Differentiated Intervention
Emphasize explicit, systematic, strategy instruction focused on executive function processes. Students need to know their strengths and weaknesses and recognize which strategies meet their learning needs.
Strategies for Goal Setting, Planning and Prioritizing:
Classrooms that explicitly model, scaffold and allow independent practice of time management strategies can help students become more organized and less stressed.
Some of these strategies are discussing the daily schedule which provides students with the security of what knowing what is to come and how the time is divided.
Teachers can provide visual representations to assist young students in their time estimation skills. They could place visual cues, dividers, or colour-coded sections on clocks to provide representations of the amounts of time left for given tasks.
Students can be given practice in monitoring time usage. As well as having the daily schedule, students could take turns being the time monitor for different activities. For example, a time monitor, who could wear a clock around his neck or carry a timer, is in charge of 5 minute warnings and alerting the class about the end of an activity.
Teaching Goal setting:
Do a survey of different types of learning styles at the beginning of the year. This promotes self knowledge. Using focus boards and KWL charts help students understand the goals of what is being taught.
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire - This is a good site to help students determine their learning strengths.
Teaching Prioritizing Strategies:
Prioritizing is ordering based on relative importance , figuring out what’s most important. Examples of this is ordering information for written work, projects and tests and separating main ideas from details on reading and writing tasks.
Teachers can help students prioritize activities by teaching them the importance of predicting how long an activity will take and deciding how to arrange activities in their daily, weekly or monthly schedules. This can be developed by having students help in planning the day’s schedule. Review the characteristics of the three forms of prioritizing – Have to do; Wanna do and Trade (obligation, aspiration and negotiation). Place each of the daily class activities into one of the three groups and clearly state the reason for each decision. Arrange the schedule by placing obligation activities first (reading circle, math block); then scheduling aspiration activities (e.g.choice time) and last filling in negotiation activities (e.g. extra recess).
Teachers can be highly successful in teaching strategies for goal setting, planning and prioritizing when they embed the strategies within the curriculum; allow sufficient time for students to learn and practice their strategies and teach the what, why and how of using strategies for goal setting, planning and prioritizing.
Teaching Organizing:
Organizing is arranging information, systematizing, moving and sorting information. An example of this is using charts and graphic organizers for writing; using maps and webs for reading and writing
Organizing: Organization is mediated by the frontal lobes and is a developmental process. There is variation in student’s abilities to organize materials and ideas. Some students acquire organizational skills quickly and easily while others need explicit teaching and opportunities for practice. Organization is a multi faceted process and all students would benefit from systematic instruction and strategies to organize their environment, materials, and ideas. And it is particularly necessary in students with learning and/or attention difficulties who often experience difficulties with excecutive function processes involved in organizing their student materials and information they are learning.
Organizing space and materials: A primary classroom is often a highly structured environment. The teacher needs to discuss the organization of the classroom space and materials so students can understand why things are a particular way. Students practice using the space and materials independently, students evaluate and adjust the structure. Students can talk about how they organize their desks or how they put the crayons away to develop the understanding.
Organizing Ideas: An important foundational skill is sorting and categorizing concepts. Many students have difficulties categorizing information at a conceptual level but with explicit strategy instruction, teachers can begin to lay the foundation for the organization of ideas. Teachers can help students find the main ideas by using related pictures with possible main idea statements. Students can consider the statements and select the best one to describe the main idea.
Teaching Working Memory Strategies:
Using working memory is the ability to manipulate information mentally, juggling information in the brain. An example of this is taking notes; completing multistep projects; completing math calculations mentally; thinking about themes while reading.
Working Memory Strategies:
Rehearsal, visual imagery, creating stories from information to be remembered, grouping items into conceptual categories (Rehearsal doesn’t emerge until about 7 yr old with other strategies developing later but explicit instruction will help
Teaching Shifting and Self-Monitoring/Self-Checking Strategies:
Shifting is switching easily between approaches, looking again in a brand new way. An example of this is predicting different endings for novels; understanding word meanings in texts; applying different problem-solving approaches to word problems
Shifting flexibly changes with development and age but it is essential to reading, writing and math problem solving, note taking, studying and test taking. In reading, children have to shift flexibly among letter-sound decoding, use of sight word vocabulary, context clues and the use of analogies. It allows them to draw inferences and make judgements in reading comprehension. We need to help students develop metacognitive skills and to think strategically about their work. This helps them prioritized and sift and sort information.
Self-monitoring/self-checking is reviewing work for common errors; recognizing and fixing the most common kinds of mistakes. An example of this is using personalized checklists; sifting to a checking mindset and back.
Self Monitoring strategies related to a students ability to recognize when, how and why to use specific strategies.
Some strategies to use are:- Teach students to develop their own daily checklists to complete homework or hand in assignments
- Give feedback based on student strategy use
- Have students switch to a self-checking mindset by shifting materials, e.g. from a pencil to a coloured pencil to check their work
- Shift from computer to hard copy to check their work
- Shift from silent to oral reading
- Checklists for planning and writing, checking cards, crazy phrases
Students need to reflect on their goals, to select strategies that are working and change ones that aren’t working.
Some General Classroom Strategies for specific difficulties:
Strategies for Attention Based Difficulties:
- Allow opportunity to move around during learning or activities if needed
- Use manipulatives/materials to anchor student and his involvement in a task
- Provide breaks from desk/seat to allow movement and regroup
- Limit length of time with any individual task – several short tasks are better than one longer one
- Provide multiple individual cues and clear structure to help initiate and follow through on tasks
- Seat in a quiet area with few visual or auditory distractions
- Use short, simple directions with repetition (rehearsal) and concrete visual cues to refocus on tasks
- Provide structured modeling and demonstration for initial grasp and understanding of task demands
- Give intermittent check-ins to alert back to task
- Give tasks one at a time with step by step breakdown of requirements to assist with follow through. Highlighting details and chunking are essential.
- Provide opportunities for multi-modal learning and expression
- Provide support for transitions – planning activities for recess and additional cues
- Set clear visual models, stories and templates in advance. Use structure and organizational cues, calming strategies, Low and Slow, plus redirection
Strategies for Social and Emotional Difficulties:
- Provide structured social opportunities (e.g. working with selected children, a circle of friends, peer mentoring ad pairing, involvement in social skills groups
- Provide structure and clear templates, with multiple opportunities for child to demonstrate his learning strengths, and positive peer links and connections
- Demonstrate and model learning experiences, use patterned routines and structures such as schedule boards and social stories/scripting
- Use a social story to explain the social aspects of a task, e.g. sharing toys or games; asking for help
- Rehearse the social stories, draw pictures of the story, create reminder story strips as cues
- Provide verbal review and rehearsal of routines and expectations
Strategies for Language Processing/Organization Difficulties:
- Provide individualized cues to process instructions or questions and to formulate answers especially when detail or abstraction
- Shorten and simplify verbal directions, visual back-up on instructional requests can help
- Give frequent individual check-ins regarding instructions to ensure follow through
- Provide extra assistance with generating, organizing and sequencing ideas.
- Provide template models to teach language skills
- Provide visual structure related to how to complete activities and tasks by clarifying the task requirements, highlighting important information
- Provide visual structure related to task materials and resources, e.g. organizing materials into containers
- Visual instructions can give information about what is required in order to complete a task – provide lists of instructions to complete a task.
- Avoid indirect requests
- Use concrete words rather than abstract messages
- Always break tasks down to one or two step instructions
- Present visual cues, hands on demonstrations and concrete models or representations of information.
- Provide support with tasks requiring organization, working to teach how to chunk information, notice and sort relevant from irrelevant details,
- Encourage computer use and keyboard based skills, as computers provide immediate visual feedback and some structuring of information
- Give strategies to reduce written expectations to a manageable level (e.g. dictating rather than writing stories, scribing support etc.)
- Reduce amount of written output, start work on developing keyboarding based skills, Write-Out Loud, Co-writer and Kidspiration, Dragon Naturally speaking
- Provide explicit expectations and time frames to allow him to structure his time needs, give additional completion time and organizational support
Early Intervention:
Preschool and kindergarten are opportune places to promote Executive Function skills. Some examples are:
Encourage self talk – interventions where verbal ability encouraged through labeling or stimuli during EF tasks
Learn about the Tools of Mind Curriculum- intentional dramatic play, play plans- coordinate motivation and interest , turn taking emphasized (visual symbols), techniques for managing transitions between activities, scaffolding of children’s emerging self-regulation alternate in roles of giver or recipient of help or instruction, each child plays and interacts with every other child– results in better vocabulary and fewer behaviour problems
http://www.toolsofthemind.org/extendedcampus/toolsofthemind/
Develop Play=Learning classrooms which support peer social interactions to foster literacy and language learning; promotes development of emotion regulation skills, problem solving, empathy, cognitive and language skills
Children may benefit if pre k program made efforts to promote the development of working memory and attentional control. This promotes children’s capacity to follow classroom rules, regulate affect, sit still and learn on demand through listening and watching (McClelland et al., 2007) One approach is providing children with repeated practice sessions on specific executive function tasks. Memory Booster (a computer adventure game that teaches use of rehearsal – repetition of verbal information, visual imagery, creating stories and grouping) resulted in significant improvements with 6-7 year olds.
Research has shown that children who are making improvements in their cognitive performance are more likely to be engaged in their schoolwork and therefore show fewer behavioural difficulties. Enhanced self esteem results in executive function gains and gains in child behaviour. Self perceptions may be a key aspect of children’s psychological school readiness – positive self perception predicts academic achievement.