Page 33 - Course 4 Skills and Strengths Part 2 Executive Function Skills

What does this all mean to our practice?
What does this all mean to our practice?

WE CAN CHANGE OUR BRAIN AND BUILD SKILLS AT ANY AGE – BUT IT TAKES PRACTICE.

Teach children Executive Function Skills – spend time teaching and practising each of the
1 Executive Function Skills. Help all children to really understand them, know the steps to success in getting
great at them and track their own progress. See our separate Top Tips on how to teach each EF Skill.

Use terms ‘helpful’ and unhelpful’ rather than good or bad & use a strength-based approach:
focus on when the opposite corresponding skills are helpful e.g. Quick-switching attention is helpful when

2
playing basketball but not so helpful when reading important information; rigidity is helpful when saying
no to bullying but not so helpful when needing to compromise when working as a team.

Give children lots of opportunity for rehearsal so they can make good decisions automatically. This
will mean they do not have to rely on their Executive Function skills at times when they emotional /
experiencing stressors and these skills are likely to be compromised. E.g. If a child finds it hard to manage

3 when they think they cannot do well at a task, recreate the experience and guide them through it – helping
them to develop strategies to manage at each stage; repeat this over and over again until the strategies
become automatic. Or, if a child often gets aggressive when things don’t go their way, help them to decide
how they would like to respond and try to recreate similar situations and rehearse this over and over again.

Always Prep4Best before tasks. Help children think through what may go wrong (predict to prevent)
4 and how it could go right (plan to succeed). Prep4Best and rehearsal gives people a better chance to do
well, even when emotions are high.

Help children to think about the Executive Function Skills needed BEFORE starting something:​
E.g. “You will be with other people for this activity. It will need lots of Flexible Thinking to take turns,
5 listen to the ideas of others and go along with the ideas of most people in the group, even if you disagree.
What support do you need to do well in this teamwork?” (If they cannot think of anything, make

suggestions).