Save $30 On All ERI On-Demand Courses

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ERI is running a brand new promotion for all on-demand courses. Save $30 on any on-demand course through February 19, 2024. We’ve recently added new courses to our on-demand library so be sure to check out what’s new!

Questions? Contact info@educationresourcesinc.com or call 800-487-6530. 

Supporting Executive Functioning in Students

supporting executive functioning in students

Executive functioning is an essential skill for students to develop. We aren’t born with these skills, so children need to learn them at different life stages. The most common way for children to learn executive functioning is at school, but for some students, building executive functioning skills can prove more challenging. School-based therapists can support development through strategies and learning techniques that target these thinking skills. Let’s look at the importance of executive functioning for kids and teens.

What Are Executive Functioning Skills?

Executive functioning skills refer to the ability to plan, meet goals, exercise self-control, follow multiple steps and stay focused even when distractions surround you. Below is an in-depth look at some executive functioning skills that students need for learning, along with examples: 

  • Planning: Ability to schedule their work for assignments.
  • Organization: Using folders to organize schoolwork.
  • Time management: Allowing enough time to complete homework assignments.
  • Working memory: Holding newly learned information in mind to be applied later.
  • Self-monitoring: Using awareness of your progress to make adjustments that are helpful
  • Self-control: Inhibiting impulses to blurt out or change activities during a lesson
  • Adaptive thinking: Ability to create a plan of action.

These essential thinking skills help a student prioritize their tasks, filter distractions and control their impulses. No student is born with these skills fully intact, but everyone can develop them to varying degrees. Our genes provide the blueprint for executive functioning skills, but the home and school environments help children learn and finesse these skills in the context of their daily lives. 

Developing these skills is one of the fundamental tasks of early childhood and supports healthy development later in middle childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Children rely on these to help them learn how to read, write, solve arithmetic problems and participate in the classroom and group projects. It helps them to become good students, classmates and friends. On the contrary, when these skills are not developed and nurtured, kids struggle to meet expectations at school, and can grow into adults who struggle to carry out routine daily tasks and work obligations.

Executive functioning skills develop in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. They typically appear in early childhood, between 3 and 5 years old, followed by a spike in adolescence and then early adulthood. It takes a long time for people to fully develop these skills. Adult caregivers and teachers can support early development of executive functioning skills by helping children establish routines, breaking up tasks into smaller steps and playing games that encourage imagination, role-playing, following rules and self-restraint — even playing a game of peekaboo  or red light-green light with young children can be an early stepping stone towards executive functioning skills.

As a child’s executive functioning improves, adults can provide opportunities for them to manage more aspects of their environment and daily life. These opportunities can build upon themselves as kids practice their thinking skills and refine their performance based on successes, challenges and feedback. 

What Is a School-Based Therapist’s Role in Supporting Executive Functioning?

Therapists play a crucial role in enhancing students’ participation in daily life, particularly for students with executive function difficulties. Evaluating children’s executive functioning skills provides therapists with valuable insights into their cognitive abilities. They use their findings to tailor appropriate interventions for the student’s areas of need. With their skilled evaluation and intervention planning process, therapists are poised to help families and schools provide instruction and resources that align with students’ executive functioning strengths and weaknesses. 

Early intervention is key when students show signs of struggling with executive functioning. Supporting them early can play an essential role in school success and how they navigate daily tasks and interact with others. Incorporating executive functioning strategies and activities in therapy sessions can help foster better self-awareness, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Each student is unique, and therapists are well-equipped to tailor interventions to the individual’s needs, while continually reevaluating progress to ensure optimal outcomes. 

There are various tools available for therapists when assessing students’ executive functioning skills. A working memory test, for instance, can provide data on how effectively students remember information that is shown or said to them. Outside of standardized testing, naturalistic observations during classroom activities, informal student interviews, feedback from teachers and parents and a review of the student’s progress can all paint a picture of the student’s executive functioning abilities and needs. 

How to Support Executive Functioning Skills

As therapists, there are various executive functioning exercises and strategies that you can implement to develop and improve students’ executive function skills. Interventions include a combination of skill-building strategies and accommodating learning styles to nurture this area of development. Below are examples of intervention strategies and techniques for therapists to use when helping students tackle schoolwork and other responsibilities requiring executive functioning abilities. 

how to support executive functioning skills

Create Checklists

The steps necessary to complete a task aren’t always obvious to kids with executive functioning weaknesses. Creating a checklist with clearly defined steps can make completing tasks less daunting. It also reduces the mental and emotional strain that children experience when they have to make decisions. It keeps them from getting wrapped up in the decision-making process or restarting a task because they think of a better way to complete it. Using a checklist helps kids focus their mental energy on the task at hand. Completing small steps along the way builds confidence and self-esteem in their abilities, providing a sense of accomplishment that fuels further efforts with challenging tasks.

Checklists can be used for nearly everything, such as the morning routine or even how to approach a math worksheet. Including tasks such as brushing teeth, making the bed, getting dressed and packing lunch can help children get ready on time and build their independence. For a math worksheet, steps might include a breakdown of what’s needed for each word problem, such as reading the problem, adding the numbers, writing the answer. Checklists can be handwritten, typed with text, drawn with simple pictures, illustrated with photos of each step or further individualized to meet the student’s communication needs. 

Set Time Limits

When creating a checklist, it’s wise also to include a time limit for each task, especially if the list is for a long-term project. Breaking down the steps with time limits will help students get used to homework and assignments and learn how long these can take them to complete. For example, a checklist for a book report may include time limits for reading along with how long it should take to write the report. Time limits are especially helpful for tasks that may not have a clear ending or visible completion, such as studying vocabulary words, researching a topic or interviewing a subject. Time limits can help the student know when they are done with that step. 

Use a Planner

Many schools require students to use a planner, but few teach them how to use it. Using a planner effectively may not come naturally to children who struggle with organization and planning. Kids with executive functioning challenges struggle with working memory, which means they will struggle to remember things like homework assignments. As a therapist, you can teach kids how to use a planner to write down homework and assignments, including marking off the items they need for these tasks and jotting down time limits for more open-ended assignments and studying. 

Explain the Rationale

When kids learn new skills like planning and organization, explaining the rationale behind these skills is essential. If kids don’t see their value, they will think they are a waste of time. Students with cognitive deficits feel pressured by their time commitments and responsibilities, so they weigh what is worth their time and effort. Understanding the rationale behind it makes them more likely to commit to developing the skill. Better yet, showing where they are using executive functioning effectively to complete their school work can also be motivating for them to continue developing these skills. 

Explore Different Learning Techniques

Learning styles naturally differ between students. Some learners may prefer graphic organizers when preparing for a written assignment. If they are learning to write essays, they may benefit from the hamburger paragraph model, in which a hamburger diagram supports writing a paragraph. Other kids learn better when movement is involved, such as counting their fingers or jumping as they skip count by 5’s. Younger children can benefit from self-talking to reduce anxiety. Another technique is Social Stories, which is an illustrated narrative about a child successfully completing a task from a child’s first-person perspective. 

As children grow older, mnemonic devices can help them memorize facts

While there are several executive functioning skills and numerous strategies to support each one, exploring one skill at a time will keep the child from becoming overwhelmed. 

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Take Courses From ERI and Learn More About Supporting Executive Functioning

Students must learn executive functioning skills early to succeed at school and complete daily tasks. While the most rapid development happens in the early formative years, older children are still developing and refining these skills through early adulthood. As a school-based therapist, it’s important to asses children’s executive function skills and implement interventions to bolster areas of need. You can support executive functioning development by helping students create checklists, discover their learning styles, use a planner and provide visual and auditory supports for learning. 

At ERI, we are passionate about assisting therapists in developing their skills and improving care for their students. Our education courses on executive function will help you invest in your skills and improve student outcomes. Register today!

ERI Offers Two Scholarships to Attend New Birth to Three Conference

Announcing Our New Birth to Three Conference

scholarship therapistERI is excited to kick-off its inaugural Birth to Three Conference scheduled for April 4 and 5, 2024. This virtual conference is geared towards OTs, PTs, SLPs, Special Educators, Assistants and more who work in a variety of pediatric settings including early intervention, hospital inpatient and outpatient, outpatient private practice, rehab, home care, or specialty clinic and want to advance their hands-on skills and strategies when treating the birth to 3 population.

Now Accepting Scholarship Submissions

As a way to acknowledge and honor therapists working with the B-3 population, ERI is offering two scholarships of free tuition to this year’s conference. Do you know someone deserving of this recognition? We want to hear from you! Below is information for the two different scholarships: 

Birth to Three Master Clinician Scholarship:

ERI would like to honor one unsung hero for their significant contribution to therapy practice in the birth to three setting. We are looking for a therapist who is a leader, innovator, mentor and/or collaborator working to better the lives of children in any B-3 practice setting. Nominees should have excellent assessment and intervention skills and use those skills to meet children’s needs in evidence-based, unique and collaborative ways.

Award recipients will also demonstrate the core values of collaboration, leadership, integrity, and a passion for improving the lives of his or her students. Nominate a peer or yourself!

Birth to Three New to Practice Scholarship:

ERI would like to honor one therapist who is new to practicing in the birth to three setting to help further their potential to significantly contribute to therapy practice. This nominee should have a strong potential to meet children’s needs and collaboratively engage with colleagues, parents and other medical providers. Nominate a peer or yourself!

Deadline for Submission is February 18, 2024

You may nominate yourself or a colleague. The award recipients will be notified in early March and honored at the Birth to Three Conference on April 4 and 5, 2024. Registration for the conference is now open. Space is filling up quickly so be sure to register early to secure your spot. Group rates are available for groups of the three or more. 

NEW Neonatal On-Demand Courses with Renowned Presenter Anjanette Lee

Introducing a 4-part CEU series focused on Neonatal Therapy

ERI is excited to announce that neonatal expert, Anjanette Lee, MS, CCC/SLP, CNT, NTMTC, will be presenting a new 4-part series on Neonatal Therapy. These parts can be taken sequentially, or as stand alone courses. Parts 1 and 2 occurred in the fall of 2023, however, we’re happy to share that those courses are now available to view on-demand.

This is a great opportunity to get up to speed if you’re interested in taking all 4 parts sequentially. The live webinar for Parts 3 and 4 are currently scheduled for the spring and fall of 2024 with dates listed below. 

This 4-part series will be perfect for NTs studying for the Neonatal Therapy Certificate Exam and for those beginning to establish competency by 1) laying a foundation of fundamental knowledge, 2) closing gaps within core competencies, and 3) assuring both fundamental knowledge and core competency knowledge are applied during NICU interventions.

What do each of the four parts cover?

PART 1: Now available on-demand
In Part 1 of this beginner to intermediate course, you will learn foundational knowledge pertaining to the philosophical and structural framework supporting neonatal therapy, the impact of the environment on the developing neonate and family, and the body system dynamics that influence the neonate’s development and the neonatal therapist’s supportive interventions.

PART 2: Now available on-demand
In Part 2 of this beginner to intermediate course, you will learn foundational knowledge pertaining to both the maternal and neonatal medical histories, medical and neonatal therapy equipment, and neonatal therapy assessment tools.

PART 3: Webinar scheduled for March 8 or September 20
In Part 3 of this beginner to intermediate course, you will take an in-depth dive into the knowledge and integration of skills needed for independent practice in neonatal therapy, covering micro- and macro-environments, family support, the sensory system, and the neurobehavioral system.

PART 4: Webinar scheduled for September 21
In Part 4 of this beginner to intermediate course, you will take an in-depth dive into the knowledge and integration of skills needed for independent practice in neonatal therapy, covering oral feeding and swallowing and the neuromotor & musculoskeletal systems.

Who is the audience for this series?

These courses are excellent for new-to-NICU therapists beginning to establish competency or therapists studying for the Neonatal Therapy Certificate Exam. This series will offer newer therapists more framework and assistance in solidifying an approach to working with NICU patients.

Additionally, this series could also be a helpful refresher to more seasoned NICU therapists who want to revisit the fundamentals and view this information through a new lens of experience. By viewing this framework through a different lens, therapists could have the opportunity to organize their approach to NICU patients differently and apply their experience in a new way.  

And finally, if you have any colleagues, students, residents, mentorship programs, etc. that you think this information could be useful towards, please feel free to share this series with those who may be interested.

Do I need to attend the entire 4-part series for credit?

No! The beauty of this series is that participants can pick and choose which part(s) they want to attend. Choose to attend only 1 part or all 4 parts – it’s totally up to you. And if you’re just learning about this series now and interested in catching up, the Part 1 and Part 2 on-demand will allow you to get up to speed before attending Parts 3 and 4. 

Registration is now available for all four parts! Questions? Reach out to ERI at info@educationresourcesinc.com or call 800-487-6530.

Welcoming a New Clinician to the ERI team

Joann Sorg, OTR

We are thrilled to announce that Joann Sorg recently joined our team as Assistant Director of Continuing Education. 

She is a seasoned occupational therapist with over 20 years of clinical experience in various settings from early intervention to adult transitions, from in person to telehealth, from large city school districts, where she oversaw service delivery to over 1000 students, to rural community settings where her focus was on improving outcomes of individuals as well as quality control of whole systems. 

Joann works closely with Carolyn Cwalinski, our Director of Continuing Education, to continue to clarify the current and future needs of clinicians and to plan for new educational opportunities to meet those needs. Her new role will help us fulfill our vision of providing education in various platforms that improve the lives of the patients and families that we serve.

Please join us in welcoming Joann. Pease do feel free to reach out to her with topic ideas and thoughts: jsorg@educationresourcesinc.com