Executive Skills A Practical Guide The 1st Southern Tagalog Symposium on Developmental Disabilities

Executive Skills Conductor of an orchestra Channel selector of TV Chairman of the Board

Role of Executive Skills Meet challenges Accomplish goals Help decide which tasks to pay attention to, to perform Organize behavior to delay gratification SIMPLY: TO REGULATE BEHAVIOR

Role of Executive Skills Thinking skills to achieve goals and problem solve Planning Organization Time management Working memory Metacognition Guiding skills to modify behavior Response inhibition Self-regulation of affect Task initiation Flexibilty Goal directed persistence

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Select and achieve goals Develop problem solutions

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Planning - the ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or complete a task - deciding what is important to focus on (saliency determination)

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Organization The ability to arrange or place things according to a system

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Time management The capacity to estimate: How much time you have How to allocate the time you have How to stay with in time limits and meet deadlines Instilling that a Sense of time Is important!

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Working memory Ability to hold information in the mind while performing complex tasks Ability to apply previous learning to the lesson at hand for problem solving

Role of Executive Thinking Skills Modifies your behavior to be able to meet the goals Metacognition The ability observe yourself in a situation Self-monitoring

Role of Executive Guiding Skills Response inhibition Capacity to think before you act Evaluating how a behavior may impact a situation

Role of Executive Guiding Skills Self-regulation of affect The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, control or direct the behavior

Role of Executive Guiding Skills Task initiation The ability to start a task with out undue procrastination

Role of Executive Guiding Skills Flexibility The ability to revise in the face of obstacles, new information, mistakes Being adaptable to changing conditions

Role of Executive Guiding Skills Goal-directed persistence Capacity to follow through to the completion of a goal and not to be put off by competing interests and other demands

Role of Executive Thinking and Guiding Skills Not so much for day-to-day habits and routines To help you face new challenges and resolve to pursue a goal

Developmental Tasks Requiring Executive Skills Preschool Running simple errands (get your shoes from the room) Pack away things Perform simple chores and self-help tasks with reminders Inhibit behaviors: don’t touch hot stove, don’t run into the street, don’t grab, hit, push, etc

Developmental Tasks Requiring Executive Skills Kindergarten - grade 2 Run errands with 2-3 steps directions Tidy room Simple chores Deciding how to spend money Inhibiting behaviors - follow safety rules, keep hands to self

School Related Expectations Requiring Executive Skills Grades 1 - 3 Greater demand for sustained concentration Need for enhanced filtering of distractions Initial stress on reflection, planning and self-monitoring Call for persistence and task completion Stress on consistency control

School Related Expectations Requiring Executive Skills Grades 4 - 7 Less predictable information flow Explosion of decontextualized details Growing social distractions Need for attention on low interest topics Stress on extended mental effort Planning and self-regulation is are often demanded

School Related Expectations Requiring Executive Skills High school Multiple degrees of saliency in information Heightened attention, memory, language interactions Growing affective distraction Stress on previewing, pacing and self-monitoring Flexibility of bottom-up/top-down processing

Keys: PARTNERSHIP + COLLABORATION OPTIMISM = Successful Learning

Reference Dawson P. and Guare R., (2004) Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention, The Guilford Press, New York, NY

Thank You!