Innovative Strategies to Improve Executive Functions in Children & Adolescents

Featuring: Randy Kulman, Ph.D.

Leading expert & author of the best-selling books on executive functions: Playing Smarter in a Digital World and Train Your Brain for Success

• The power of play to enhance problem-solving and critical-thinking skills
• Games and apps to improve working memory and cognitive flexibility
• Exercise and sports to develop sustained attention and affective regulation
• Yoga and meditation to improve concentration and organization

For the past 30 years I have worked as a child clinical psychologist, primarily with kids diagnosed with attention, learning and social/emotional difficulties. Many of these kids do not fit the classic profiles of children with ADHD, LD or ASD but display problems with executive functions such as disorganization, forgetfulness, impulsivity, poor decision making and inconsistent effort. Early on in my career, I was frustrated with the lack of success I had with traditional interventions, so I began to search for approaches that motivate and engage these kids.

It became clear very quickly that video games, apps and other technologies not only captured their full attention but also required planning, organizational self-control, and other executive-functioning skills in order to be successful. I began to use games and apps in individual and group therapy to help kids improve their executive functions and later developed an interactive website to help parents, clinicians, and educators use these tools. I started to include other activities that kids already enjoy such as exercise, yoga, and meditation as tools for improving executive functions.

Suddenly, these kids were interested in self-improvement. Kids who could never find their completed homework, could organize and pack their bags for an overnight trip. Kids who fought with their parents all summer long about reading programs were choosing to read additional books on their own. These tools completely changed my assessment and the types of interventions that I used. I saw kids who previously struggled to get passing grades turn into honor students.

It took me years to learn and hone these strategies, and in this workshop I will teach you how to turn game-based skills and activities into effective clinical techniques. You will find that once you start employing activities that kids enjoy, they will keep on using these tools and often won’t stop talking and thinking about what they are doing.

Using these strategies will transform the way you work with kids who have executive function deficits, making them partners in their work with you. This seminar will provide you with practical strategies that you can take home to your practice or classroom. Most of the tools we will use will have videos, handouts, and online links, so you can use them in your practice the next day. You will learn that you don’t need to be an expert in gaming or a master yogi to use these techniques. You are likely to find that when you use these strategies you become the most popular therapist or special educator in town, because kids want to work with you.

OUTLINE

Executive-Functioning Skills

• Theories of executive functions
• Twelve-skills model of executive functions

Impact of Executive Functions on Daily Life

• Executive functions and academic performance
• ADHD, LD, ASD, psychiatric disorders, and executive functions
• Daily life and executive difficulties

Traditional Intervention Approaches

• Accommodations and reducing expectations
• Individualized support
• Differentiated instruction
• The power of teachers, clinicians and parents
• Generalization, motivation and metacognition

Low-Tech Interventions to Improving Executive Functions:

• Exercise and physical activity for:
  • Sustained attention
  • Working memory
  • Task persistence
• Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness techniques for:
  • Sustained attention
  • Emotional control
• Play and games for: self-control

High-Tech Interventions to Improving Executive Functions:

• 5 Key strategies to transform technology-based brain training into real-world skills
• Video games and apps for:
  • Organization
  • Planning
  • Time management
  • Flexibility
• Neurotechnologies for:
  • Working memory
  • Sustained attention

OBJECTIVES

• Describe executive-functioning skills and recognize how these skills impact school, cognitive and emotional performance.
• Examine how difficulty with executive functions plays a role in psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, autism and learning disabilities.
• Distinguish and describe traditional strategies for improving executive-functioning skills such as accommodations, classroom supports and individual tutoring.
• Explore brain training and neuro-technological interventions to improve executive functions.
• Summarize how games, apps, and technologies can improve executive-functioning skills.
• Discuss specific techniques for using yoga, meditation, and mindfulness training as tools to improve executive functions.
• Examine specific interventions for play and activities to improve executive-functioning skills.

To order the book, Playing Smarter in a Digital World, please visit our product store.

To order the book, Train Your Brain for Success, please visit our product store.

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