Tag: writing

“I want to be like him!”

ADHD, Dyslexia, Executive Functioning, Flexible Thinking, Learning differences, Math, Processing Speed, Reading, Visual Processing, Writing

 

Bryce wants to be like his friend who is excellent at soccer, can memorize anything quickly and always has a witty comment to share. So he asked me to explain how his brain works and what he can do to be more like his friend. We discussed his strengths and weaknesses and how they affect his processing of information. In my explanation to Bryce I realized that he is not as worried about his academic levels as he is about his ability to interact with his friends. The same processing difficulties he is having learning new information in the classroom are hindering him in his social interactions.

Helping Bryce process information quickly will make all learning and social interactions easier for him. Once the brain is smoothly processing new input; social interactions along with reading, writing, and math skills will be mastered more easily.

Many students come to the K&M Center with diagnoses of a processing disorder, a developmental delay, dyslexia, processing speed issues, ADHD, executive functioning disorder, dysgraphia, language processing issues, and auditory processing issues. Each diagnosis identifies a difficulty in absorbing new information, effectively storing information and/or retrieving the desired information efficiently. The question changes from, “ How do I teach a child to read?” to “What neuro-pathways need to be developed so this child can read fluently?”

How do we build new neuro-pathways? Memory and learning are related but different and it is important to understand their relationship. Memory is dependent on learning because memory takes learned information and stores it so it can be retrieved at a later time. Learning is dependent on memory because the stored information in memory provides the framework used to create associations and inferences to further learning and strengthen memory.

The Process of Creating New Neuro-pathways:

  • The memory/learning process starts with perception and attention, which cause neurons to fire.
  • Once the neurons fire a trace memory is created and the consolidation or stabilizing of a memory begins.
    • This is considered the encoding or storage of information.
    • During this process synapses increase in strength and number.
  • When a group of neurons frequently fire together they form a pathway and the brain “re-wires” itself rearranging its organization.
    • These neural pathways are what make learning possible.

The brain is designed to process information along the path of least resistance. Pathways that are frequently used become stronger and faster, so information that is learned and practiced allows that information to be retrieved more quickly.

Frequent use of neurons builds quick, strong neural pathways. Educating students with learning disabilities requires finding activities that stimulate the desired neurons to develop new pathways. Finding the right activities for each student is the key to successful learning.

How frequently the pathways need to be stimulated is not clear. Most research indicates that intensive intervention requires 60 hours, with daily sessions.

Bryce has a unique and wonderful brain. In our discussion we talked about how every person has strengths and weaknesses that make them valuable. Bryce wants to learn and he is willing to do the work, therefore his brain will continue to build new neural pathways that will help him in his social interactions. We also discussed that he will most likely never be exactly like his friend and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Learning to accept ourselves, while continuing to improve ourselves is what makes life interesting.

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Writing Workshops for Students with High Verbal Skills and Slow Processing Speed

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Writing

 

Many parents have written to me in response to my post about the Frustration Profile: High Verbal Skills with Low Processing Speed.   That article was written four years ago and remains my top post. I have worked with many students with this profile and spoken to numerous parents about their children who match the profile. Today I was talking to a mom of a 19 year old who is working at our center. She made the comment that we should offer summer workshops so people can come and spend time with us to work on writing skills.

We actually do offer summer workshops for students. A few years ago a high school student came from Washington D.C. to spend a week with us right before school started. He came to the office from 9 to 4 every day for a week. Here is what his mother wrote after the experience:

 I am so fortunate to have run across your blog, which led me to you and your wonderful organization.  Sam  (who is sometimes allergic to work ) didn’t complain once about using a whole week of his summer to write all day.  Your staff made the difference by connecting with him, and helping him to believe that he could succeed at doing something that had become painful for him.  Please convey my thanks to them. 

He said (and says) that the strategies were extremely helpful, and he has specifically mentioned using them already. You guys really are the best, and it was well worth the trip to California to give Sam the chance to work with you! 

You have made a real difference in his life, and we are so very grateful. 

Here is a sample of one of our executive functioning/processing speed/writing sessions. These are progress notes from Ben, one of our academic coaches, summarizing a two-day intensive he did over winter break with Evan, a college student.

DAY 1:

Evan already had Inspiration set up on his computer and picked up the basics of the program quickly. After a short introduction, we started using Inspiration to go through the writing process step by step. We chose Othello as our work for literary analysis, ­­something Evan had already read. This allowed us to jump right into the writing process. The first step is to brainstorm — get ideas down in writing. For literary analysis, Evan should always start with three clusters or bubbles on his mind map:

  1. Characters
  2. Plot
  3. Themes

It’s usually fairly easy to start filling out details in these three areas. Evan was able to come up with many details as he reflected back on the story. This process helps to collect ideas in organized clusters. The key is to get started with the basics and keep jotting down ideas.

Once Evan filled out each of the three main components, I had him step back and examine his ideas. As he worked through the process of writing about characters, plot and themes, he slowly started focusing more and more on one particular theme: power. Part of the beauty of mind mapping / brainstorming is that it takes many disparate ideas and gradually arrives at a more focused topic.

Once it was clear he was interested in the theme of power, we focused only on this particular “cluster” of his mind map. He developed this point until he had it refined to a few topics / concrete details. The final step in the planning process is to find all the specific details and quotes to support each point. I walked Evan through the process of adding quotes to his Inspiration mind map.

DAY 2:

Today’s primary focus was on finding quotes and adding them to Evan’s Inspiration mind map. When done correctly, this step further refines and focuses the thesis and topics. As Evan added each quote to the appropriate group in his mind map, he further organized and refined his ideas. Each quote in his mind map had a separate bubble with analysis.

Once Evan had all his quotes and topics, we switched to outline format and revisited his thesis and topic sentences. Evan was able to write out a thesis that was really close to being good, but he needed a nudge in the right direction. Once I made a suggestion, he was off and running.

The writing process is closely tied to strong executive functioning, so we took some time away from writing strategies to discuss time management. It is not uncommon for students to need a nudge when writing a thesis. College professors are a great resource, and I strongly encouraged Evan to discuss his future theses with his teachers. In order for this to be effective, Evan should organize his ideas using Inspiration and develop a rough thesis. Evan has met with his professors in the past, but it’s not particularly effective if he comes into meetings empty handed.

Time management is key. Ideally, Evan should brainstorm ideas on one day, search for quotes on another, meet with his professor on a third day, draft his essay the next day and allow even more time before going back and revising. Evan knows this but still struggles with procrastination. I gave him the following recommendations:

  1. Set small, easy goals. Larger goals can be intimidating and may lead to more procrastination.
  2. Reward yourself when you meet your goals.
  3. Create deadlines (by setting up a meeting with the professor for example).
  4. Study in a new, less distracting place (like the library)

For the last part of our session, we put all our work together into the writing of the rough draft. Evan used the map we created in Inspiration and did an amazing job of drafting his essay. He wrote two pages of organized content in fifteen minutes and felt great! I was really pleased with his work. More importantly, Evan was amazed and excited by how well the writing process worked. He described the feeling of writing as similar to “driving a fast sports car!”

It is so hard for me to describe how we work with students to be successful, but I think the notes above give a good overview of the process we use. If you are interested in setting up a Spring Break or Summer Intensive please let us know. You can contact Jessica at 310-582-1563 x102 or at [email protected] and she will  be happy help you.

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Slow Processing Speed…is it due to weak motor skills, weak auditory processing skills or weak executive function skills?

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing


 

Slow processing speed can be due to more than just weak motor skills. Sarah’s experience highlights some of the more complex factors that should be considered for a child with slow processing speed.

Sarah is a diligent, athletic and caring 15-year-old girl. Sarah has always done well in school, but not without support. When Sarah entered ninth grade at her new high school her study skills deteriorated and she began to have trouble completing her homework and turning it in. In spite of Sarah’s best intentions she was not able to pull up her grades and complete her work. Based on recommendations from her school Sarah was evaluated to see if any learning issues were hindering her progress. The results of the evaluation demonstrated that while Sarah has an overall cognitive potential in the average range, her Processing Speed Index was significantly below her Verbal Comprehension and Working Memory Index scores.

The findings from Sarah’s evaluation indicate that her processing speed deficit is due to her difficulty with visual discrimination, auditory processing, and weak executive functioning skills. While inattentive ADHD was not completely ruled out, the examiners felt that Sarah’s main area of challenge was in the area of executive functioning rather than ADHD. Observation of Sarah during testing demonstrated her difficulty with task initiation. Sarah’s auditory processing weakness resulted in a difficulty understanding directions. Without a complete understanding of directions Sarah often did not know what she was expected to do on the tasks presented. Sarah’s response to not fully understanding the directions given to her, was to stop and try to figure out what she was supposed to do before she began working. This delay significantly impacted the time that it took her to complete the tasks. In addition, without a full understanding of directions Sara often did not complete the tasks fully.

 Sarah’s challenge with executive functioning skills was evident in her difficulty starting tasks, as well as her difficulty organizing her thoughts and language as she listened to instructions. The combination of weak auditory processing skills along with weak organization and problem solving skills made it extremely difficult for Sarah to begin a new task.

 Sarah’s fine motor skills, reading skills and language skills were in the average range. Her slow processing speed affected her performance on writing and math tasks. In addition, Sarah needed extra time for reading comprehension tasks due to the complex language and organization processing required to comprehend the material.

 Recommendations to help students like Sarah

Classroom Recommendations and Accommodations

  • The following recommendations are suggested for use in the classroom:
    • Students will benefit from cueing so they know what to expect – check in with them periodically and preview what is to come.
    • Help students organize the information they hear in meaningful ways, including chunking the information into shorter steps or connecting new information with previously learned information.
    • Preview new concepts with students so they know what to expect – this will decrease stress and help with attention and engagement in the classroom.

 

Executive Function/Memory Skills

  • Build strategies to help students analyze, prioritize, and execute specific steps in a given assignment.
  • Encourage students to think through responses and take their time; many students with processing speed issues develop a compensatory strategy to rush through in order to finish work in time; these students would benefit from slowing down to process the information more deeply.
  • Teach students to stop and read directions carefully prior to starting a task.
  • Break down tasks and follow the order-checking work along the way.
  • Build memory skills by building associations to preexisting knowledge.
  • Rehearse new information to help encode it.
  • Encourage students to visualize what they are going to do before they begin a task.
  • Teach students strategies to increase engagement such as use of reminders (which can be set on devices such as the iPhone) to help build attention, awareness, structure and independent work habits.
  • Teach students to use self-talk to organize learning and performance strategies and to focus attention on tasks.
  • Teach students strategies to help recall information, such as PAR:

P= Picture it.
A= Associate it
R= Review it.

 

  • Teach students study and memory strategies such as:

o   “Chunking” information into more manageable units

o   Rehearse new information to help encode it

o   Use notecards to review information

 

Visual-Perceptual Strategies

  • Use of graphic organizers to depict information visually and increase retention of ideas.
  • Note-taking techniques that will present and summarize heard information visually.
  • Exercises to sharpen the ability to attend to visual detail and to express similarities and differences between images.

 

Processing Speed/ fine motor skills

  • Allow extra time for tests, usually time and a half.
  • Provide extra time for students to complete in-class assignments.
  • Train students in time management techniques to become aware of the time that tasks take.
  • Teach typing skills to enable students to type as fast as they think.
  • Allow students to use the computer for all writing tasks.

 

Organization of language

  • Students may have excellent ideas but have difficulty organizing their thoughts. Building pre-writing will help them express their ideas more clearly.
  • Review of writing formats (Narrative, Expository, Descriptive, Compare/Contrast, Persuasive) would facilitate and structure written expression.
  • Reinforce the writing process for students in a systematic manner (Brainstorming or clustering, writing, editing). The Inspiration Program is a creative computer tool that helps students brainstorm and organize their ideas before writing.
  • Build students expressive lanuage skills by:

o   Building language categorization skills

o   Building rapid naming skills

o   Teaching them how to organize new information as they learn it to create associations they can use later to recall the information

o   Building flexible thinking skills

 

Increase reading comprehension

o   The SQ3R approach is recommended as an approach to studying information from text books

o   Teach students to preview reading material prior to class to ensure they are able to follow along during class time

o   Teach students to take notes at the end of each chapter of books they read. This will not only aid comprehension but assist in studying or finding information quickly when writing an essay

o   Pull out keywords and main ideas while reading to help put what students are learning into context

 

Hopefully Sarah’s academic achievement will improve as she builds strategies to help her overcome her areas of challenge. Building Sarah’s ability, and helping her develop strategies, to understand directions is the first step to helping her start tasks. Teaching Sarah how to break down and organize the steps to complete tasks will allow her to finish the tasks she starts. As Sarah develops these skills, it is hoped that she will be able to complete tasks in a timely manner, thereby increasing her processing speed.

 

 

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Language Organization Skills Blend Executive Functioning and Language Skills To Help Us Communicate Clearly

ADHD, Dyslexia, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing

Language serves many purposes. We use language to share our needs, our wants, our feelings and our thoughts. We use language to become apart of our shared community and socially interact with others. Weak language skills can make a person feel isolated and disconnected from those around him. In addition, he may miss out on learning opportunities. Language skills help build strong social connections and friendships as well as allow us to absorb information from teachers and the world around us.

Most people learn language organically as they develop from an infant to a toddler and beyond into adulthood. Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, breaks language into two parts. The first part involves creating a relationship between meaning and sound. What this refers to is that when we hear the sound “d-o-g” we think of a dog, an animal that has four legs and a tail. The average person performs this task quickly and automatically. Most people have learned 50,000 to 100,000 words, which they can quickly and efficiently process from sound to meaning.

The second part of language, according to Pinker, is ability to follow rules and combine words to communicate the thought we have to another person. We learn that “Sarah sat on a hat” has a different meaning than “ A hat sat on Sarah”. We learn that the order of the words is important and that we can get different meanings from the same words.

There is a growing population of students who are struggling with the organizational component of language. Many of these students have acquired the sound to meaning portion of language, but they get overwhelmed when they are required to organize their thoughts to effectively communicate their idea to others. I have begun to call this a “Language Organization Deficit.”

Many of the students who experience this difficulty have a background history of dyslexia, ADHD or language processing difficulty. Some students with Language Organization issues experience word-finding issues, but more commonly they have trouble quickly and clearly conveying information. They may talk around an idea without ever stating what they are trying to communicate. Students with Language organization issues can have trouble keeping up with the pace of the conversation, leading to difficulty in social situations. They also struggle with organizing their ideas to write a paper.

Students with a Language Organization weakness need to build both their language skills and their executive functioning skills.

  • Strengthening the phonological loop with rapid naming exercises can help speed up the word finding component of language.
  • Teaching the Executive Functioning skills of Stop, Think, Plan, Do can allow the student to slow down to organize his ideas.
  • Building a strong vocabulary base, learning antonyms and synonyms, will increase the choices a student has to express his ideas.
  • Learning to breakdown ideas into parts and then organize them can help a student start a task without feeling overwhelmed.
  • Building flexible thinking skills can help a child with language organization issues find new ways of thinking and organizing ideas.

Language and the ability to share thoughts is a basic skill. Those who struggle in this area miss many opportunities for development and friendships. I hope that looking at and considering the organizational component of language can help more students effectively and fluently communicate their thoughts and feelings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Do visual learners have more difficulty with language organization than verbal learners?

ADHD, Dyslexia, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing

Visual-spatial learners think in images. Verbal learners think primarily in words. Visual learners see the whole picture all at once allowing them to see things from many perspectives. Verbal learners learn step by step and have a tendency towards analytical thinking. These two types of learning may also impact a child’s organization of language. 

What do I mean by language organization? I am referring to the executive functioning skill of organizing your thoughts, attaching those thoughts to words and sharing those words with others so that they can understand your idea. Therefore when I am talking about language organization I am referring to the relationship between thought and language. 

What is the relationship between language and thought? Aristotle taught that speech symbolized thought. Chomsky believed that the language environment is a key component to language development. Piaget and Vygotsky believed that a complex interaction exists between the child and the environment that is influenced by the child’s social and cognitive development. They believed that as children develop language they are building a symbol system that helps them understand the world. However, while Piaget believed that cognitive development leads to language development, Vygotsky believed language drives the development of thought.

How do these theories of language development impact students who are either visual or verbal learners? Do verbal and visual learners actually have different thought processes? If you think in pictures rather than thinking in words, are your thoughts different? Most importantly, how do these two learning styles affect a child’s ability to express himself both verbally and on written assignments?

Our educational system has embraced a verbal communication curriculum. Most teachers give verbal directions, assign books that are written in text (words) and they require most assessments be completed in written text (words). Take a minute to consider this. If you think in words, then both your input of information from the teacher and books, along with your output (what you write down) are all in your native processing mode (verbal).  If, however, your learning style is visual, when the teacher is talking or you are reading, you must translate those verbal words into pictures; and in order to write an essay you must translate your visual images into words and sequence them to communicate your ideas.

See the chart below to get a better understanding of how visual and verbal (auditory sequential) learners differ.

 Visual-Spatial Learner Chart

Copyright held by Linda Kreger Silverman, August, 1999. From Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner. Denver: DeLeon Publishing. This chart may be reproduced.

The Auditory-Sequential Learner
   The Visual-Spatial Learner
·      Thinks primarily in words
·      Thinks primarily in images
·      Has auditory strengths
·      Has visual strengths
·      Relates well to time
·      Relates well to space
·      Is a step-by-step learner
·      Is a whole-part learner
·      Learns by trial and error
·      Learns concepts all at once
·      Progresses sequentially from easy to difficult material
·      Learns complex concepts easily; Struggles with easy skills
·      Is an analytical thinker
·      Is a good synthesizer
·      Attends well to details
·      Sees the big picture; may miss details
·      Follows oral directions well
·      Reads maps well
·      Does well at arithmetic
·      Is better at math reasoning than computation
·      Learns phonics easily
·      Learns whole words easily
·      Can sound out spelling words
·      Must visualize words to spell them
·      Can write quickly and neatly
·      Much better at keyboarding than handwriting
·      Is well organized
·      Creates unique methods of organization
·      Can show steps of work easily
·      Arrives at correct solutions intuitively
·      Excels at rote memorization
·      Learns best by seeing relationships
·      Has good auditory short-term memory
·      Has good long-term visual memory
·      May need some repetition to reinforce learning
·      Learns concepts permanently; does not learn by drill and repetition
·      Learns well from instructions
·      Develops own methods of problem solving
·      Learns in spite of emotional reactions
·      Is very sensitive to teachers’ attitudes
·      Is comfortable with one right answer
·      Generates unusual solutions to problems
·      Develops fairly evenly
·      Develops quite asynchronously (unevenly)
·      Usually maintains high grades
·      May have very uneven grades
·      Enjoys algebra and chemistry
·      Enjoys geometry and physics
·      Masters other languages in classes
·      Masters other languages through immersion
·      Is academically talented
·      Is creatively, technologically, mechanically, emotionally or spiritually gifted
·      Is an early bloomer
·      Is a late bloomer

Clearly, verbal learners have an easier time in an educational environment built on verbal communication. The issue of language organization, as I’m referring to it, involves the executive functioning skills of organizing and sequencing thoughts. In the chart above, the auditory learner’s skill set assumes that there are no other learning deficits, especially any deficits with executive functioning skills. There are verbal learners who experience difficulty with organization, and therefore may have difficulty with organizing complex verbal language.

The students who are highly visual-spatial learners will need exceptional executive functioning skills to enable them to break down and sequence their ideas in a timely manner. The visual-spatial learner has to both translate pictures to words and sequence words into meaningful sentences, paragraphs and essays.

There is a relationship between visual learners and learning differences such as dyslexia, nonverbal learning disability, attention issues and language processing disorders. Looking at the chart above, you can see how language-based assessments will be more challenging for a visual learner than a verbal learner.

STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING VISUAL LEARNERS

When creating strategies for visual learners it is important for parents and teachers to understand that students with a visual-spatial learning style may take longer than other students to process new verbal information. When you consider the fact that they are translating words to images when taking in new information and translating images to words to share their ideas, it becomes easier to understand why the students need extra time in the classroom. In addition to extra time, teachers can consider ways in which they can modify or enhance their lessons with visual information. When teachers present visual information to the classroom the visual learners will quickly absorb it, while the verbal learners will be busy translating those images into words. Any form of visual support will be helpful to the visual learner. Here are some additional ideas a teacher can incorporate to help students learn better in the classroom.

  •  Before a lecture, provide students with a general outline of the material to be covered.
  •  Write directions with more than two steps on the board.
  • Use flip boards, photos, diagrams, laminated pictures, power point presentations, charts, maps, movies, filmstrips, timelines, mnemonics.
  • Provide access to computer programs that come with your textbook to provide greater visual exposure and practice.
  • Use the computer in the classroom to construct mind maps or webbing of the material.
  • Use concepts maps with key points, boxes, circles, and arrows showing the connections of information. Webbing provides the connections that visual learners must have.
  •  When doing questions and answers in the classroom, allow adequate wait time before calling on students.

It is important to remember that we need diversity in our thinking styles. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses that helped create who we are as human beings. As students grow and develop it is important for them to understand themselves, how their brain works and how valuable their type of thinking is.

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Find your Executive Functioning Strengths and Weakness with our FREE QUIZ

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Writing

Executive Functioning refers to the skills that help you organize, plan and execute a task. If you would like to discover your own executive functioning strengths and weaknesses, take our free quiz and then read below to see how each skill affects your thinking.

Click here to take the quiz: EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING QUIZ. When you are done write your results on the chart below.

Find more executive functioning strategies in the TLC Executive Functioning Workbook.



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What Does It Mean To Have Weak Executive Functioning Skills?

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills, Writing

Many middle school children have difficulty with executive functioning skills. What does this really mean? For many of the students that we work with at the K& M Center this means that they are missing assignments and they are not adequately prepared for tests. Students who have done well in elementary school, but now struggle with the increased demands of middle school, often have weak executive functioning skills.

So what do you do to help these students? The first step in building executive functioning skills is becoming aware of the areas that need to be developed. To help build awareness in our students we have them take our executive functioning quiz. We have posted this quiz on the K & M Center website and you are welcome to take the quiz, which is free. The results of the quiz help our students get an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Below is a sample of a student’s results.

  Take the EF Quiz

Looking at these results, we can learn about how the student approaches his work. The important thing to know about this quiz is it is not a definitive profile of the student, rather it is a comparison of his strengths and weaknesses. We are only looking at how this student has rated himself. It is interesting to have the parents and teachers take the quiz as well, and get their perspective on the student. Then, you can have a conversation with the student comparing how everyone sees his executive functioning skills.

The student above rates himself with strong emotional control and a good ability to shift between tasks. The student sees himself as average in working memory, inhibiting behavior, and monitoring his workload. This student has rated his areas of weakness as organizing material and initiating work. Once a student has taken the quiz, the perception of how he sees his strengths and weaknesses can be compared to how he is studying and achieving in school. This conversation between how the student perceives his study skills and how he is doing in his classes can lead to creating goals to help increase his performance in school. I have attached a page from our executive functioning workbook so that you can see a sample of what it might look like to set goals with a student.

 

Executive functioning is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of skills. By taking the EF quiz and discussing the results, students can focus in on the areas they want to develop. Executive functioning skills allow a student to be able to look at an assignment, read the directions, gather the materials that are needed, estimate how much time it will take, do the assignment, finish it and turn it in. It sounds so simple for those that have strong executive functioning skills, yet it is extremely difficult for any student who is struggling in this area. Remediating an executive functioning issue requires pinpointing the area of difficulty and helping the student learn the steps to follow. Executive functioning skills are not needed just for school, they are skills we all use every day. Taking the time to help a child build executive functioning skills is definitely worth the effort.

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504 Accommodations: Extra Time on Tests

Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Visual Processing, Writing

Brad was a third grader who has struggled with reading since first grade.  His teacher shared with his parents that he is easily distracted and although he was performing at grade level he may have an attention issue. Brad was a quiet boy who did not cause problems in class but was more of a “daydreamer”.  When interrupted during class he had a hard time refocusing quickly and often missed important information such as directions or learning facts. Most children when interrupted or distracted are able to refocus quickly thus only missing moments of instruction.

Brad’s parents took him for a Psychoeducational Evaluation that showed that Brad did indeed have ADHD inattentive type. His testing also identified areas of strengths and weakness. Brad’s main weaknesses were in auditory and visual processing and executive functioning skills. In other words, he had trouble listening, processing the information then integrating the information he had heard.

Brad’s parents took the report from the psychologist to his school and worked with the special education team to create a 504.  A 504 is part of the 1973 Federal Rehabilitation Act and is a legal document between the parents and their child’s school, which protects and provides accommodations for their child with disabilities. The laws states that a person with a documented disability is entitled to accommodations.

Some of the accommodations that Brad is entitled to are:

  •  Extra time on tests
  • extra homework support
  • tutoring
  • written directions
  • use of a computer and tape recorder in class
  • extra time for long term assignments
  • a seat in the front of the class

Brad’s progress has improved due the accommodations put in place to help him. He still struggles and requires some extra tutoring and support.  He is learning how to compensate for his weakness while taking advantage of his strengths.

How to get covered under Section 504? http://www.help4adhd.org/en-us/education/rights/504

First, your child must be determined to have a disability that substantially limits one or more major life functions, including education, learning, and behavior.  Only the school can determine if your child qualifies for accommodations.  Parents seeking to have their child receive services under Section 504 should take the following steps:

1. Submit a written request to the school asking for an evaluation to determine if there is a significant impact on your child’s learning or behavior.

2. Request a copy of your School District’s Policies and Procedures on Section 504.  This document may be referred to by various names, including Procedural Safeguards, Parental Rights or something similar. This document will inform you of your and the school’s rights and responsibilities in helping your child receive the accommodations she or he needs.

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Summer and Executive Functioning Skills

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills, Writing

 

Summer is a great time to catch up on material your child may not have mastered during the school year. Teaching reading, writing or math concepts will have clear benefits for your child when they re-enter school in the fall. But what about something as elusive as executive functioning? Can executive functioning skills be developed during the summer?  Identifying the areas your child needs to build will guide you in deciding what type of intervention is needed and if that intervention can be done in the summer.

One great rating scale is the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function® (BRIEF®) which consists of two rating forms–a parent questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire–designed to assess executive functioning in the home and school environments. The BRIEF is divided into 2 parts:

  1. Behavioral Regulation which includes the areas of:
    • Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control
  2. Metacognition which includes the areas of:
    • Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize, Organization of Materials, Monitoring

Initiation

•

starting work

Inhibition

•

stopping off-task behavior

Shift

•

moving from one activity to another

Working Memory

•

remembering information for immediate use

Planning

•

setting goals and the steps to accomplish them

Organizing Materials

•

tracking items in work spaces

Time Management

•

allotting appropriate time for each task

Monitoring

•

judging the quality and pace of work

Emotional Control

•

regulating stress and distractibility

If your child’s executive functioning weaknesses are in the area of behavioral regulation your intervention is going to be very different than if metacognition is the area of weakness.

Dr. Judy Willis (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-based-teaching-strategies-judy-willis) identifies some wonderful strategies to build executive functioning skills. Here is an edited version of her article.

1) Provide Opportunities to Apply Learning

When you provide students with opportunities to apply learning — especially through authentic, personally meaningful activities — and then provide formative assessments and feedback throughout a unit, facts move from rote memory to become part of the memory bank.

  • The expanding of related categories of information (Piaget’s schema) through executive function activities will consolidate learning into networks. These networks can be activated when students are prompted to use new learning to solve problems or create new products. This is the transfer process that further promotes network activation with the resulting neuroplasticity to construct long-term memory. Without these opportunities for strengthening, any memories learned by rote are simply pruned away from disuse after the test.

2) Introduce Activities to Support Developing Executive Function

  • Students need to be explicitly taught and given opportunities to practice using executive functions such as how to learn, study, organize, prioritize, review, and actively participate in class.
  • Activities that can support executive function network development include comparing and contrasting, giving new examples of a concept, spiraled curriculum, group collaboration, open-ended discussions. Additionally, executive function is developed when students summarize and symbolize new learning into new formats, such as through the arts or writing across the curriculum. (See The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning.)
  • Consider how to acquire any skills or knowledge they lack to reach desirable goals. This type of student-prompted information and skill seeking strengthens students’ attitude about the value of learning. When motivated to solve problems that are personally meaningful, students apply effort, collaborate successfully, ask questions, revise hypotheses, redo work, and seek the foundational knowledge you need them to learn. And they do this because they want to know what you have to teach.

3) Model Higher Thinking Skills

  • In planning instruction, consider how and when you will model these higher thinking skills and provide opportunities for students to activate their developing executive function networks throughout the learning process.
  • Judgment
    • This executive function, when developed, promotes a student’s ability to monitor the accuracy of his or her work, and to analyze the validity of information heard or read. opinion are examples of promoting the development of networks for judgment.
  • Prioritizing
    • This executive function helps students to separate low relevance details from the main ideas of a text or topic of study. Prioritizing is the executive function that guides students when they plan an essay, select information to include in notes, and evaluate word problems in math for the relevant data.
  • Setting Goals, Providing Self-feedback and Monitoring Progress
    • Until students fully develop these pre-frontal cortex (PFC) executive functions, they are limited in their capacity to set and stick to realistic and manageable goals. As they develop these executive functions, they need guidance to recognize their incremental progress they make as they apply effort towards their larger goals.
  • Prior Knowledge Activation and Transfer Opportunities
    • Plan activities where students can relate what they know from past experiences to their current learning and tie it to the larger concept.
  • Metacognition
    • When you plan for and teach with mental manipulation for executive function in mind, your students will come to recognize their own changing attitudes and achievements. Describe your mental manipulation, challenges, and the executive functions you used to create something new as you found the authentic active learning opportunities that activated the students’ interest, perseverance, and higher levels of thinking.
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Finding the Right Intervention to Increase Processing Speed

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Processing Speed, Visual Processing, Writing


Finding the right intervention to help your child increase his processing speed and writing skills is worth the effort. There are multiple issues to consider, including visual processing, fine motor skills, and language organization skills. When I think of the students that have high verbal skills and slow processing speed I often use the image of a funnel. The funnel is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Like sand flowing through a funnel, your child’s thoughts flow freely at the top of funnel, but need to consolidate and get in a linear form to get out the bottom of the funnel. Strong verbal skills provide a tremendous vocabulary that enriches the ability to communicate ideas. However, the struggle for the hand to form the letters on paper causes many students to write down only the basics of their idea, or to try to write the whole idea and never finish due to fatigue.

When children with high verbal skills and slow processing speed are required to take their ideas and push them through this funnel it becomes a laborious process. The funnel represents the process of taking the mental images and ideas and translating them into words on the page. It is the translation from the language center to the motor center that creates the difficulty. If you could look at the different parts of their brain, you would find that these children would most likely have highly developed language centers along with poorly developed motors sectors. Many teachers do not understand how difficult this is for a child.

An IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) with a 504 is a good idea to consider. When the WISC-IV Verbal Comprehension Index score is significantly different than the Processing Speed Index score students can benefit from extra time on tests. The difference between the Index scores indicates that the child is able to communicate ideas verbally, but that his visual-motor processing skills are slow. Therefore, this child needs extra time on visual-motor tasks to allow him to get his ideas down on paper. I would also ask for modifications on homework and in-class writing assignments, so that the student only has to do enough to show he has grasped the concepts. Allowing the student to dictate extra practice materials is another option.

 Finding the best professional help to build processing speed and writing skills is trickier. The types of professional services you can use are:

Occupational therapy to work on building the fine motor skills for writing.

    • The amount of effort it takes students to write makes the whole writing process laborious. The frustrating part for the students is that they have the ideas but it’s too much work to communicate them.
    •  I recommend the Retrain the Brain program along with Handwriting Without Tears.
    • An occupational therapist has additional tools that can be used to build the hand muscles needed for fluent writing.

Vision Therapy, if visual tracking is an issue.

Educational specialists, tutors or a speech and language therapist can help with organizing language and writing skills. The writing skills that a student with this profile needs to learn,  includes pre-writing skills to help him organize his ideas before he writes.

    • Mind maps or advanced organizers such as graphical organizers are great tools.
      •  In other words, we want to take the grand ideas that the student has and get them onto paper.
      • This process alone will alleviate a lot of stress on the student.
    •  Once the ideas are on paper, they can be numbered in the order the student wants to present them in his final paper.
    • You can use the format from my 5 paragraph essay worksheets and modify them for writing one paragraph. Once one paragraph has been mastered, you can start on two paragraphs. The goal is to get the ideas out so that the student can look at and work with his thoughts without becoming overwhelmed.

It is important to remember that when you are building new pathways in the brain, daily practice is necessary. This means to really build the fine motor skills and/or eye muscles you need to do the exercises daily. It will only take 5 to10 minutes of daily exercises for most students to develop increased productivity within six months.

I also think educating teachers is important so they can understand what your child is experiencing. Share any articles you like that explain the issue your child is having, along with the testing results, so the teacher realizes this is not an issue of lack of effort, but a real learning challenge. Your communication with the teacher will also allow her to become part of your team. Letting teachers know that you understand that your child is struggling and that you are actively working to get help for him, will allow the teacher to know she has your support and that you don’t expect her to do all the work alone. Building a successful educational team that works and communicates together is the best intervention.

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