Page 73 - Strength Based Approach to Executive Function Skills DRAFT

Top Tips for helping yourself

with Thinking Speed skills

If you are a slower, stronger thinker, there

are lots of things that can help:

What you can do to help yourself

1. Prepare to be at your best before you start – work out what

you need to feel good. Check the blue physical and green

emotional Needs cards – which might be a problem for you and

stop you from feeling good and focusing well? What could you

do to improve them?

2. Ask people to slow down if the information

is given too fast for you to process it. Say:

“Can you slow down please - I do better when

I’m given more time to process information.”

If you are worried about this, work with adults you trust to work

out ways you can let people know your needs which feel ok for

you.

3. Ask people to repeat what they have said and give it to you in

chunks of 3 or less.

4. Practise working faster – you can improve Thinking Speed

with practice. Time yourself doing tasks then work at reducing

the time by 10 seconds each time. Track your progress over

time.

5. Give yourself time reminders – set alarms.

6. Take regular breaks – processing speed gets slower

as our brain gets tired so work out ways to re-energise regularly.

74