Developing executive functioning skills in children

In this new school year, try something different. It may help preserve your sanity :). Here's back-to-school survival tip No.1 - Focus on executive functioning skills, instead of content.

"There is whole lot more to racing than just winning." – Tex, Cars

I don't know about you, but kicking the kids back to school after a long school holiday period is happiness to me.

But the reprieve is short. It ends about the same time as when you get the school timetable and rubrics for the year. About a week or so.

When school is in session, my stress level goes up. I have no control over what happens there, and I am tired of nagging at the little people who are actually in school.

But I want to make sure that the kids learn in school. If I can help them to get their act together, they have a higher chance of actually bringing their books (and brains) to school. So I started focusing on their executive functioning skills instead.

What exactly is executive functioning?

Executive functioning is a set of mental skills that help you get things done. It is the ability to plan, organize, make a judgement and control your impulse.

The science behind it.

These sets of skills are controlled mainly by the part of the brain called the pre-frontal cortex. For a typical human, it becomes fully developed around 25 years old. [WHAT??]

Which is the reason why you will find crushed school test papers at the bottom of the school bag and a 2-week-old moulded bread under his school desk.

But also cannot panchan (English: to give a chance) them until they are 25 years old, right?

Quite right. Not being fully developed doesn't mean that they cannot learn to manage their schedule, do their homework and bring that 2-week-old bread home.

But this piece of information tells us, adults, that our children need our help to plan and organise their stuff. They simply lack the development to do it themselves perfectly. Understanding this helps us realise that that much of their behaviour is chemical, and not character.

What I do.

To help my kids, I introduced schedules.

We have 2 types of schedules at home:

1/ Week at a glance

I plan this. This is a home timetable which includes activities outside of school. For example, sports and tuition.

Having this overall schedule tell the kids what to expect for the week, and allows them to make adjustments to the daily plan, for example, their studying time for tests. It also encourages them to be aware of their own schedule instead of being told what to do.

An example:

2/ Daily plan

The kids plan this when they get home. It helps them to think through what they need to do with the remaining time that they have. By doing this, they start to "train" their brain to recollect, prioritise and time manage. Inadvertently, they are taking ownership of their work.

Examples:

Note 1: For younger starters, leave out the timing component first. It is hard enough to recollect and write down what they need to do. Timing may be too abstract for them at this stage. Introduce it later when have gotten the hang of the task.

Note 2: Some plans will look like there is more play time than work time (see above!) I do not correct them. If they cannot finish their work, we will review the plan when the day is over, and figure out why (no surprise conclusion really!). But this process is essential.

Accidental benefits.

I discovered that there are other benefits to implementing the home schedules, besides "training" them to be organised.

There are fewer accusations and defensive behaviours

"Have you done your homework?" became, "Do you need help to do your schedule?".

"How come you are not doing your work?" became, "Your schedule says it's math homework time. Do you need help with it?"

This changes the tone of the questions. The schedule brings the focus to planned task, instead of the kid.

It allows me to chill

Having the kids do the schedule actually gives me more oversight on what they are working on.

If I see that they are not doing anything, I can check their schedule to know if they are on their breaks, or gently ask," wah, you are done with your Kumon early?".

You will either get a sheepish or confident response.

It provides ongoing teaching opportunities

Lastly, it gives me opportunity to go through their daily plans when they do not achieve what they have planned to do.

There will be days where they did not finish everything in their plan. Maybe due to their lack of discipline, or immature planning.

Either way, going through what went wrong provides them with feedback on how they can improve their plan for tomorrow. This further strengthens their ability to organise.