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Developing Executive Functions through Social and Emotional Skills  for Severely Learning Disabled Youth

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Click here to view the transcription of this webinar.
Executive function is an umbrella term covering a number of management functions, including organization, self-regulation, planning, and self-monitoring. The presentation focused on research-based instructional strategies and accommodations that contribute to the classroom success of students with executive function LDs. During the webinar, the speakers defined executive function, and identified the signs of executive functioning needs and their impact on academic and behavioural success. The presentation also highlighted the brain areas associated with executive function, the developmental progression of executive functioning, and how the environment can influence the development of the regulatory system in the brain, including how executive functioning skills are employed during times of stress.
About the speakers: Dr. Christine Purcell, Ph.D., C.Psych. Dr. Christine Purcell is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist, specializing in learning disorders and developmental disorders at the Regional Children Centre. Dr. Purcell has worked for the school board Greater Essex County School Board since 2012. Her clinical interests included self-regulation and social emotional learning in young children. Dr. Marc Crundwell, Ph.D., C.Psych. Dr. Marc Crundwell is a licensed School and Clinical Psychologist, working in both the elementary and secondary panels providing assessment of students, consultation with school staff and parents, assisting in the development of Behaviour and Safety Plans, as well as in Threat Risk Assessments. Jennifer Newton, Educational Coordinator Jennifer Newton has worked for the GECDSB in various settings and roles including self-contained classrooms, Learning Disability Classrooms, Learning Support Teacher and has been a Special Education Coordinator for the past 15 years. She has taught Special Education, Part 1 at Queen's University and has been a presenter at multiple PD Sessions at both the elementary and secondary levels.
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WEBINAR RECORDING: Strengthening Executive Functioning Skills in the Classroom

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Click here to view the transcription of this webinar. Executive function is an umbrella term covering a number of management functions, including organization, self-regulation, planning, and self-monitoring. The presentation focused on research-based instructional strategies and accommodations that contribute to the classroom success of students with executive function LDs. During

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Meet Josh, a sixth-grader with executive functioning issues. This doesn't mean he isn't smart. It means his brain's self-management system has trouble getting organized and getting things done.

Executive functions are an important set of mental skills. To see how trouble with these skills affects kids in school and outside of it too, take a look at a typical day in Josh's life.

Josh knows he's forgetting something. Ah, that's it-his cleats for today's game. He runs back inside to get them, but he ends up leaving his backpack at home as he races to catch the bus. He sprints past the checklist his mom made to help him remember what he needs for school. But it's too late: The bus is about to pull away. He's going to miss it again....

Josh's teacher asks, "Who has a good answer to the first question I gave you yesterday about last night's reading assignment?" Josh squirms, hoping he won't be called on. He didn't write the questions in his planner and has no idea how to answer them.

Challenges related to executive function: Organization, focus

It's the best part of the school day: lunch! But Josh hogs the conversation, talking way too loud and too much about his video games. He doesn't notice how annoyed his friends are getting.

Challenges related to executive function: Keeping track of what you're doing, self-control

In soccer, Josh is so focused on getting the ball that he doesn't keep in mind which direction he's supposed to run once he gets it. He quickly heads for the nearest goal and kicks the ball-right into his own team's net.

Josh isn't happy when his mom tells him to turn off the TV and set the dinner table. When he thinks he's done, his little sister tattles that once again he forgot to give each person a cup. Frustrated with his sister and with missing his TV show, Josh loses his cool and screams at her.

After lots of prodding from his mom, Josh sits down to do his homework. But he doesn't know where to start. Instead of doing the book report or the math problems that are due tomorrow, he surfs the web to find a topic for his science report that's due next week. Then he takes a break to play a video game.

Challenges related to executive function: Setting priorities, starting tasks

When Josh finally starts the book report, his mind keeps jumping from one thought to another. He can't figure out what to write and only gets one sentence down on paper before he gives up for the night. He thinks he can do more on the way to school tomorrow-even though he's never gotten anything done while riding the bus with his friends.

Challenges related to executive function: Paying attention, staying on task, organization

It's way past his bedtime. Josh is exhausted. He tries to go to sleep, but he can't shut off his brain. He keeps worrying about disappointing the teacher with his book report and getting teased by his teammates for kicking the ball into the wrong goal.

Challenges related to executive function: Anxiety, keeping emotions in check

Many kids who learn and think differently have trouble with executive function. All kids with ADHD struggle with it.

These difficulties don't mean kids aren't smart. Brain differences make it hard for kids like Josh to focus, set goals, get started, and stay on task. This includes things like doing homework and daily routines.

These kinds of struggles are often misunderstood. People might think kids are just being lazy or aren't capable of doing more. But with the right support, kids with executive functioning issues can thrive.

There are lots of ways to help at home and in school. Support can help kids like Josh get organized and stay on top of assignments. It can also help them feel less stressed and more confident.

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A Day in the Life of a Child With Executive Functioning Issues

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Meet Josh, a sixth-grader with executive functioning issues. This doesn't mean he isn't smart. It means his brain's self-management system has trouble getting organized and getting things done. Executive functions are an important set of mental skills. To see how trouble with these skills affects kids in school and outside of it too, take a look at a typical day in Josh's life.

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Mapping Executive Functions to Learning Skills

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Mapping Executive Functions to Learning Skills

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Click here to learn how the groundbreaking science of Self-Reg will help you support the children, youth and adults in your community by tackling stress, behaviour & wellness.

"The concepts that were explored in this course were life-altering. I wish for everyone to experience the mind-shift that comes from applying a Self-Reg lens." -Ashley. Register HERE

As I've mentioned before, I often find Self-Reg thinking running through my head. The questions, "Why?," and "Why now?," which Stuart Shanker is known for asking, are ones that I contemplate frequently, especially when noticing student behaviour. Sometimes though, no...

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How we respond to stress, all the way from self-regulating mechanisms deep in the brain to the skills we learn to reduce the load on these mechanisms.

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At The MEHRIT Centre, we teach the people who care for and work with children and youth - parents, early years professionals and school teams

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This overview can answer your basic questions about executive function in kids. You'll find expert tips and strategies to help your child, plus ideas on how to work with your child's school.

Some people describe executive function as "the CEO of the brain." That's because these skills are what let us set goals, plan, and get things done. When kids struggle with them, it affects them in and out of school.

Trouble with executive function isn't a diagnosis or a learning disability. But it's common in kids who learn and think differently. All kids with ADHD have trouble with it. And lots of kids with learning disabilities struggle with executive function.

The three main areas of executive function are:

Executive function is responsible for a number of skills, including:

Organizing, planning, and prioritizing

Starting tasks and staying focused on them to completion

Understanding different points of view

Regulating emotions

Self-monitoring (keeping track of what you're doing)

Trouble with executive function creates challenges with learning. But it doesn't mean kids are lazy or not intelligent. Kids who struggle with it are just as smart and hardworking as other kids.

Executive skills usually develop quickly in early childhood and into the teens. But they keep developing into the mid-twenties. When kids are younger, some may lag behind peers for a while. As they get older, though, they may have fewer challenges as teens and young adults. And in the meantime, there are strategies and supports at school that can help.

Trouble with executive function can affect kids in different ways. Kids may have difficulties in only one or two areas, or in all of them. The difficulties often look like the signs of ADHD. That's because ADHD is a problem with executive function.

Kids struggling with executive skills may:

Have trouble starting and/or completing tasks

Have difficulty prioritizing tasks

Forget what they've just heard or read

Have trouble following directions or a sequence of steps

Panic when rules or routines change

Have trouble switching focus from one task to another

Get overly emotional and fixate on things

Have trouble organizing their thoughts

Have trouble keeping track of their belongings

Not be able to manage their time

Since executive function develops over time, a child may struggle in different ways at different ages. Here are some signs you might see at various grade levels.

Gets frustrated easily, and gives up instead of asking for help

Has trouble following directions

Has frequent tantrums over minor things

Insists on doing things a certain way

Answers questions in vague ways

Starts a task, gets distracted, and never finishes it

Often mixes up school assignments and brings home the wrong books

Has a messy desk and backpack

Wants to have friends come over, but never sets it up

Seems to focus on the least important point in a discussion

Processing speed can also play a role in executive function. Kids need to notice challenges, weigh the options, and put things in context to solve problems. Some of the signs of trouble with executive function may be partly due to slow processing speed.

ADHD (also known as ADD) is essentially a problem of executive function. Its main symptoms are all the result of trouble with executive skills. These include impulsivity, difficulty paying attention, poor working memory, trouble managing emotions, and difficulty shifting focus from one task to another.

Learning disabilities don't always involve a problem with executive function. But it's not uncommon for kids with dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia to also have trouble with executive skills. Learn how problems with executive function can impact reading and math.

The exact causes of challenges with executive function aren't known yet. But brain-imaging studies are shedding some light on how these challenges show up in the brain. Research shows that in kids who struggle with these skills, the frontal areas of the brain responsible for executive function are slower to develop.

Genetics also appear to play a role. Kids who struggle with executive function often have a parent with similar struggles.

Keep in mind, though, that executive function can improve with practice. Giving kids opportunities to pause, step back, and reflect on problems before trying to solve them can help them build these skills. This kind of practice can create changes in brain function that lead to faster brain development.

Testing for executive skills should be part of a full evaluation that also looks for possible learning challenges. This type of evaluation can be done by clinical child psychologists and pediatric neuropsychologists who are trained to give the tests and interpret the results.

There are different types of professionals who can help kids improve executive functioning. They may also help with ADHD and other challenges. How these professionals work with kids varies, based on their specialties.

Pediatricians, neurologists, developmental-behavioral pediatricians, nurse practitioners, and psychiatrists don't test for trouble with executive function. But they can refer kids to specialists who do. These medical professionals can diagnose ADHD, though, and develop an ADHD treatment plan. (There are no medications just for executive function, but there are medications for ADHD.) And they can look for other related issues, like anxiety.

Clinical child psychologists may test for challenges with executive function as part of a full evaluation. They may also diagnose ADHD and mental health issues, like anxiety. Some psychologists provide behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Behavior therapy helps kids replace negative behaviors with positive ones. CBT helps kids deal with thoughts and feelings and manage behavior.

Pediatric neuropsychologists may test for trouble with executive function as part of a full evaluation. They may also evaluate for ADHD and common mental health issues that might co-occur. Learn more about the role of pediatric neuropsychologists.

Organizational coaches are consultants you can hire to help your child. They're not tutors who help build academic skills. Instead, they work with kids on building organization and time management skills. They can also work on study skills. Learn more about organizational coaches.

Problems with executive function can impact kids in school and in everyday life. Understanding your child's challenges makes it easier to find the best support at school and strategies at home.

Here are some things you can do to help your child thrive:

It's important for you to have support, too.

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This overview can answer your basic questions about executive function in kids. You'll find expert tips and strategies to help your child, plus ideas on how to work with your child's school. Some people describe executive function as "the CEO of the brain."

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"Activated Learning" (AL), also called the "EFs2theRescue Pedagogy" in Guare and Dawson's 3 rd edition of Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, is an adaptive executive function (EF) intervention that aims to facilitate high-impact teaching and learning that is necessary for some and good for all in typical classrooms. AL is a self-regulated learning pedagogy that, among other benefits, allows teachers to support students with learning disabilities (LDs) as part of their everyday teaching. It was developed in 2014 by a special education teacher (the author) and has been championed by hundreds of educators in several school boards in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

There is no "manual" for AL because it is not a commercial program. After years of collaboration with teachers in the Trillium Lakelands District School Board, an effective training method has been developed that begins with a one-day teacher workshop. In a 4-hour training day, teachers learn broad conceptual knowledge about EF, develop the skill of spotting EFs in everyday performance, and then practice using a self-regulated learning pedagogy that applies these new skills and knowledge.

Following the training day, teachers are invited to join a series of 30-minute online videoconferences. These conferences are accessed via the activatedlearning.org website. Teachers browse a calendar of available dates and times, and may sign up for a meeting before school, on a prep, or after school. This is a very cost-effective method of follow up training because it can be conducted during the course of a regular teaching day and does not require expensive release time

Each videoconference is hosted by an experienced practitioner of Activated Learning and will be joined by up to three other educators who are implementing the approach. During these conversations, trainees discuss a wide variety of different first steps, access further resources, ask questions, share challenges, and describe successes. The goal is to send each educator back to their classroom with a "next step" that is perfect for their context and readiness-level, a sense of community, and a feeling of support.

These conferences are used in different ways. Most often they are scheduled by individuals or pairs of educators who are excited to start making change in their classrooms. Occasionally, a small group of teachers will sign up for support to integrate AL into a special program, like a maker space or a behavioral resource program.

The online forum has also been used by school teams, including teachers and principals, who are gearing up to launch AL across all grades in their communities. After completing four online videoconferences, participants are mailed a note of congratulations and a "Level II" ribbon. In many ways, this phase is like running alongside a new kite, coaxing it up into the air until it catches a gust of wind and takes flight.

Diversity of implementation is a strength of the AL approach. Educators are encouraged to change their classroom practice in a way that suits their context, students, and teaching style.

Furthermore, teachers engage with AL as owners of their learning and co-creators of a variety of materials which are often donated to a sharing page on the www.activatedlearning.org website. Occasionally, when teachers develop more sophisticated materials that may be useful to AL teachers, their pay-for websites (e.g., Teachers Pay Teachers) are linked to the community website. The name Activated Learning is used as a rally cry, a signpost, and a descriptor; it is not meant to brand a commercial endeavor.

Description of the Program

Activated Learning (AL) is very simple. It asks teachers to add a 5-minute metacognitive discourse to their whole-class instruction, in which students and teachers discuss the EF obstacles they will face in specific assignments and co-create strategies to be successful. Then, students receive feedback and assessment on their achievement of the agreed upon strategies. These processes can occur at any time of the day, as often as needed.

AL makes use of well-established instructional practices such as inquiry-based teaching (What will we struggle with?), co-created goals (What will we do to overcome our challenges?), and meaningful feedback and assessment (I'm going to hold you accountable and track your use of that strategy!). In practice, this metacognitive troubleshooting session will take place when a teacher feels that the class, as a whole, is unable to self-regulate their learning. It sounds like this:
TEACHER: You seem to be having difficulty with these math problems. What are your obstacles? What is difficult about this task? STUDENTS: We're rushing and forgetting to do certain steps. TEACHER: That sounds like inhibition. Am I right? What else? STUDENTS: For me, it is hard because my numbers get all jumbled up. TEACHER: That sounds like organization. Am I right? (Further discussion during which teacher elicits other obstacle ideas and encourages class to connect them to executive functioning.) TEACHER: What strategies can we use to overcome these obstacles? (Discussion, during which teacher charts a variety of strategy ideas for the student/s.) TEACHER: You have suggested several strategies that might work. I will be watching to see which strategy you choose and use. I will be making notes!
AL is similar to other interventions that call for the direct teaching of learning strategies, such as Facilitated Planning (Naglieri & Pickering, 2003) or Lynn Meltzer's "Drive to Thrive" (Meltzer, 2010), but is unique because of its timing, key teaching mechanism, themes of instruction, context, and follow up. It is a viable, teacher-friendly pedagogy that aims to optimize the performance of every student and make it possible to deliver challenging 21 st century curriculum.

Timing

Trigger: Teacher recognizes that the class is having difficulty, is stuck, or otherwise needs a lot of help to progress.

Duration: 5-10 minutes

Frequency: 1-3 times per day, as needed

Central Teaching Mechanism

Whole class discussion in which teacher charts students' ideas about specific obstacles to performance and strategies to overcome those obstacles.

Themes of Instruction

Self-knowledge, self- and other-acceptance, self- and other-compassion, a strategizing stance, teamwork, and growth mindset. Discovering the factors that can be controlled in any challenging situation.

Classroom Context

Classrooms in which students are taught a non-judgemental and descriptive nomenclature (11 executive functions) to describe challenges and obstacles.

Follow Up

Students encouraged to "choose and use" suitable strategies.

Teacher does "notice and name," providing ongoing descriptive feedback on student choice of and use of strategy.

Teacher conducts ongoing assessment of student use of strategy.

How EFs Impact All Students, and Especially Students with Learning Disabilities

As educators abandon rote worksheets and explore innovative teaching approaches, an old problem of teaching and institutional schooling has become impossible to ignore: kids. While they are naturally curious, creative, and energetic, we sometimes forget that children are capable of much less mature execution than the adults who plan and direct their school experiences. Teachers struggle to engage, motivate and elicit optimum performance from their students, particularly when delivering challenging or creative lessons.

It is a balance. Sometimes my students can handle creative lessons and sometimes they can't. Much of the time, my students just need to be kept busy. I can always trust my class to write in their journals, answer questions, do math pages, and read, so I come back to those types of tasks a lot. I want to use new and creative approaches, but I deal with a lot of "behavior" and the fancy stuff doesn't always work with my group - Ontario Teacher

The more teachers ask of students, the more they challenge their executive functions (EFs). These EF skills, such as attention, flexibility, emotional control, initiation, inhibition, and organization, work alongside creativity and intellect to enable adaptive responses to novel or complex situations. They allow children to express their gifts and talents, learn at school, thrive in the workplace, and enjoy healthy relationships.

The term "executive functioning" is a regrettably scientific-sounding label for what is actually a very commonplace phenomenon. Teachers are often exposed to EFs by name for the first time on the pages of psycho-educational reports, but quickly realize that these names refer to classroom behaviors that they see day in and day out. The inattention, inflexibility, poor emotional control, and disorganization encompassed by executive dysfunction account for over half of all variance in school performance (Visu-Petra, Cheie, Benga, & Miclea, 2011).

EFs develop naturally throughout childhood and adolescence according to age related increases in the activation of dopamine-rich frontal and striatal circuits (Tau & Peterson, 2010), though they assume a natural variation of strength and weakness in different individuals. While even the most capable students, and most adults, have one or two weak EFs that will impair performance to some extent, students with LDs, ADD, autism, giftedness, fetal alcohol syndrome, and low socio-economic status often have especially poor EFs.

To further exacerbate the problem, everyday factors such as over-exposure to screens, lack of exercise, improper sleep or nutrition, sickness (Swing, Gentile, Anderson, & Walsh, 2010) can suppress EFs. Recently, experts have warned that high or "toxic" levels of stress have a negative impact on EFs (Southern Education Foundation, 2015) and may even cause permanent impairment (Bethell, Newacheck, Hawes, & Halfon, 2014; Burke, Hellman, Scott, Weems, & Carrion, 2011; Hostinar, Stellern, Schaefer, Carlson, & Gunnar, 2012; Shonkoff & Garner, 2012; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) that creates patterns of lackluster performance, misbehavior, or dramatic over-reaction in response to the least sign of negative feedback. As they compound, unusually weak EFs are associated with academic failure, troubled relationships, anxiety, depression, conduct disorders, health problems, risky behavior, and, eventually, incarceration (Hackman & Farah, 2009; Moffitt et al., 2011). EFs, so vital to both short and long-term school success, are susceptible to all kinds of threats; students with LDs are often starting this perilous journey at a disadvantage.

School, Teaching and the Support of EFs

Longitudinal studies of EF weakness conclude that interventions yielding even small improvements to individual capacity for EFs could dramatically improve society (Moffitt et al., 2011, p. 2694). Given the amount of time children spend at school, surely the everyday work of classroom teachers should contribute to that improvement. Research in Canada, the US, and Australia, however, suggests that most qualified teachers are unprepared to fully understand and address the needs of students with poor attention, inhibition, organization, or emotional regulation (Bekle, 2004; Bussing, Gary, Leon, Garvan, & Reid, 2002; Jones & Chronis-Tuscano, 2008; Martinussen, Tannock, & Chaban, 2011). The majority of Ontario teachers have only basic special education training, and receive special education professional development much less often than training related to content areas like math or technology (EQAO, 2016). Many teachers, however, feel that additional training is necessary to be productive with an integrated student body (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1996)

What should we be doing? EF development is optimized in calm, structured, and stimulating environments, when good nutrition and sleep habits are in place (Hostinar, Stellern, Schaefer, Carlson, & Gunnar, 2012; Shonkoff & Garner, 2012; Swing, Gentile, Anderson, & Walsh, 2010). Teachers strive to create these conditions in their classrooms, but succeed to varying degrees and have very little control over the condition in which students arrive at school. While a structured schoolday has always been a place where EFs grow, our slow and steady efforts often leave a considerable gap between desired performance and the high level of EF impairment. Creating an EF-friendly environment only goes so far.

Direct approaches to building EFs exist. Educators have been intrigued by programs, like CogMed, that provide intensive small-group or solo training for individual executive functions. There is evidence that this type of practice can yield changes to specific EFs; however, these changes are only evident in isolated testing and have yet to prove transfer to novel challenges and generalized performance (Hitchcock & Westwell, 2016; Klingberg, 2010; Melby-Lervag & Hulme, 2013; Soderqvist et al., 2012). There is no easy solution.

Teachers' mandate regarding executive functions, therefore, should be the same as for any disability or learning challenge. Firstly, yes, we must continue to provide positive, structured, stimulating, and supportive classroom experiences, but secondly, we must invest in approaches that build student self-advocacy and the ability to work around limitations. To do this, we can use the same methods that have been shown to support EF growth in familial contexts: scaffolded problem-solving, modeled mindful verbal reflection on thinking, and a sensitive engagement style that permits children to have a sense of agency and impact (Carlson, 2003). An EF-based instrucion, feedback and assessment approach, such as the one practiced under the name "Activated Learning", offers just such a solution.

How Activated Learning (AL) Wins Teacher Support

We have many good reasons to gear public education toward the optimization of EFs. There is a big difference, however, between knowing a change should happen and actually making it happen. This is particularly true in education, where teachers handle high emotional and physical stress by developing efficient and comfortable routines and habits. Often, we compromise by creating small, add-on programs with highly structured lessons. These interventions survive by intruding very little on the sanctity of a teacher's pedagogy and, at all costs, by avoiding the dreaded "C" word: CHANGE.

AL, in contrast, is not an add-on curriculum; it targets the hours and hours of teachers' daily, in-context pedagogical contact with students. This deep embeddedness is a key advantage of AL over other add-on interventions because context-relevance and a high frequency of exposure are associated with increased maintenance and transfer of learned self-regulated learning (SRL) skills (Brown, Campione, & Day, 1981; Veenman, 2007). Asking teachers to fundamentally change their core teaching practice is a big ask so several years have been dedicated to fine tuning the approach to find a simple, open-ended, efficient, and time sensitive design that will fit any style.

Teams of teachers from several schools were consulted to identify key implementation threats. Overwhelmingly, teachers insisted that any new approach should not demand too much extra time. Our emphasis in development, therefore, has been to bring AL towards time neutrality. Our intention is that it should almost seamlessly replace less efficient modes of student support.

During training, teachers are asked to weigh the amount of time they already spend providing 1:1 SRL support to students. Teachers enjoy listing the work they do in a classroom, much of which relates to executive functioning. This work includes, for example, helping students resolve disagreements, get organized, plan projects, stick to timelines, get started, pay attention, or continue on with work that has been started. Teachers describe moving from student-to-student, asking good questions, helping them articulate their challenges, and assisting with the design of good learning strategies. These activities require a lot of contact time but reach only a handful of students per day. Teachers remark that this feels exhausting and ineffective because there are so many students to support, and because so many of them seem dependent on teacher help. One teacher commented, "I feel like I am wearing out the treads on my shoes!" When teachers contemplate the tremendous energy they already spend supporting self-regulated learning, and how tiring and futile those efforts feel, the idea of trying something new is more acceptable.

While supporting students individually is challenging and inefficient, supporting students in larger groups is not ideal either. Teachers in AL training are often asked to consider the impact of delivering SRL lessons in a whole-class setting. By this method, a teacher might target a specific area for improvement and use it as the basis for a whole class learning strategy lesson. While this whole class strategy instruction allows teachers to reach all students on a regular basis, it removes the student from the process of metacognitive monitoring. By this method, only the teacher practices a strategic stance, doing all of the noticing, planning, and strategizing on his or her own. And, while self-regulated learners benefit from learning teacher-selected strategies, and whole class strategy teaching is very important, students must also learn to be adaptable, independent, and capable of their own metacognitive monitoring. Whole class strategy teaching does not help students practice metacognitive, resilient, strategic responses to novel challenges.

The teaching of SRL is overdue for improvement. In general, despite a century of consensus on its effectiveness (Winne, 2017) self-regulated learning teaching has failed to make a cohesive impact on classroom practise (Dignath-van Ewijk, Dickhäuser, & Büttner, 2013; Kistner et al., 2010; Spruce & Bol, 2015). Even the most well-trained teachers do not engage students in SRL as often as they say they'd like to (Spruce & Bol, 2015) because, as currently enacted, it is perceived to require constant individual attention from teachers and compete with curricular demands. Moreover, teachers report a limited number of strategy ideas for students (Winne, 2010). When teachers see that much of their work in a classroom is actually in support self-regulated learning, they are more willing to learn a proactive method for managing it.

The message to teachers, with regard to both 1:1 SRL teaching and whole-class SRL teaching, is that they are spending time on this work already. AL offers them a way to do it more efficiently and effectively.

How Activated Learning (AL) Works for Students with LDs: A Neat Trick

Students with learning disabilities are often less adept at metacognitive monitoring. In general, they have difficulty responding strategically to challenging tasks (Swanson, 1990; Torgesen, 1977) and tend to benefit from interventions that directly teach adaptable, resourceful responses (eg., Wong, Butler, Ficzere, & Kuperis, 1996). The central teaching mechanism of AL is a metacognitive conversation that helps students practice noticing their challenges and responding strategically. It is called "mental contrasting with implementation intentions" (MCII) (Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2010). Mental contrasting refers to the process of contrasting one's goal with its specific obstacles, and, when accompanied by the formation of an " if this happens then I will do that" plan, has been shown to boost success in goal achievement by helping individuals to act more quickly (Gollwitzer & Brandstatter, 1997), deal more effectively with cognitive demands, and execute planned strategies with less effort (Brandstatter, Lengfelder, & Gollwitzer, 2001). These if-then conversations stimulate metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive control, the fundamental processes at the root of self-regulated learning (Corno, 1993; Winne, 1995, 1996, 1997).

Using mental contrasting, AL classes practice employing metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive control on a regular basis. This allows students with learning disabilities to participate fully in mainstream education while receiving much needed support for the development of their strategic skills.

Activated Learning (AL) and Powerful, Positive Feelings for Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities struggle with negative emotions and a sense of powerlessness. They tend to believe that their failure and success are caused by fixed factors that cannot be controlled (Baird, Scott, Dearing, & Hamill, 2009; Majorano, Brondino, Morelli, & Maes, 2017). This is discouraging, causes lower than average academic self-efficacy and self-esteem, and leads them to enact maladaptive self-regulatory patterns (Elliott & Dweck, 1988) such as avoidance and distraction. AL intervenes on this pattern in two ways: it helps students to see that many of their challenges are natural, normal, and shared by their peers, and it trains them to look for and act upon sources of control.

In an AL classroom, learning challenges are completely re-characterized. Firstly, students learn that they are not alone. This occurs during the 5-10 minute troubleshooting conversations, when students work together to brainstorm the many different reasons a task may be difficult.

During these whole-class discussions, the silence is broken, and students can see that their friends and teachers also experience difficulty. Teachers, too, help to normalize everyday difficulties by modelling self-understanding and acceptance. For example, a teacher might say,

"You know how I struggle with response inhibition. I'm trying really hard not to give away the answer..." or "I had a terrible night's sleep and my working memory is struggling. Can you repeat what you just said? I missed the last half...". By connecting learning challenges to lagging executive functioning skills, they become more predictable, recognizable, and separate from a students' academic and creative potential. In this context, a student with a learning disability can feel like a more normal member of the classroom.

AL trains students to find control over many different kinds of obstacles. In group troubleshooting sessions, students may discuss the obstacles to writing an essay and suggest several different possible obstacles. For one student, the problem is task initiation; for another, organization. Yet another student may struggle with perfectionism and conclude that the lagging executive function is emotional control. Each of these obstacles may resonate with a handful of different students in the room when suggested, as will the compensatory strategies that the students discuss and list. This process will both provide valuable strategies, and engage the whole class in resilient, adaptive thinking.

Using AL and a knowledge of executive functions, students can respond to even the most fixed-seeming challenges with a greater sense of power and control. So, dyslexia, for example, can be controlled using goal directed persistence to self-advocate for access to technology, organization to keep personal copies of anchor charts and other visual supports, and emotional control to stay calm in the face of frustration. In this way, students with LDs can learn to be adaptive, getting in the habit of moving obstacles from the "impossible" pile to the "I can control this" pile. Believing that there is always a way forward is the foundation of a growth mindset.

This process of finding control relates to a powerful motivational intervention: attributional retraining (AR). AR works by changing one's ideas about the potential causes for failure to factors that can be controlled. In studies spanning elementary, secondary, special education, and college-age students, shifting the locus of cause for difficulty at school away from innate, internal, and fixed factors like character or intelligence consistently boosts performance (Andrews & Debus, 1978; Chapin & Dyck, 1976; Dweck, 1975). These findings are most pronounced for students with performance worries (Van Overwalle & de Metsenaere, 1990; Wilson & Linville, 1985) and poor past performance (Menec et al., 1994; Perry, Stupnisky, Hall, Chipperfield, & Weiner, 2010). Weiner's (1985, 1995, 2006) theory of attribution laid the groundwork for several randomized field and laboratory studies showing that correcting students' attributional schema changes their expectation of success, reduces debilitating emotions such as shame and hopelessness, increases positive emotions such as hope and pride, and thus makes possible a strategic approach to overcome obstacles (Hall, Hladkyj, Perry, & Ruthig, 2004; Hall et al., 2007; Haynes et al., 2006; Menec et al., 1994).

Activated Learning (AL) and Agency for Students with Learning Disabilities

AL supports students' feelings of control and autonomy. In an AL classroom, the assignment of a challenging academic task is often followed by a whole-class troubleshooting session in which students and teachers work together to collect a list of specific strategies for success. This offers an opportunity for atypical learners to demonstrate their tactical creativity, which can be thrilling for someone who tends to receive less recognition for traditional academic performance. Including students in strategy-making also has practical benefits - they often have very good ideas and can ease the pressure on teachers to be the ultimate strategy experts.

In AL classrooms, students receive observation, feedback, and assessment on how they "choose and use" strategies. We might say, "I see you making a chart to organize the data before you begin your calculations" or "I noticed that this group is dividing the work before they begin". This type of specific descriptive feedback is known to support the development of a mastery-goal orientation, which emerges from the belief that personal effort leads to success and is associated with self-efficacy and a deep motivation to learn (Brophy, 1983). In contrast, evaluative feedback is a more general expression of approval or disapproval, and leads to a "performance goal orientation" in which self-worth is linked to ability, superiority, and the appearance of ease (Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, Chueng, Lauer, & Patashnick, 1989).

Activated Learning emphasises the value of strategic choice-making, independence, and autonomy, which have been shown to enhance student motivation (Andrade, 2010; Black & Wiliam, 2009; Deci & Ryan, 2000; Mouratidis, Lens, & Vansteenkiste, 2010; Reeve, 1998; Reeve, Bolt, & Cai, 1999; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986) and are very well established predictors of academic engagement and success (Benware & Deci, 1984; Grolnick & Ryan, 1987; Hofferber, Eckes, & Wilde, 2014; Miserando, 1996; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986).

Activated Learning (AL) as Better Option to Handle a Challenging Class

The best way to teach learning skills is not in isolated mini-lessons, but integrated throughout a mainstream day (Diamond & Lee, 2011; Farrington et al., 2012). Students demonstrating poor EFs, however, can be overwhelming for classroom teachers, hard to relate to, and difficult to work with. Their maladaptive behaviors are often mistaken for symptoms of poor character (Gaier, 2015) and they often seem intentional (Elik, Wiener, & Corkum, 2010). For this reason, many students with LDs who also have EF challenges find themselves streamed to Tier 2 or 3 contexts to receive support.

In status quo classrooms, EF problems are often met with management responses that suppress EFs further. When teachers become overwhelmed by off-task, inattentive, or disruptive student behavior they often fall into "cascades" of over-simplification in which best practices are abandoned and replaced with safer lessons that are more didactic and controlled (Klusmann, Kunter, Trautwein, Ludtke, & Baumert, 2008; Muller, Gorrow, & Fiala, 2011; Yong & Yue, 2007). As the classroom becomes more deprived of work that is creative, engaging, and meaningful (Blase, 1986), students respond poorly, and the problems intensify. A paradox familiar to any teacher is the student who seems to put in very little effort and tolerate novel tasks poorly, but who complains of boredom and acts out. Mainstream educators are definitely ready for a fresh and proactive way to support executive functioning diversity and teach learning skills.

Conclusion

Activated Learning (AL) is a feasible process for EF-based instruction, feedback, and assessment. In partnership with their teachers, "Activated" learners use a series of mechanisms shown to promote feelings of hopefulness, competence, control, and autonomy to more independently act upon their intellectual and creative potential. Moving forward, pilot studies taking place in the York Regional District School Board and by scholars at Cambridge University will determine whether this arrangement of established mediators actually improve student motivation, mindset, and academic success. In the meantime, Activated Learning continues to be the darling of the front line, espoused by teachers who know that if their classrooms are running smoothly they can stick with challenging, engaging, and meaningful teaching approaches. A change like this may be necessary for students with learning disabilities and absolutely amazing for the future of all resilient 21 st century learners.

References
Please click here to view the references for this article. Laurie's work is based on 17 years in the classroom. She is a certified Future Design School educator, and has extensive training in both the Rotman School of Business's Integrative Thinking discipline and Google's Search Inside Yourself mindfulness approach. Laurie has received recognition from SENG for distinguished contributions to gifted education. Laurie Faith is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, focusing on exploring the dynamics of self-regulated learning in classrooms. She is the leader of a teaching movement called Activated Learning, which has been scaled across the Trillium Lakelands District School board, is the focus of a 24-class pilot study at the York Regional District School Board, and that is also being used and studied in the UK. This approach was featured in a chapter of the highly reviewed 3rd edition of Dawson and Guare's Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents.
If you would like to see more on AL and EFs, follow Laurie Faith on Twitter (@LCFaith).

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Activated Learning for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Mainstream, Whole-Class, Executive Function Intervention that is Necessary for Some and Good for All

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"Activated Learning" (AL), also called the "EFs2theRescue Pedagogy" in Guare and Dawson's 3rd edition of Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, is an adaptive executive function (EF) intervention that aims to facilitate high-impact teaching and learning that is necessary for some and good for all in typical classrooms. AL is a self-regulated learning pedagogy that,

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Welcome to the LD@school Executive Functions online learning module for educators.

This module is intended to provide an in-depth exploration of executive functions, as they relate to students with learning disabilities (LDs) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), at all grade levels. The eight pillars of executive functioning will be described, along with indicators and strategies for the classroom. You will gain familiarity with screening measures, and draw connections to the Learning Skills and Work Habits that Ontario educators must teach and report on.

The menu on the left hand side of this screen shows you the outline of this module, which should take approximately 45 - 60 minutes to complete. To begin the module, you will complete a self-assessment to gauge your current understanding of this topic. Then, the body of the module will provide you with in-depth information, strategies, and resources to help you support your students. To conclude, you will complete an activity to integrate your new knowledge of executive fucntions with the learning skills and work habits.

Learning goals

Understand executive functioning as it relates to LDs and ADHD;

Understand the effects that executive functioning difficulties can have on various aspects of learning;

Identify the indicators of executive functioning difficulties in your students, at all grade levels;

Identify effective strategies to support students with their specific executive functioning difficulties as well as their overall executive functioning development;

Deepen your understanding of the Learning Skills and Work Habits in Grades 1 to 12, as referenced in the Ontario Ministry of Education document, Growing Success, and how you can support the continued development of these skills;

Identify tools that can be used with your students to gauge their executive functioning strengths and needs.

Upon completion, it is our hope that you will use what you learn here in your everyday and working life to help support the needs of students with LDs, as well as any other students who may struggle with the various aspects of executive functioning.

Thank You to our Collaborator!

This online learning module was developed in collaboration with Dr. Marie-Josée Gendron, Ph.D., C.Psych. The LD@school team would like to sincerely thank Dr. Gendron as we could not have accomplished this work without her contribution!
Dr. Gendron has been a school and a clinical psychologist for the past 15 years, specializing in the mental health of children and youth. She has often taken an eclectic approach to understanding mental health, borrowing from cognitive-behavioural theories of behaviour. She has worked in various school boards, helping students and their families. More recently, she has been a mental health leader, working with various ministries to develop and implement an overall mental health strategy, focusing on positive mental health for all students. Over the years, she has given numerous workshops, spanning the entire mental health continuum, from suicide prevention and awareness to developing resiliency and promoting positive mental well-being.

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Welcome to the LD@school Executive Functions online learning module for educators. This module is intended to provide an in-depth exploration of executive functions, as they relate to students with learning disabilities (LDs) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), at all grade levels.

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After you teach your students about executive functions, you can use their EF-literacy and skills to drive better self-regulated learning. These pictures are only a small fraction of the diverse, unique, creative EF-based teaching you can find on Laurie's twitter feed, @LCFaith. They show a good range of Activated Learning implementation...

Stephanie developed this worksheet to help students think about the distractions/triggers/obstacles to their goals and the environmental supports and strategies they feel will help them to be successful. This is a great example of a daily, shared student assessment that helps everyone (including Stephanie) understand what her students experience and need. Notice how she has modelled self-awareness, self-compassion, self-acceptance, and a strategic approach with her teacher example. So exciting!

@mswalker_201, Scott Young Public School, ON

Jane started nice and slowly. As she introduced each EF, she asked students to try to notice them "AT WORK" in their everyday classroom experience. These posters filled up slowly and steadily over several weeks.

@JanieC13, Central Senior Public School, ON

Laura assigned each group an EF. They had to research it, draw a picture of weak and strong function, and write a strategy to manage better.

@lauraduguay, Alexandra Public School, ON

Bailie used EFs to make it easier to discuss her students' obstacles. By drawing their attention to the role of EFs, her message, was, in essence: "We're not making mistakes because we're naughty, lazy, or not bright. We're making mistakes because of natural and normal variation in EF."

@BailieHearn, Sagonaska Demonstration School, ON

Kim made a bulletin board and displayed the EFs. When students were struggling, the class discussed EF obstacles and flagged them with post it notes. Then, the built a strategy bank to work on overcoming obstacles.

@kimberwiles, Bracebridge Public School, ON

Another lesson with Kim! She worked with students to identify specific strategies to support each EF. These stay posted for easy reference.

@kimberwiles, Bracebridge Public School, ON

Julie's students made their strategy bank more visual, and named a strategy after a classmate. Does Mariah cross her fingers to inhibit?

@KuikenJulie, Central Senior Public School, ON

Stephanie modelled self-awareness, self-compassion, and a strategic approach for her students when she asked for help with her own goals.

@mswalker_201, Scott Young Public School, ON

Tanya used the EFs2theRescue materials, which are perfect for younger students. Her class placed strategy ideas around each poster. These superhero themed resources and much loved by our diverse community.

Tanya Marcusfield, London, UK

Meg displays 10 small EF posters with strategy cards underneath. The bottom half of this board displays the Ontario learning skills.

@MsClements_SYPS, Scott Young Public School, ON

Outstanding work by Activated Learning Level III trainers, conducting parent education sessions. Parents put themselves in their children's shoes, thinking about underlying EFs and then troubleshooting the obstacles around cleaning a bedroom. Just a FABULOUS activity, especially when compared to their children's own perceived obstacles and strategies the following day.

@Sallie_Byer and @KuikenJulie, Central Senior Public School, ON

This video describes the use of EFs2theRescue superhero characters for younger learners. It was created for the Balanced Literacy Diet website.

@merrickdavid78, Montcrest School (now Crescent School), ON

@BarrowsBatch engaged her SK/1 class in a metacognitive conversation about their experiences with supply teachers. Hmm... what is hard about this and what can we do? Such a powerful experience. I hope she pulls this out and builds on it before each day away.

@BarrowsBatch taking her practise a step further by encouraging SK/1s to connect their barriers to EFs - this is written in brown marker on the chart. Helping students attribute their challenges to EFs will help them avoid negative attributions, such as "I don't know what to do first because I'm not smart or not good". "We ALL have natural and normal EF challenges," says Ms. Barrows!

@DeRusha_D and @MsNikkiDece try out a metacognitive conversation with their kindies and are "blown away" by the barriers and strategies they came up with. Later, some students asked to have their personal strategies posted over their cubbies.

@mswalker_201 encouraged students to create a bar graph of their EF spectrum. "Wow! This is so cool to see! Each of us have strengths and needs that are so different!" The students thought the results were fascinating. The questionnaire and graphs she used can be found here.

When @Houghs_Class did a barriers and strategies conversation with her students, she discovered that they were feeling distracted because they had so many things on their minds. The students themselves requested this board for the classroom as a remedy. When teachers ask students about their challenges in class, they do a DYNAMIC assessment that is context-specific, timely, and tailored.

@_samtomlinson had students add tallies to a chart for their strongest and weakest EFs. Such an interesting snapshot of the dynamic in the classroom. Students may think, "OH, I'm not so different after all. So many of us struggle with similar EFs."

@BarrowsBatch throws down the gauntlet with this awesome barriers/strategies on an everyday challenge. We discover so much about our students' experiences when we ask them what their barriers are. We help them build strategic, capable, resilient habits when we engage them as a team in developing strategies. It is so interesting, too, to conclude that the key EF for playing with friends at recess is Flexibility. This anchor chart can stay up all year and can grow and expand. Go with the flow, kindies!!

In this video, @MsClements_SYPS demonstrate a barriers and strategies conversation. It was a real challenge to capture her writing AND the students' participation, so we snuggled them up around the board. In real life, students stay in their normal places. There are several more videos like this on the Activated Learning Youtube channel.

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Activated Learning | Calm, capable, in-control pilots of our learning and our lives.

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After you teach your students about executive functions, you can use their EF-literacy and skills to drive better self-regulated learning. These pictures are only a small fraction of the diverse, unique, creative EF-based teaching you can find on Laurie's twitter feed, @LCFaith. They show a good range of Activated Learning implementation...