Executive Functioning in Kids, Here’s How We Can Help (From Your Speech Therapist)

The phrase “executive function” refers to a set of skills that support our ability to effectively plan, maintain, and complete social, daily, and academic tasks. There are a variety of ways to support the development and refinement of executive functioning skills for your child. Learn more about the different areas of executive functioning HERE.

The goal of executive function intervention is to establish regular routines to maximize independent, goal-oriented problem solving. This means that your child should be actively involved in working towards independence in their goal areas.

Here are some strategies that may be used in a typical treatment session:

1.     Inhibit

Symptoms of dysfunction in inhibition may present as difficulty waiting for a turn, interrupting frequently, making inappropriate noises/comments, restless behavior, and beginning a task before receiving all instructions. If your child struggles with inhibition, they may benefit from:

• Teaching response delay
• Verbalizing plans
• Setting goals for accuracy

2.   Shift

If your child has difficulty with shifting, they may have a hard time switching play schemes or demonstrating flexible play, learning a new way of doing things, taking on new tasks, or transitioning between activities, assignments, or environments. Strategies to support shifting skills include:

• Participating in pretend play
• Making up new rules for games
• Presetting or reviewing the day and any changes with your child
• Add unexpected/problem solving moments into play schemes

3.     Emotional Control

If your child struggles with emotional control, you may notice that your child shuts down or becomes upset when things do not “go right.” They may have big reactions to small problems or they may struggle with shifts in activities/environments. Intervention for emotional control and regulation includes:  

• Helping your child name and identify emotions
• Practice reading emotions in others
• Reviewing size of the problem and size of the reaction

4.     Initiate

If your child has difficulty in the area of initiation, they may have trouble making decisions, getting started on a task, prioritizing, or thinking about more than one thing at a time. Strategies for initiation used in intervention include:

• Rehearsing the initiation of activities or social interactions
• Breaking tasks down
• Photos of what tasks look like when they are complete

5.     Working Memory

Difficulty in the area of working memory includes the inability to follow directions appropriately, recall daily routines, remember people’s names or follow along in a fast-paced conversation. Strategies used for working memory include:  

• Visualization strategies
• Playing memory games
• Teaching strategies like auditory rehearsal, chunking, verbal rehearsal

6.     Planning/Organization

If your child has difficulty with organization and planning, you may notice that they have difficulty organizing their personal spaces, keeping track of details in a story, or determining the steps to complete a task. Strategies for planning and organizing include:  

• The Get Ready, Do, Done system
• Organizational check lists
• Graphic organizers

7.     Task Monitoring 

Difficulty in the area of task monitoring may present as reduced ability to recognize their own errors, or review/check their work. Strategies for task-monitoring include:  

• Setting goals for accuracy rather than speed
• The Get Ready, Do, Done system
• Encourage the child to reflect on their work (e.g., “what works?”, “what doesn’t work?) and then re-assess

Conclusion

Intervention for executive dysfunction involves teaching and reviewing a multitude of strategies.  Stay tuned to learn more about executive functioning and how you can support your EF child.