EXECUTIVE
FUNCTIONING
DEFICITS
What are they?
Why are they important?
How do you address
them in the classroom?
ADD Partnership, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA (2008). Design by ryangillcreative.com
EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DEFINITIONS
The ability to organize and think about
what to do to complete a task
The brain’s control center… that
orchestrates resources like memory,
language, and attention to achieve a
goal… (New York Times)
EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS :
“Orchestra and Conductor”
Another way to
conceptualize
executive functions
FUNCTIONS OF
THE “ORCHESTRA”
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Perception
Conceptual thinking
Language processes
Visual-spatial processes
Memory
Sensory input
Motor input
Emotion
Knowledge and Skills
(social and non-social)
FUNCTIONS OF
THE “CONDUCTOR”
• Initiation of goal-oriented
action
• Working memory
• Planning and organization
• Self-monitoring and
evaluation
• Inhibition
• Flexibility
• Emotional regulation
• Self-awareness
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND MEDICAL
DISORDERS WITH EF IMPLICATIONS
• AD/HD
• Autism Spectrum
Disorder
• Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome
• Poorly Controlled
Diabetes
• Emotional
Disabilities
• Lead Poisoning
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Learning Disabilities
Tourette's Syndrome
Traumatic Brain Injury
Spina Bifida
Cerebral Palsy
Radiation/Chemotherapy
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
Practically Speaking
Students with EF Deficits have difficulty:
• Getting started and finishing work
• Remembering chores and assignments
• Executing rote memory tasks
• Writing essays
• Remembering what is read
(comprehension)
• Accurately judging the passage of time
Summary: Chris Zeigler Dendy
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
Practically Speaking - Continued
Students with EF Deficits have difficulty:
• Being organized
• Using self-talk to guide actions
• Controlling emotions
• Analyzing and problem solving
• Planning for the future
Summary: Chris Zeigler Dendy
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
Brown’s Conceptualization
ACTIVATION CLUSTER
FOCUS CLUSTER
EFFORT CLUSTER
EMOTION CLUSTER
MEMORY CLUSTER
ACTION CLUSTER
MESSY DESK?
Activation Cluster
ACTIVATION CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Organize, prioritize, and start work
SKILL DEFICITS
• Can’t organize tasks and/or materials
• Difficulty initiating work/tasks
• Difficulty generating ideas in
beginning work
• Messy desk, backpack, and bedroom
• Disorganized verbal output and
tangential topic shifts
• Misses the main idea
SCAFFOLDING FOR ACTIVATION
• Proactive
communications
with parents
• E-mail distribution
lists for
students/parents
• Blackboard
and other
website-based
postings
• Provide checklists
for organizing work
• Classroom or
department
newsletters
• Set incremental
deadlines for
assignments
• Peer-tutoring or
homework buddies
DAYDREAMING IN CLASS?
Focus Cluster
FOCUS CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Tune in, sustain focus, shift attention
when appropriate
SKILL DEFICITS
• Easily distracted by internal and
external stimuli
• Loses track of activities
• Forgetful and loses track in
conversations, appears “spacey”
• Poor reading comprehension
SCAFFOLDING FOR FOCUS
• Proactive
Interactive
lessons
• Breaks
• Visual cues
• Technology
supports
• Paced instruction
• Color, sound,
and movement
• Group motivators
• Beep tapes to get
back on track
• Timers (visual and
auditory)
GOING THE DISTANCE!
Effort Cluster
EFFORT CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Regulates alertness, sustains effort and
adjusts processing speeds
SKILL DEFICITS
• Difficulty with completing
long-term projects
• Difficulty completing work on time
• Difficulty “sustaining” participation in
task or activity
SCAFFOLDING FOR EFFORT
• Positive, Positive,
Positive!
• Praise efforts, not
outcome
• Provide
reinforcement for
incremental
changes in
performance
• Analyze task length
• Offer student
choices
• Specify start and
end times
FEELING FRUSTRATED AND ANXIOUS?
Emotion Cluster
EMOTION CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Manages frustration and modulates emotions
SKILL DEFICITS
• Poor regulation of emotions.
• Emotionally reactive and less likely to stop
and think before speaking and acting
• Difficulty regaining composure and moving on
• Gives up easily and has excessive worry
• Low threshold for frustration and difficulty
regulating subjective emotional experience
and expression
SCAFFOLDING FOR EMOTION
• Build relationship
with student - #1
help
• Help students
anticipate and
predict
• Model and use
self-talk scripts
• Teach social skills
• Give student
opportunity to take
short time away to
gain composure –
difficulty “putting on
breaks” to emotions
• When calm, analyze
social errors and
design alternative
strategies
• Utilize student
services staff for
consultation and
small group
interventions
MEMORY – LIKE A JUGGLING ACT
Memory Cluster
MEMORY CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Holds onto and works with multiple bits of
information and retrieves stored information
SKILL DEFICITS
• Difficulty remembering (and following) verbal
directions, especially multi-step directions
• Memory retrieval problems when taking tests
• Holding on to known information - completing
complex math problems or lengthy writing
assignments
• Reading comprehension: remembering what was
read to be able to summarize or recall details
• Forgetting homework, losing homework
SCAFFOLDING FOR MEMORY
• Post agenda and
homework
assignments on
blackboard at the
beginning of class
• Monitor assignment
books
• Provide extra
textbooks at home
• Use mnemonics
• Post visual schedules
• Incorporate familiar
music to memorizing
items
• Teach students to use
“to do” lists
• Interactive
notebooks
IT IS CRITICAL TO…
Reduce demands on
limited memory capacity
Chris Zeigler Dendy
ACTION CLUSTER
FUNCTION
Manage and regulate one’s actions
SKILL DEFICITS
• Jumps to conclusions
• Says things without thinking first
• Seems unaware of the impact of their
behavior on others
• Believes work is good despite evidence to
the contrary
• Fails to change behavior in response to feedback
• Doesn’t notice errors
• Acts without planning
SCAFFOLDING FOR ACTION
• Provide graphic
organizer to outline
topic or project
• Set aside time to
review progress
• Teach selfmonitoring skills
• Use different folders
for each class
and notebook
dividers
• Ask student to
verbalize plan
before
execution of activity
• Buy a day
planner/organizer/
PDA
• Provide rubrics with
models
• Have student keep all
old papers until
semester ends
REMEMBER…
“Organization” and “Responsibility”
are not equivalent terms
CLASSROOM BENEFITS OF UNIVERSAL
INTERVENTIONS FOR ALL STUDENTS
• Will be more focused
on class goals
• Will be more
outcome oriented
• Students and parents
will understand more
clearly the
interventions being
used to help the
student
• Classroom work will be
more efficient and take
less planning time
• Benefits of interventions
will be more easily
assessed
• Teachers will work
smarter, not harder
(George Sugai)
So if a student has behavior problems,
where do you intervene first?
With the academic?
OR the behavior?
Chris Zeigler Dendy, M.S.
Academic interventions improve
behavior but…
The converse is not true!
Behavioral interventions
do not improve
academic performance
Marc Atkins, Ph.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Brown, Thomas E. (2005). Attention Deficit Disorder; The
Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
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Dawson, Peg & Guare, Richard (2004). Executive Skills in
Children and Adolescents: a Practical Guide to Assessment
and Intervention, New York,NY: The Guilford Press.
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Dendy, Chris A. Zeigler, MS (2006). CHADD Educator’s
Manual on Attention –Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
(AD/HD). Lynchburg, VA: Progress Press
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Goldberg, Elkhonon (2001). The Executive Brain: Frontal
Lobes and the Civilized Mind. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
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Meltzer, Lynn (2007). Executive Function in Education:
From Theory to Practice. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
CLASSROOM RESOURCE LIST
•
Brown, Thomas E. Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind In
Children and Adults. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
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Dendy, Chris A. Zeigler, MS. CHADD Educator’s Manual on
Attention-Deficit Disorder (AD/HD). Lynchburg, VA: Progress Press,
2006.
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Dendy, Chris A. Zeigler, MS. Teenagers with ADD & ADHD, 2nd
Edition, Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House, 2005.
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Dendy, Chris A. Zeigler, MS. Teaching Teens with ADD & ADHD,
Bethesda, Woodbine House, 2000.
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Dendy, Chris A. Zeigler, MS. A Bird’s Eye View of Life with ADD &
ADHD: Advice From Young Survivors. Cedar Bluff, AL: Cherish the
Children, 2003
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Lavoie, Richard. It’s So Much Work To Be Your Friend. New York, N.Y.:
A Touchstone Book, 2005.
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Reif, Sandra and Heimburge, Julie. How to Reach and Teach All
Students in an Inclusive Classroom. West Nyack, NY: The Center for
Applied Research in Education, 1996.
WEB RESOURCES
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www.adhdpartnership.com
www.chadd.org
www.additudemag.com
www.interventioncentral.org
www.nasponline.org
www.teacherease.com
www.ticklebox.com
www.watchminder.com
www.timetimer.com
www.chris@chrisdendy.com
www.drthomasebrown.com