ADHD students can stay prompt dependent even when checklists and visual schedules are available because the visual itself isn’t the executive functioning intervention.
Visual schedules, checklists, calendars, and other cognitive tools can absolutely support students with ADHD, autism, developmental language disorder, dyslexia, and other conditions that impact executive functioning. But simply putting a checklist in front of a student doesn’t teach them how to use it independently.
In this video, I explain why visuals are tools we use within executive functioning intervention, not the intervention itself. You’ll learn what skills to teach FIRST before you give students a checklist or visual strategy.
I’ll also share what this looked like with a student with ADHD and developmental language disorder who constantly looked to adults for reassurance, and how we took him from needing help every step to working independently, even on extended written assignments.
CHAPTERS
[0:00] Why visuals don’t automatically reduce prompt dependence
[0:45] What often happens when we give students checklists or calendars
[1:52] The student who had access to visual schedules, but never used them
[2:27] Why a checklist isn’t an executive functioning intervention
[3:01] What needs to come first before a list can be a useful memory strategy
[3:40] Why my student with DLD and ADHD couldn’t use a checklist effectively
[4:10] The skills students need in order to use the visual supports they’re given
[5:05] How we helped my student go from looking at the adults for reassurance to creating his own scaffolding
[5:40] How to help students who struggle to pace themselves and meet deadlines
WATCH NEXT
▶️ Why Verbal Reminders & Timers Don’t Reduce Prompt Dependence in Students with Executive Dysfunction: https://youtu.be/NfLDhg6Bbu0
▶️ How We Stopped Prompting this ADHD Student Through Every Assignment and Transition: https://youtu.be/ScQmV-wHAbo
▶️ Task Planning & Execution Protocol:
https://drkarenspeech.lpages.co/task-planning-execution-protocol-26-yt-1/
RESOURCES / LINKS
👉 Free training: How to Be Evidence-Based and Neurodiversity-Affirming by Supporting Executive Functioning: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadership
Executive Functioning Implementation Guide for Schools: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efguide
Learn how hundreds of clinicians are building scalable executive functioning interventions in the School of Clinical Leadership: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership
