Setting up your classroom with an Executive Function focus

As teachers and students are returning to the classroom it is a great time to consider how to incorporate Executive Function Skills into your classroom. Look around your classroom and see how the setup supports the development and ultimately independence in the following areas:

• Emotional Control
• Response Inhibition
• Working Memory
• Task Initiation
• Sustained Attention
• Time Management
• Planning
• Organization

This list may look daunting but realize that many activities and things you do can support more than one area. When it comes to Executive Function Skills it is not always about doing something new or different, but sometimes you just need to do something with more focus and intention.

Visuals and routines are the key here. Use visuals in your classroom to be reminders to students of what is expected. Think about the world we live in. We have so many visuals in our everyday lives. Stops signs remind us that we are supposed to stop at an intersection, speed limit signs allow us to know the speed limit and they appear frequently enough to remind you how fast to go. Signs for restaurants or stores show you their location even if you know where they are, you look for the visual as a reminder of where to turn. Clocks, calendars, exit signs, are used daily and give you a sense of stability when you access them.Think about if you are new to a city, you will rely on visuals in the environment regularly to get around. Once you know the city, they are not needed in the same way, but become references that you use to check that you are correct.

Imagine if the sign to your favorite location to get your morning drink suddenly disappeared. You know where to go, you drive it all the time, but without the landmark there is a chance you will miss it, or if the sign was suddenly gone you would have some anxiety that maybe they had closed and you were not going to get your caffeine fix. This is the same for our students. They need the visuals in the classroom as a reminder and point of reference even when they know them and know what to do.

As you set up routines with your students use the visuals to set the expectation with you verbalizing what is to be done. Over time you will reduce your verbalizing and allow the students to use only the visuals to follow the expectations. Use this checklist to document how you are incorporating different EF skills, if you are not, then this is a great time to adjust.