Laurie Gross, M.A., M.A.T., Educational Therapist & Consultant laurie@mylearningspringboard.com

646.478.8692, ext. 3

www.mylearningspringboard.com

Improving Executive Function Skills

with

Inspired by…

Cutting Edge Approaches for Executive Functioning

Presented by:

Sarah Ward M.S., CCC-SLP

cognitiveconnectionstherapy.com

Johns Hopkins University September 27, 2014

We need to figure out how to support students with

Executive Function challenges

Executive Function is all about…Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

WHAT IS SITUATIONAL INTELLIGENCE? It’s the ability to read a room.

SITUATIONAL INTELLIGENCE!

STOP

Space: You need to be aware of it and what usually happens in it.

Time: You need to be aware of when it is happening.

Objects: You need to be aware of how things are organized.

People: You need to be aware of the people involved. What are they doing?

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

S.T.O.P. and Read the Room! Space: Where am I? What is going on? Is this expected? Unexpected?

Time: Time of day? Routine or non-routine? What is happening at this moment in time? What’s coming up? What pace is required?

Objects: How are things organized? What is the basis for their organization?

People: Read the person. What does their face look like? What is their body, appearance, mood, pace saying?

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Executive Function compromised kids need the sequence of activities

spelled out for them.

The big picture of what is needed to do isn’t instinctive .

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Mimetic Ideational Information Processing

This is a big deal!

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

What is Mimetic Ideational Information Processing?

- Being a “mind mime” - Mime the idea in your head.

- Mental pre-simulation of how the future will play out.

- It is a mental dress rehearsal. - A mental trial and error with out the risk

of error. - You can try it out and pre-experience the

emotion of a situation. - Without risk you can run a plan A and a

plan B and pre-experience how this feel.Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

We have to teach kids with EF challenges how to

FUTURE THINK!

90% of planning occurs in a different space from where we execute it.

We can help students develop future situational thinking by using S.T.O.P.

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Elements of Future Thinking (The Mind Mime)

1. S.T.O.P. - What will it look like?

2. Episodic Future Thinking - What do

I look like doing it?

3. Prospective Visual Memory - How am

I moving to achieve this?

4. Future Emotion - How do I feel?

Motivation comes from imagining the emotional future. Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Executive Function is the ability to

pre-imagine the future.

“What do I need to do to get it done?”

The PASSAGE of TIME underlies all executive function skills.

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Strategies: Remediating

Executive Function Skills

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Get it DONE

Always start with

DONE!Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Get Ready…Do…Done

Put on your FUTURE glasses to find out.

So, what does DONE look like?

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

What does “Get Ready, Do, Done”

look like?

Example: Classroom/desk spaceGet Ready DO Done

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

- Have I taken out my agenda book, all my notebooks/homework folder?

- Have I set up my DONE space? - Have I left my notebooks/folders

open in the DONE space so I can quickly put my materials away when I’m done?

HOMEWORK &

Get Ready, Do, Done

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

- As I take out each assignment, have I visualized what it will look like, and do I know how I will feel when it is completed?

- Now that I know what it will look and feel like when I’m done, what do I need to do to GET READY for each assignment?

- Have I placed the assignment in my GET READY space?

- Do I have what I need to do this assignment?

- How will I feel when I’m finished?

- DO!Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

The Passage of Time

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Our kids don’t always sense the passage of time and if they do, it’s

generally not accurate.

How do we help them?

The Passage of Time

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

The WORKING Clock It’s analog.

It’s at eye level.

It’s meaningful.

The Passage of Time

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Step 3: Count in 5- or 10- minute increments

The WORKING ClockStep 1:

Shade the available time

Step 2: Create time markers - Start time, stop time, midpoint

Start time: Get Ready Midpoint: Do Stop: DONE

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Midpoint Check-in 1. How am I doing at this midpoint

marker?

2. Am I still focused on the goal?

3. Has my priority changed?

4. Am I still answering the question?

5. Do I need to change my pace?Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

The 1 Minute Gauge Rule

How to figure out how long an assignment might take.

Then: Assign one minute/part to get the basic idea of time.

Ask yourself: How many sections are there?

How many parts/questions are there in each section?

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Rate the difficulty of each part/question with a 1, 2, or 3

Easy - 1 minute

Kind of hard - 2 minutes

Hard - 3 minutes

Round up/down to 5 minute intervals

Develop a mathematical equation and figure out how much time you will need…

Use the CLOCK!

Remember!

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014

Laurie Gross, M.A., M.A.T., Educational Therapist & Consultant laurie@mylearningspringboard.com

646.478.8692, ext. 3

www.mylearningspringboard.com

Improving Executive Function Skills

with

Source: Sarah Ward, M.S., CCC/SLP and Co-Director of Cognitive Connections, 2014