Helping Students Cultivate Their Executive Functioning Donna Thiele, Psy.D., Lic., BCBA-D Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting the Institute for Children with Autism
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Building Independence: Helping students cultivate their executive functioning Donna Thiele, Psy.D., Lic., BCBA-D Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting The Institute for Children with Autism ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Housekeeping • Please mute so as to reduce background noise, thank you! • Please use the chat to type any questions you have and participate in the exercises. • Sometimes Zoom freezes. This is okay.☺ We will wait a bit and usually it will unfreeze. • I have a lot of slides and an ambitious agenda, but I will do my best to leave time at the end for questions as well ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting 1. Executive functioning challenges are only found in those with disabilities 2. Social narratives, behavioral skills training, and Pre- environmental arrangement are interventions that have proven benefits to those with executive Assessment: functioning challenges. True or False 3. Executive functioning challenges are permanent and cannot be remediated. 4. Executive functioning is not as good as IQ when it comes to predicting school success. 5. Executive functioning challenges can affect many dimensions of an individual’s life, including their job, marital status, and mental health. ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Learning Objectives Define executive functioning skills and list behavioral manifestations of executive functions Learn the connection between executive functions and independent behavior Describe assessment of executive functions Explore evidence-based practices for enhancing executive functions –assimilations and accommodations Goal development for executive functions and progress monitoring ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What is executive functioning? ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Exercise: • You are enrolled in a college and feeling the pressure of the end of the semester. Several things are due at once and the pressure is ON! What do you do first and why? Can you do everything? How do you decide? • 10- page double-spaced essay on the French Revolution due in 4 days worth 40% of your grade • Quiz tomorrow on concepts of physics worth 10% of your grade • Class presentation on a topic of your choice in psychology worth 30% of your grade and requiring you to speak and have a powerpoint for 15 minutes • You promised your roommate you would drive her to the train station so she could get home for the holiday weekend • You work for the school yearbook and they need those pictures from the last football game ASAP This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY independence [ in-di-pen-duhns ] Noun freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others. Independence is a quality of life indicator ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What is true independence? • Independence is not defined as never needing help. Instead, it is knowing how to find help and information in a variety of contexts with novel people, places, and materials. • Use of naturally occurring supports to complete activities. These include use of teacher and peers (not overuse), use of visual supports This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting But some kids need a LOT of help to get through the school day and perform daily tasks at home. Sometimes this is due to deficits in executive fuctioning ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What parents notice ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What kids notice ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What are executive functions? • a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals. • Executive functions gradually develop and change across the lifespan of an individual and can be improved at any time over the course of a person's life. • EF takes effort, it is not automatic and in fact is meant to counteract those responses that would otherwise be automatic and typically ill- advised. (Diamond, 2013) This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Executive Functionong-Neurobiological Underpinnings This Photo by prefrontal cortex Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Diamond, 2013 ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Executive Functions • Self-awareness centers on self-directed action—an awareness of what you are doing. • Inhibition is impulse control and self-restraint. It acts to stop thinking and behavior and redirects not working successfully or acting harmfully. • Nonverbal working memory centers on self-directed sensing, mental imagery, and the awareness of time. It guides behavior by memory and anticipation—a map to orient thought and action toward future goals. • Verbal working memory allows for the preservation of a limited amount of speech-related information for use. It can show up as talking to oneself either out loud or silently. • Emotional regulation involves modulating feelings that arise when evoked by notable events. • Motivational regulation involves self-directed motivation. Internal stimulation, not needing constant guidance from others, is the driving force. • Planning and problem-solving: This executive function innovates a plan that can be refined, reformulated, and updated, so that trial This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY and error sharpen it toward efficacy. ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting (Ninivaggi, F. 2020) Behavioral manifestations of executive function Easier to measure (behavioral Hard to measure manifestations) • Attention • Completed work, participation • Planning • Use of planner, copying down • Emotional regulation homework, use of agenda book • Displaying a reaction appropriate to the “size” of the problem, decreased recovery time in tantrum behavior ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Exercise: It’s not a __, it’s a ___ ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Hot and Cold EF Framework of executive function processes, adapted from Chan et al. (2008) and McDonald (2013) in (Zimmerman, Ownsworth, O'Donovan, Roberts, & Gullo, 2016)©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Hot EF example- The marshmallow twist • The “marshmallow” test is a classic test of inhibition and delay of gratification for a larger reward. • (Zelazo, 2019)- decision when marshmallow was for someone else (not affected by emotion), or themselves ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND Assessment ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Assessment • Record review of grades, observations, Informal behavior rating scales, interviews, • IQ testing Formal • Normed EF scales ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC Formal Assessments • Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) • Iowa gambling task • Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function(BRIEF). Ages 2- • Jansari assessment of Executive Functions (JEF)[77] 90 covered by different versions of the scale.[71][unreliable medical source?] • Kaplan Baycrest Neurocognitive Assessment (KBNA) • Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scales (BDEFS)[72] • Kaufman Short Neuropsychological Assessment • Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS)[73] • Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) • Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory (CEFI) • Pediatric Attention Disorders Diagnostic Screener(PADDS) • CogScreen[74][unreliable medical source?] • Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure • Continuous Performance Task (CPT) • Ruff Figural Fluency Test • Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) • Stroop task • d2 Test of Attention • Tasks of Executive Control • Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) • Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.) • Digit Vigilance Test • Tower of London Test • Figural Fluency Test • Trail-Making Test (TMT) or Trails A & B • Halstead Category Test • Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) • Hayling and Brixton tests[75][76] • Symbol Digit Modalities Test ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting (Dawson & Guare) ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Exercise: Stroop Color Word Task ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Assessing Independence ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting ▪ Assess the type of skill deficit the student displays: ▪ Acquisition/Skill deficit – Skills the client cannot perform. ▪ The client lacks the knowledge for executing the skill ▪ The client may be missing a step in a sequence ▪ ~ Can’t do Assessment ▪ Performance deficit – Skills the student can, but does not perform as a result of: ▪ not knowing when to use skill ▪ inability to adjust skill to specific social situations ▪ lack of proficiency with skill ▪ competing inappropriate behaviors: skill is not as efficient or effective as problem behaviors ▪ ~ Won’t do ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting What do the executive functions do? ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Inhibition Inhibitory Control Emotional self- regulation Non-verbal Core functions working memory Working Memory Verbal working of EF memory Planning and Cognitive problem solving Flexibility Self-awareness Self-motivation ©2020 Donna Thiele Psychological Consulting Executive Functions-Inhibition