Language Therapy and Leadership for Pediatric Clinicians
I offer a free training on executive functioning where I talk about the common mistakes school teams make. In this training define what executive functioning is, and some big picture ideas about how to support kids effectively. The five skills I discuss in that intervention framework are: 1. Self-talk2. Time-perception3. Future Pacing4. Episodic Memory5. Encoding Today,…
I wanted to share this episode from the De Facto Leader’s podcast to make it accessible on the blog since this is such as common question for my readers and listeners. When kids need support with language, reading/writing, and executive functioning, they often have multiple diagnoses. This makes both treatment planning, diagnosis, and determining eligibility…
As a professional field, we’re getting stuck in old ways of thinking when it comes to designing services for students experiencing executive dysfunction. When we think of “therapy” the first thing that comes to mind is a clinician sitting in a chair saying things like, “And how does that make you feel?” or a clinician…
I’ve gotten requests from my School of Clinical Leadership members for resources that can be share with families and other professionals; and since coaching and training others is such an important part of effective executive functioning intervention, I decided to compile a list of content I’ve created on this topic. All of these things on…
Recently in some clinical discussion groups, I’ve seen therapists asking for lesson plans to build perspective taking and situational awareness. This makes me feel optimistic, because it shows that they understand that social skills issues are related to executive functioning. But “activities” for improving perspective taking will not come from a set of materials you…
One of the most common questions I get from clinicians who work with school-age kids is about scope and sequence of therapy. “How do I make time to address all these skills my students need?” “How can I help students generalize skills from one setting to another?” “How can I help the other people on…
Most K-12 teams think they’re working on executive functioning with their students, but they’re still seeing students continue to struggle with: Time-management Self-regulation Social skills Keeping track of work Following directions in class Managing personal belongings That’s because executive functioning support in the school systems often consists of planners and organizers. While organization is one…
Many children continue to experience anxiety about new situations or avoid challenging tasks, despite going to therapy and talking through their feelings. This is often because the intervention is not adequately supporting students’ executive functioning skills. In this video, I explain why anxiety and executive dysfunction go hand-in-hand, and what’s often missing when anxiety persists…
The most common complaint I hear from K-12 therapists relating to social skills is that kids don’t generalize what they learn in therapy to the real world. That’s because most therapy sessions are done in an “academic format”, and social interactions aren’t “academic”. Human interactions in an unstructured environment requires an essential set of cognitive…
Many K-12 professionals see behaviors considered to be defiant or lazy, even though classroom management systems are in place. That’s because behavior charts don’t support students’ executive functioning, and they’re often too abstract to help motivate kids through discomfort or learning curves. They also don’t support important skills such as time-perception, episodic memory, future pacing,…