(continued from the video description) Someone asked about the analogy of EF development with height, wondering if there aren’t useful interventions. I avoid these in the video because I think it causes people to assign too much blame/responsibility to the kid-”they just need to work on it! Go to the EF gym!”... but of course there are wonderful interventions: Just as there are all the environmental, nutritional, and socio-emotional factors that foster or inhibit other kinds of development, forebrain functions can be stifled or fostered too. Specifically for EF development, I think McCloskey’s more recent interviews are really helpful (try to find a podcast that's post-2020 and more than 20 minutes; I think these were pretty good: th-cam.com/video/YrQSKrNU1HM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=z77p95kbosYTD7bJ th-cam.com/video/a5dHVrzaD9s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=EartaGTxjRDDX_Y7 ) I think it comes down to two things, really: 1. Relentlessly reframing the person's struggles for them, so that they understand that for every thing they see others doing well that they cannot do, there are corresponding, hidden things that the person does well and takes for granted, but others struggle with. Forebrain development may continue well into one's 20s, with no guaranteed level to be reached... Literally everyone figures out how to cope with their EF challenges as they age. Without reframing, people will continue instinctively *avoiding* their most challenging areas, because they are challenging AND they are ashamed of that. With reframing, they can not only optimize progress with a tutor or therapist, but in the world too because the stakes are lowered and curiosity has a chance to replace shame. 2. When you aren't using metacognition, you don't know what it's like (or you don't know that you know what it's like because you do it in some areas but don't recognize it). Once a safe, curious tutoring/coaching/mentoring/therapizing relationship has been established, a helper can model metacognition by externalizing internal processes of analysis, planning, projection, etc. I sit down to do homework but I don't just start the first thing I see, or the easiest thing, or the thing I'm most worried about. I project ahead and realize that when I'm tired later, hard things will be even harder, so I should start with them. If I get frustrated, I give myself permission to switch tasks to something easier and feel better before I get too frustrated and throw in the towel on all my homework. I read the instructions before and after I do a thing, and if I realize I forgot part of it after, it isn't really "after" yet, so I need to read them again when (I think) I'm really done. When something confuses me, I email the teacher right away... etc. etc. etc. When you don't have these metacognitive skills, you don't even know what they look like, but if someone models them for you, you have something to aim for and you are primed to employ the new skills the moment you are developmentally able to do so. Obviously, it is VITAL that when a student cannot do what was modeled, that they are not chided for that, but instead we problem solve together to come up with an external scaffold for the missing skill. I'm sure there are tons of good texts describing approaches to EF optimization. My problem is I get super-frustrated and think CHARLATAN! as soon as an author purports to "teach an executive function." I'm sure this is a purely semantic issue to some, but to me it feels like a big red flag that the person doesn't really understand EFs. I suppose you could call creating external self-scaffolds "executive function skills" but more often than not I hear about people claiming to teach/coach executive functions... in which case we are not talking about the same thing.
(continued from the video description)
Someone asked about the analogy of EF development with height, wondering if there aren’t useful interventions. I avoid these in the video because I think it causes people to assign too much blame/responsibility to the kid-”they just need to work on it! Go to the EF gym!”... but of course there are wonderful interventions:
Just as there are all the environmental, nutritional, and socio-emotional factors that foster or inhibit other kinds of development, forebrain functions can be stifled or fostered too.
Specifically for EF development, I think McCloskey’s more recent interviews are really helpful (try to find a podcast that's post-2020 and more than 20 minutes; I think these were pretty good: th-cam.com/video/YrQSKrNU1HM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=z77p95kbosYTD7bJ th-cam.com/video/a5dHVrzaD9s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=EartaGTxjRDDX_Y7 )
I think it comes down to two things, really:
1. Relentlessly reframing the person's struggles for them, so that they understand that for every thing they see others doing well that they cannot do, there are corresponding, hidden things that the person does well and takes for granted, but others struggle with. Forebrain development may continue well into one's 20s, with no guaranteed level to be reached... Literally everyone figures out how to cope with their EF challenges as they age. Without reframing, people will continue instinctively *avoiding* their most challenging areas, because they are challenging AND they are ashamed of that. With reframing, they can not only optimize progress with a tutor or therapist, but in the world too because the stakes are lowered and curiosity has a chance to replace shame.
2. When you aren't using metacognition, you don't know what it's like (or you don't know that you know what it's like because you do it in some areas but don't recognize it). Once a safe, curious tutoring/coaching/mentoring/therapizing relationship has been established, a helper can model metacognition by externalizing internal processes of analysis, planning, projection, etc. I sit down to do homework but I don't just start the first thing I see, or the easiest thing, or the thing I'm most worried about. I project ahead and realize that when I'm tired later, hard things will be even harder, so I should start with them. If I get frustrated, I give myself permission to switch tasks to something easier and feel better before I get too frustrated and throw in the towel on all my homework. I read the instructions before and after I do a thing, and if I realize I forgot part of it after, it isn't really "after" yet, so I need to read them again when (I think) I'm really done. When something confuses me, I email the teacher right away... etc. etc. etc. When you don't have these metacognitive skills, you don't even know what they look like, but if someone models them for you, you have something to aim for and you are primed to employ the new skills the moment you are developmentally able to do so. Obviously, it is VITAL that when a student cannot do what was modeled, that they are not chided for that, but instead we problem solve together to come up with an external scaffold for the missing skill.
I'm sure there are tons of good texts describing approaches to EF optimization. My problem is I get super-frustrated and think CHARLATAN! as soon as an author purports to "teach an executive function." I'm sure this is a purely semantic issue to some, but to me it feels like a big red flag that the person doesn't really understand EFs. I suppose you could call creating external self-scaffolds "executive function skills" but more often than not I hear about people claiming to teach/coach executive functions... in which case we are not talking about the same thing.