Looking for inspiration, I came across some youtube videos that were explaining executive functioning even better. It really helped me to find some more examples or inspirations in order to come up with some good concepts/ideas.
One of the YouTube videos told that it is more about planning; creating lists so that the children can see what their tasks are, and which ones are the most important. Other than that, it is important to use rewards. It keeps them motivated and therefore it stimulates them to practice more. It needs to be fun.
Inspiring YouTube videos
Executive Functioning: Definition and Strategies for Success – Dr. Erica Warner
This video provides many details about EF. It also tells about what type of strategies you can use to train EF. This video helped me to look at different approaches and the variety of systems helps me to come up with ideas that could work best. This is helpful for creating concepts and keep a close eye on the target audience.
Executive Functions for Kids (Alexis StCroix)
Although this video does not have sound, it is a clear video about EF; it is more of an interactive infographic (info motion). It is actually in the tone of voice for children, which comes in handy. It explains in a simple way what EF is and how it works. What I think is very good about this video is that it is interactive but it also put in a positive way.
Peter Doolittle: How your “working memory” makes sense of the world
This video is one of the most interesting TED talks I have seen in a long time. Peter is a very good s, which was one of the reasons this video was so interesting. On the other hand, he inspired me with his subject: working memory. Working memory is also a part of the executive function. It helps you to remember which tasks you need to do, that you need to bring your homework to school and so on. The issue with working memory is that it is limited. According to Peter, we can only memorise four not seven. You can only remember those for only 10-20 seconds unless you are actually doing something with it, processing it.
His talk gives me an insight on how this could work with the executive functioning and what happens when it is not developed. That said, I have to keep in mind that children with an EF disability need to have some kind of stimulation that what they are doing will be processed. In that way, the memory will be trained, which makes things easier for children on a long term.
Eleven executive tools
This YouTube video was a real revelation for me and very useful. This video explains the eleven(!) EF tools. With this information, I can create a concept that is based on the needs of this EF. That way, I can try to eliminate as much problems as possible so that the children can train optimal.
These are the EF tools:
- Time management; this makes sure that everything will be finished in time or in the given time span.
- Planning; creating a roadmap to reach the goal.
- Organisation; a system for keeping track of information or materials. Including creating a nice workspace.
- Working memory; remembering to do something or take something with you
- Flexibility; Can you change when the world around you changes?
- Sustained attention; being able to pay attention to a subject in spite of distraction, fatigue or boredom. (Han Al, 2013)
- Emotional control; the ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks or control and direct behaviour.
- Goal directed persistence; can you keep going and do what it takes to reach a goal without getting distracted or disappointed?
- Metacognition; the ability to evaluate yourself.
- Task initiation; do you get started on a project as soon as you get it or does it take you a long time to get going?
- Response inhibition; the capacity to think before you act. (Han Al, 2013)
Other inspiration
This is a different approach to children with EF disability. This website shows parents a solution to train their children. This website shows simple steps on how to do that with colour coding. Basically, you give each child a colour. They have to collect their things in their provided colour. After that, they have to make sure they only take care of their own colour.
In school, you can use a different colour for each subject. In addition, use bracelets in the colours of the school subjects to represent their homework. It is a simple solution but it can be very effective.
Helping kinds with EF organisation
http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2012-8-20-helping-kids-executive-functions-organization
Same as the YouTube videos I found, this websites tells exactly what you can use in order to help a child with EF disability. This website provides a range of techniques/tools that help a child to organise: Checklists, planners, set time limits, spell out the rationale, explore different ways of learning, establish a routine and use rewards.
This information helps me to come up with something that uses either the most important parts or all of the above tools/techniques.