The following resources are recommended for parents and educators interested in finding out more about executive functioning. Descriptions from Amazon.com.
Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential.
Peg Dawson EdD and Richard Guare PhD, 2009
The Guilford Press.There’s nothing more frustrating than watching your bright, talented son or daughter struggle with everyday tasks like finishing homework, putting away toys, or following instructions at school. Your smart but scattered child might also have trouble coping with disappointment or managing anger. Drs. Peg Dawson and Richard Guare have great news: there’s a lot you can do to help. The latest research in child development shows that many kids who have the brain and heart to succeed lack or lag behind in crucial executive skills–the fundamental habits of mind required for getting organized, staying focused, and controlling impulses and emotions. Learn easy-to-follow steps to identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses, use activities and techniques proven to boost specific skills, and problem-solve daily routines. Small changes can add up to big improvements — this empowering book shows how.
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Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention – Second Edition.
Peg Dawson EdD and Richard Guare PhD, 2010;
The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series.Concise and practitioner friendly, this bestselling guide has helped put executive skills on the map for school-based clinicians and educators. The book explains how these critical cognitive processes develop and why they play such a key role in children’s behavior and school performance. Provided are step-by-step guidelines and many practical tools to promote executive skill development by implementing environmental modifications, individualized instruction, coaching, and whole-class interventions. In a large-size format with convenient lay-flat binding, the book includes more than two dozen reproducible assessment tools, checklists, and planning sheets.
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Assessment and Intervention for Executive Function Difficulties.
George McCloskey, Lisa Perkins, & Bob Van Divner, 2009,
Routledge School Based Practice in Action Series.In Assessment and Intervention for Executive Function Difficulties, McCloskey, Perkins, and Diviner provide a unique blend of theory, research, and practice that offers clinicians an overarching framework for the concept of executive functions (EFs) in educational settings. The conceptual model of executive functions is detailed, including their role in behavior, learning, and production across all settings. The heart of the book focus on the practical issues involved in the use of assessment tools, tests, report writing, and the implementation and follow-up of targeted interventions using the EF model. Six case studies are introduced in Chapter 1 and followed throughout the book, building understanding of the executive function difficulties of each child, assessment for identifying the difficulties, and interventions for dealing with the difficulties. An additional case study is discussed in detail in one of the concluding chapters, and a companion CD will provide the practitioner with a wealth of assessment forms, parent and teacher handouts, behavior tracking charts, and report/documentation forms.
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Executive Function in Education: From Theory to Practice.
Edited by Lynn Meltzer, 2007,
The Guilford Press.This uniquely integrative book brings together research on executive function processes from leaders in education, neuroscience, and psychology. It focuses on how to apply current knowledge to assessment and instruction with diverse learners, including typically developing children and those with learning difficulties and developmental disabilities. The role of executive function processes in learning is examined and methods for identifying executive function difficulties are reviewed. Chapters describe scientifically grounded models for promoting these key cognitive capacities at the level of the individual child, the classroom, and the entire school. Implications for teaching particular content areas-reading, writing, and math-are also discussed.
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Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom; What Works for Special-Needs Learners.
Lynn Meltzer, 2010,
The Guilford Press.Accessible and practical, this book helps teachers incorporate executive function processes-such as planning, organizing, prioritizing, and self-checking-into the classroom curriculum. Chapters provide effective strategies for optimizing what K-12 students learn by improving how they learn. Noted authority Lynn Meltzer and her research associates present a wealth of easy-to-implement assessment tools, teaching techniques and activities, and planning aids. Featuring numerous whole-class ideas and suggestions, the book also shows how to differentiate instruction for students with learning or attention difficulties. Case examples illustrate individualized teaching strategies and classroom accommodations. More than a dozen reproducibles are included; the large-size format facilitates photocopying and day-to-day reference.
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Late, Lost, and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning.
Joyce Cooper-Kahn PhD and Laurie Dietzel PhD, 2008,
Woodbine House – Special Needs Collection. (2009 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA): Honors Award) Executive functions are the cognitive skills that help us manage our lives and be successful. Children with weak executive skills, despite their best intentions, often do their homework but forget to turn it in, wait until the last minute to start a project, lose things, or have a room that looks like a dump! The good news is that parents can do a lot to support and train their children to manage these frustrating and stressful weaknesses. Late, Lost, and Unprepared is a must-have book for parents of children from primary school through high school who struggle with: Impulse Control (taking turns, interrupting others, running off), Cognitive Flexibility (adapting to new situations, transitions, handling frustrations), Initiation (starting homework, chores, and major projects), Working Memory (following directions, note-taking, reading and retaining info), Planning & Organizing (completing and turning in homework, juggling schedules), Self-monitoring (making careless errors, staying on topic, getting into trouble but not understanding why). Late, Lost, and Unprepared is chockfull of ideas for helping your child or student be productive and independent–today and in the future.
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Organize your ADD/ADHD Child: A Practical Guide for Parents.
Cheryl Carter. 2011,
Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Living with AD/HD can be hectic, and parents of children with this disorder can be driven to distraction when even the simplest of tasks causes havoc. This book addresses the issues of organization and time management in relation to AD/HD, suggesting practical ways of organizing your child’s day to day life that turn chaos into calm. Accommodating short attention spans and short fuses, the author shows how, by using the F.I.R.S.T method (Fun, Individualism, Rules, Simplicity and Time management), even the most hyperactive and easily distracted of children can be taught to make their bed, pack their school bag, and generally get organized! Cheryl Carter recognizes that children hate anything that is boring, and finds a fun way around even the most mundane of tasks. Her no-nonsense, step-by-step strategies, in combination with positive affirmations and realistic demands, will get AD/HD children organized, and from A to B without a hitch. This book is a must-have for any flagging parent struggling to structure their child’s life (and indeed their own). It will also be of interest to family members, teachers, and anybody else close to a child with AD/HD.
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Executive Function in the Classroom: Practical Strategies for Improving Performance and Enhancing Skills for all Students.
Christopher Kaufman, 2010,
Paul H. Brooks Publishing Company.Help K-12 teachers understand and enhance students’ executive function skills-the key to long-term school and social success. This practical how-to guide is packed with ready-to-use forms and strategies that improve outcomes across subject areas. Through the author’s memorable metaphors, classroom examples, and crystal-clear explanations of brain functioning, teachers will immediately grasp what executive function is and how it affects students’ learning and behavior. Then they’ll get the explicit, research-based guidance the need to improve executive functioning in the areas of organization, homework completion, time management, study skills, impulse control, planning skills, adaptability, and more!
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