Written By: Suzanne Schuchert, M.S., CCC-SLP
This definition of executive function from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child is great: “Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Just as an air traffic control system at a busy airport safely manages the arrivals and departures of many aircraft on multiple runways, the brain needs this skill set to filter distractions, prioritize tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses.”
Executive function is something that takes a lot of practice to develop and improve, even for adults! The good news is that we can work on executive functioning skills while we read with our children.
Talk About Problems, Plans, and Solutions
When the main character of a book or story has come face to face with their primary challenge, it’s time to focus on what happens next. What kind of emotions do they have? What plan do they come up with to attempt to solve their problem? Do they end up following their plan or going rogue? Does the first plan fail, requiring them to be flexible and come up with a new one? Does the character solve their problem alone, or do they require help from others? What kind of unexpected challenges or circumstances occur that force them to adjust their plan?
When we ask our students questions like this, we are modeling the underlying thought processes that happen when we are planning, executing plans, problem-solving, using cognitive flexibility, anticipating possible future outcomes and challenges, self-reflecting on past behavior, and more! Here are some possible questions you could ask elementary-aged students:
- What was the character’s problem?
- What plan did they have to try to solve their problem?
- Do you think it was a good plan? Why or why not?
- How did the character change their plan when they didn’t reach their goal the first time?
Model Self-Monitoring Self-Talk
We can start discussing self-monitoring related to reading with early elementary-aged students, but these discussions can continue to benefit students’ executive function and oral reading skills throughout elementary school. With kindergarteners, parents can occasionally make a “purposeful error” while reading to them by reading a word wrong. Then they might say things like, “Oh that wait, that word can’t be X because it starts with an N,” or “Oops, I read X, but when I looked at it again, I realized it was Y,” or “Wait, X is a short word, and I’m seeing a long word there, so I might need to try that again.” In this way, the parent is showing the child the thought process they might need to take to catch and fix their own mistakes!
This principle can also apply to older students who are reading books out loud to their parents. Parents can help them with self-monitoring when they have decoding errors. For example, parents could say, “Oh, that was close. When you read ‘play’ I picture the letters p-l-a-y in my mind, but I just see p-a-y on the page.” This strategy helps the student pay attention to smaller details and think about comparing their productions to what is actually on the page, which is self-monitoring in a nutshell!
Disclaimer! When I read with students, I don’t use this strategy for every reading error because it can interrupt the forward flow of reading, and at some point, the student starts to say, “Ms. Suzanne, I know what you’re going to say,” and fixes the error themselves, which is what we are going for anyway!
Show Them Attentional “Pausing”
All of the strategies from above are well and good, but what if our kids with executive function needs have a hard time getting through an entire book? Maybe they start making frequent off-topic comments or getting up to get their wiggles out. When that happens, I like to talk through “attention pausing.” This refers to the ability to shift our attention away from a task, do something else, and then return to the original task. This is definitely harder said than done when I’m doing laundry! I often focus on another household task while the clothes are in the washer, and completely forget about them as they sit wet for a few hours.
That being said, I love to target pausing during reading by allowing myself to participate in an off-topic conversation with my student for a minute or two. Then I’ll say something like, “Oh that was fun talking about X, but I just realized we need to get back to our book. Where were we? What was happening again?” If I can tell the student is having trouble sitting still, I might say, “Do you think we should get some wiggles out? Maybe we should do a quick movement break and then get back to our book after.”
Additional Support For Executive Functioning Skills With Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center
At Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center, our passion is helping students thrive with their communication and academic skills. We know building a child’s executive functioning skills is important to helping students achieve their goals. Together, we can help your child master reading, executive functioning, speech, language, writing, math, and so many other skills! Don’t hesitate to reach out. Contact us today!
info@enrichmenttherapies.com
740 Community Drive, Unit A
North Liberty, IA 52317
319-626-2553
infodm@enrichmenttherapies.com
5530 West Pkwy, Suite 300
Johnston, IA 50131
515-419-4270
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