Cycles, they should take a longer, 30-minute or so break.

If 20 minutes of work time is too long for your child initially, have them start with a shorter work period followed by a slightly longer break, with the goal being to ultimately reach the 20 minutes on, 5 minutes off work cycle. This will help them complete their schoolwork more efficiently and effectively.

Self-Monitoring

Many students rush to complete assignments and then submit them without taking time to review their work. Self-checking is an important executive functioning skill that helps students identify careless mistakes, correct their errors, and make sure they have completed all parts of their assignments.

Teach your child to self-monitor by asking questions like:

• Did I follow the instructions correctly?
• Did I answer all the questions?
• Did I make any careless errors?
• Do I need to revise my work?

Teaching your child to pause, review, and reflect on their work can help them minimize careless mistakes and become stronger, more independent students.

Closing Thoughts

Executive functioning skills play a role in essentially every subject. As students move through school, they are expected to organize their materials, manage their time, plan ahead, solve increasingly complex problems, and balance the demands of multiple classes and activities.

By teaching your child strategies to build their executive functioning skills, you can help them become more organized, confident, and independent students.

EBL Coaching specializes in one-on-one in person and virtual tutoring for students in grades pre-K-12 with specialized learning needs. They use research-based, multi-sensory techniques, including the Orton Gillingham method, to develop students’ reading, writing, math, note taking, test taking, and executive functioning skills. Each student is evaluated and then receives an individualized learning plan to address their specific academic needs. Learn more at http://www.eblcoaching.com/. Dr. Emily Levy, Founder & Director, is happy to hear from anyone who is in need for their child. You may reach her thru her website, and mention you heard of her thru MotherhoodLater.

Tags: ADHD; exeutive functioning; special needs; dr. emily levy; tutoring students, america, creative writing, executive functioning, school, special needs, tutor