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The Guilford Press offers “Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention”, by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare.
In order to meet challenges and accomplish goals children (and all of us) must use high-level cognitive functions called “executive skills”, which help them decide what to pay attention to and what to do. These skills include the following:
- Planning The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or complete a task.
- Organization The ability to arrange or place things according to a system.
- Time Management The capacity to estimate how much time one has and how to allocate it.
- Working Memory The ability to hold information in mind while performing complex tasks.
- Metacognition The ability to stand back and observe how you problem-solve; includes self-monitoring and self-evaluation.
These skills help a child to reach a goal. But children (and we) need some additional executive skills in order to guide and modify their behavior:
- Response Inhibition The capacity to think before you act.
- Self-regulation of Affect The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, and regulate behavior.
- Task Initiation The ability to begin a task without undue procrastination.
- Flexibility The ability to revise plans in the face of setbacks or new information; adaptability.
- Goal-directed Persistence The capacity/drive to follow through to the completion of a goal.
The executive skills are built in, but they are not developed at birth. They develop over the following years, well into adolescence. Just as the brain begins at 13 ounces and increases to 3 pounds by late adolescence, the child’s ability to act, think and feel also takes time to develop. Researchers agree that the frontal brain systems (the frontal/prefrontal cortex and connections to adjacent areas) make up the neurological base for the executive functions.
This book favors a five part model of executive skill development proposed by RA Barkley. The five elements are 1) behavioral inhibition; 2) working memory (nonverbal); 3) self-regulation of affect/motivation/arousal; 4) internalization of speech (verbal working memory); and 5) reconstitution (behavior analyzing and synthesizing skills).
What would this look like at different ages? The authors offer a chart (Table 1.1) outlining typical developmental tasks at several ages. This table should be considered as approximate, they warn.
- Preschool Run simple, one-step errands. Tidy bedroom or playroom with assistance. Perform simple chores and self-help tasks with reminders (clear dishes, brush teeth). Inhibit behaviors: don’t touch the hot stove, don’t run into the street, don’t hit).
- Kindergarten-Grade 2 Run errands (2/3 step directions). Tidy bedroom/playroom. Perform simple chores, self-help tasks, though needing some reminders (make bed). Bring papers to and from school. Complete homework assignments (20 minute maximum). Decide how to spend allowance. Inhibit behaviors: follow safety rules, don’t swear, raise your hand).
- Grades 3-5 Run errands (may involve time delay or greater distance). Tidy bedroom/playroom (may include vacuuming, dusting, etc.). Perform chores that take 15-30 minutes (clean up after dinner, rake leaves). Bring books, papers, assignments to and from school. Keep track of belongings when away from home. Complete homework assignments (l hour maximum). Plan simple school project such as book report (select book, read book, write report). Keep track of changing daily schedule (i.e. different activities after school). Save money for desired objects, plan how to earn money. Inhibit/self-regulate: behave when teacher is out of classroom, refrain from rude comments, temper tantrums, bad manners).
- Grades 6-8 Help out with household chores, including both daily responsibilities and occasional tasks (emptying dishwasher, shovel snow);tasks may be 60-90 minutes. Baby-sit younger siblings or for pay. Use system for organizing schoolwork, including assignment book, notebooks, etc. Follow complex school schedule involving changing teachers and changing schedules. Plan and carry out long-term projects (including tasks to be accomplished and the devising of a reasonable timeline to follow); perhaps plan multiple large projects simultaneously. Plan time, including after school activities, homework, family responsibilities; estimate how long individual tasks will take. Inhibit rule breaking in the absence of visible authority.
- High school Manage schoolwork effectively day to day (handing in assignments on time, studying for tests, creating and following timelines, making adjustments in effort and quality of work in response to feedback). Establish and refine a long-term goal and make plans for meeting it (if getting into college, selecting appropriate courses, maintaining GPA; signing up for SAT and participating. If not getting into college, arranging and planning for vocational training.) Arrange for extracurricular activities. Make good use of leisure time, including obtaining employment or recreational activities during the summer. Inhibit reckless and dangerous behaviors (drugs, sexual acting out, shoplifiting or vandalism).
These guidelines can indicate where your child might be in terms of executive function skills. They can help you assess what adjustments or iinterventions might be needed in order to help your child perform more effectively.
Parents act as the “frontal lobe” for children who are lacking these skills. They make adjustments to environment, they teach and model skills, they offer verbal and graphic cues as well as incentives. (Adults will ultimately “fade” these extra motivators.) The child can imitate, and then begin to initiate on his own. The goal is to finally begin to internalize these skills.
“Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents” contains seven sections:
I. Overview of Executive Skills
II. Assessing Executive Skills (includes behavior checklists, a survey of formal assessment measures and behavioral observation measures; a case example)
III. Linking Assessment to Intervention
IV. Interventions to Promote Executive Skills (at the level of the environment, at the level of the person; home/school collaboration and interventions for specific deficits)
V. Coaching Students with Executive Skill Deficits (goal setting; daily sessions; building coaching into the student’s educational program)
VI. Classroom-Wide Interventions (routines, rules, organizational systems; integrating skill development into daily instruction; variations, caveats)
VII. Applications to Specific Populations ( in the absence of a recognized disorder; brain injury, autism, ADD/ADHD, sleep disorder situations; complicated cases)
An appendix is included which provides checklists and charts and plans: structured interview plans, intervention planning, contracts, housework checklist, long-term project planning sheet, homework planning sheet, desk cleaning project, chore planning sheet, changing classes etc.
Peg Dawson, EdD is a clinical school psychologist at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders, an agency within Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, NH. Richard Guare is a neuropsychologist and researcher; he currently serves as Director of the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders. They have both published widely, in journals and books. In addition to this book, they have written a manual on coaching students with attention disorders.
“Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents”, by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, is published by the Guilford Press, 2004. ISBN 1-57230-928-8 (paper).
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