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"The key to it is to help students understand what their strengths and challenges are, first, and then working to develop strategies to augment strengths and minimize weaknesses. Strategy instruction combined with understanding a students’ learning profile is probably the most important element of development for a teacher who works with neurodiverse students." (Gander)

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Neurodiverse students often struggle with organization in middle and high school, but they can be successful with the proper supports.

Learning is the journey the brain takes when acquiring new information, and executive functioning is a critical component of this learning journey. Executive function skills require students to utilize memory, self-control, and attention flexibly to follow directions, plan, and multitask. Consequently, developing these skills is critical for students in secondary grades.

Secondary and postsecondary success often requires students to manage multiple tasks and courses, plan out completion of long-term projects, and set and reach ambitious goals. However, these skills can be challenging for secondary students to refine and master.

Students with disabilities are even more likely to grapple with executive dysfunction, particularly those with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Neurodiverse students' executive functioning skills are an often-overlooked area of need during individualized education program (IEP) development. When we design accommodations and modifications, and engage in secondary transition planning, it's often related to supporting students' executive functioning skills to access the instruction.

For example, a student may have an accommodation that requires directions to be read aloud. This is a skill that can support students in comprehending and carrying out multiple steps. Students with and without disabilities can often benefit from explicit supports related to executive functioning. These skills can make the difference in students' ability to successfully navigate college, trade school, and independent life after graduation.

As a special educator, I'd say it's our responsibility to lead the charge in our schools by providing opportunities for all students to learn, practice, and refine executive function skills.

Executive dysfunction almost always plagues students with disabilities who are served via IEPs and 504 plans. However, all students can benefit from explicit executive functioning assistance. As such, I'm challenging special educators to lead the way in this area of instruction-let's teach students to manage themselves and the demands of life alongside the content of literacy, math, STEM, and history, etc.

5 Ways to Support Building Executive Function Skills

1. Bring your directions to life. Think aloud. There is power in narrating your thought processes when sharing expectations, organizing an equation, or annotating information. Consider how your lesson requires students to complete multistep directions. How can you break this direction down and model it aloud? Maybe today's independent task requires students to organize information from a passage. How can you bring this task to life? Think aloud.

2. Graphic organizers are your friend. Always provide students with options of graphic organizers to use when completing assignments independently. This will allow them access to tools for organizing and synthesizing information. Always model how to use these organizers with real tasks in your class. You may choose to make graphic organizers available via hard copy in your classroom or in a shared digital folder for students to access at all times.

3. Leverage technology. Use media, images, and video to provide visual exemplars of ways to organize information, plan tasks, and set goals. You could let your students see examples of how others annotate text in unique ways. In math, provide multiple ways that students can organize information in a multistep math word problem or use math journals to support students in organizing daily notes and content.

4. Incorporate executive functioning into grading. Consider allowing students to earn points toward an assignment or in a given course by applying executive function skills. For example, students may be able to receive additional points for a cumulative assignment by turning in a copy of the outline and short-term goals they created as they planned out the assignment.

Incorporating executive functioning into the grading system can encourage goal-oriented students to practice and apply these skills to support their success.

5. Use apps. There are limitless options of applications that allow for managing lists, utilizing timers, generating reminders, setting goals, and organizing information. Be sure to share them with parents and students, with permission. If appropriate, you may even choose to allow students to utilize the apps during class time.

As we support teenage students in refining their executive functioning skills, our classrooms should be safe spaces for them to explore a variety of strategies and figure out what works best for them. Creating these safe spaces to counter executive dysfunction can and should include the use of high-, low-, and no-tech strategies that students can access independently.

Beyond the five strategies listed, teachers can utilize everyday items like sticky notes, note cards, clocks, timers, calendars, labels, and even simple writing utensils to model executive function skills for students throughout the day.

A high school student's ability to self-regulate in the area of executive functioning can make or break their ability to balance life beyond graduation. Executive functions like attention, memory, time management, and organization are all everyday skills that we must independently manage in our lives. Special education teachers especially must not overlook conversations about students' skills in this area at IEP meetings, particularly when developing postsecondary transition goals.

For our growing and evolving students, executive functioning is a nonnegotiable component of learning, independence, and flourishing after high school.

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5 Ways to Help Neurodiverse Students Improve Executive Function Skills

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Neurodiverse students often struggle with organization in middle and high school, but they can be successful with the proper supports.

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Brain Breaks are helpful for students with neurodivergence like ADHD, as well as many other students in the classroom. There are many resources online like activitu runs on youtube, or GoNoodle.com

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These can be useful for students as they become fidgety or antsy. It is difficult for students with
ADHD to sit still or work on one consistent task for a long period of time.

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Terada, Y. (2018, June 28). 17 ways to help students with ADHD concentrate. Edutopia. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/17-ways-help-students-adhd-fidget

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There are many seats that can bounce, swivel, rock, or adjust to support students with ADHD. This allows them to move their body and improve focus

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Standing desks are a great way for some students with ADHD to write or focus on work. Some students may prefer to not sit down at all! It is also a great idea to let students have a choice in where they work in the classroom. Flexibility to move around the room can support their movement tendencies.

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"The behavioral classroom management approach encourages a student’s positive behaviors in the classroom, through reward systems or a daily report card, and discourages their negative behaviors. This teacher-led approach has been shown to influence student behavior in a constructive manner, increasing academic engagement. " (CDC)

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"Organizational training teaches children time management, planning skills, and ways to keep school materials organized in order to optimize student learning and reduce distractions. This management strategy has been tested with children and adolescents"(CDC)

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, April 19). ADHD in the classroom. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/school-success.html

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Daily Classroom Uses to Support Executive Functioning 

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Daily Classroom Uses to Support Executive Functioning 

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- Checklists
-Graphic Organizers
-Checklists
-Daily Schedules
-Sticky Notes

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Patrick, B. J. (2022, March 18). 5 ways to help neurodiverse students improve executive function skills. Edutopia. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-ways-help-neurodiverse-students-improve-executive-function-skills

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Extra time on tests;

Instruction and assignments tailored to the child;

Using technology to assist with tasks;

Allowing breaks or time to move around;

Changes to the environment to limit distraction; and

Extra help with staying organized.

(CDC)

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Provide students with multiple modes of content in the classroom for activities, instruction, projects, and assessments.

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Gander, M. (n.d.). What every teacher should know about neurodiverse learners. What Every Teacher Should Know About Neurodiverse Learners. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://blog.heinemann.com/what-every-teacher-should-know-about-neurodiverse-learners

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Moraiti, I., Fotoglou, A., Dona, K., Katsimperi, A., Tsionakas, K., Karampatzaki, Z., & Drigas, A. (2022). Assistive Technology and Internet of Things for people with ADHD. Technium Social Sciences Journal, 32, 204–222.

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Flovet quotes, "Blamires writes [56] that “enabling technology” is not merely about giving student access, it is about engaging students. We have seen by applying distance learning tools to the classroom itself in the case of ADHD adolescent learners, that we must be infinitely creative and observant if we are to achieve this “engagement” and create positive learning outcomes for students with learning disabilities.." (Flovet, 2007)

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F. Fovet, "Using distance learning electronic tools within the class to engage ADHD students: A key to inclusion?," 2007 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference - Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports, 2007, pp. F3D-15-F3D-20, doi: 10.1109/FIE.2007.4417842.

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-Timers
-Digital Math Worksheets
-Talking Calculators
-Reminder Devices

(Moraiti, p.207, 2022)

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Timer online with alarm. Create one or multiple timers and start them in any order. Set a silent timer clock or choose a sound.

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Microsoft Store - Download apps, games & more for your Windows PC

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Microsoft Sticky Notes - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

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Need to remember something for later? Use Microsoft Sticky Notes. They’re the simple way to quickly save something for later, so you can stay in the flow. With Sticky Notes, you can create notes, type, ink or add a picture, add text formatting, stick them to the desktop, move them around there freely, close them to the Notes list, and sync them across devices and apps like OneNote Mobile, Microsoft Launcher for Android, and Outlook for Windows.