Navigating the complexities of parenting children with ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, and expressive challenges can be an ongoing challenge – which is why here at TQS, we aim to not only champion our students, but also our parents and educators.
That’s why we've partnered with Dr. Cheryl Chase, a renowned clinical psychologist, to help TQS families and faculty better understand a topic of critical importance to our student community: executive functioning.
Over the next two years, Dr. Chase will be training both TQS parents and educators on the intricacies of executive functioning, providing knowledge and practical skills that will help us better understand and support student development.
While this curriculum was created specifically for TQS, we always love sharing what we learn – which is why this post will be the first in a series that follows along with Dr. Chase’s teachings. So let’s get into the first topic: understanding executive functions.
What are Executive Functions?
Executive functions are the series of self-regulating skills that help us manage our thoughts, actions, and emotions to achieve our goals.
When describing executive functions to our community, Dr. Chase referenced Dr. Russell Barkley's Hybrid Model of Executive Functioning, which provides us with an insightful framework to understand these functions. He distills them into six core capacities:
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Self-Directed Attention – Focusing our awareness internally on our desires and actions.
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Self-Restraint –Instead of instantly reacting to stimuli, pausing and deliberately choose how to respond.
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Self-Directed Sensory-Motor Actions – Representing external circumstances internally, to think deeply and engage longer.
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Self-Directed Private Speech – Having an internal dialogue to give ourselves instructions, ask questions, organize thoughts, and solve problems.
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Self-Directed Appraisal – Using emotions to evaluate choices while considering social norms and sustaining motivation.
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Self-Directed Play – Breaking situations down to better understand them, and putting them back together to solve a problem.
Understanding and nurturing these functions is crucial, especially for children with complex challenges who depend heavily on these skills for academic and social success.
Six Key Principles of Executive Function Intervention
Dr. Chase then prepared parents and faculty with additional insights from Dr. Barkley: six key intervention strategies that form the bedrock of supporting children with executive function challenges. Throughout Dr. Chase’s course, we will learn how to help students:
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Externalize Important Information – Putting thoughts into something tangible, like writing or drawing, to make them easier to understand.
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Externalize Time – Using visual countdowns and signals to make the abstract concept of time more concrete and help with transitions.
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Externalize Motivation – Maintaining motivation by setting up structured reward systems (like earning tokens to “buy” rewards).
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Make Problem-Solving Manual – Using manipulatives (like marbles for math problems or flash cards with pictures for vocabulary) to make learning manual, not just mental.
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Intervene at the Point of Performance – Teaching strategies in the exact setting where challenges occur to ensure consistency and effectiveness across all environments.
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Replenish the Pool of Effort – Taking proactive measures like exercising, taking breaks, and visualizing to preserve and enhance self-regulation.
By incorporating these foundational principles into our daily practices and educational structures, we can prepare students not just to cope but to exceed expectations.
Join Our Exploration of Executive Functions!
As we continue this groundbreaking partnership with Dr. Chase, TQS invites you to stay connected and to learn along with us. We will keep you updated on key findings, tips, and best practices here on our blog, and on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for updates right in your inbox.
We know that the knowledge and strategies we acquire from Dr. Chase will help us all be better advocates for the extraordinary children we are privileged to guide. Stay tuned for the next lesson!