Search

With insight and humor, this motivating guide shows how to bring executive functions (EF) to the forefront in K-8 classrooms--without adopting a new curriculum or scripted program. Ideal for professional development, the book includes flexible, practical, research-based ideas for implementation in a variety of classroom contexts. It shares stories from dozens of expert teachers who are integrating explicit EF support across the school day. Provided is a clear approach for talking about EF barriers and strategies as part of instruction, and working as a class to problem-solve, explore, and apply the strategies that feel right for each student. Purchasers get access to a webpage where they can download and print several reproducible tools in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. [Foreword written by Adele Diamond.]

Children's social-emotional and self-regulation skills are critical for success in school and, ultimately, in the workplace. How can educators determine the most effective approaches for measuring students' interpersonal competencies? And how can they use the data to improve their own practice? Relevant for school leaders, educators, researchers, and other stakeholders, this book brings together leading experts from multiple disciplines to discuss the current state of measurement and assessment of a broad range of noncognitive skills and present an array of innovative tools. Chapters describe measures targeting the individual student, classroom, whole school, and community; highlight implications for instructional decision making; examine key issues in methodology, practice, and policy; and share examples of systematic school- and districtwide implementation. [Foreword written by Timothy P. Shriver.]

Teach some of the most important skills your students will ever need! "Please, try harder." "Please, pay attention." "Please, behave." Most students want to do what it takes to succeed, but sometimes that's easier said than done. Executive function skills such as self-regulation, focus, planning, and time management must be taught, and they take practice. When you work on them in class, you give students the tools they need to not only learn but also monitor themselves. Teaching executive function skills in your classroom doesn't have to be difficult. This unique guidebook--designed with busy teachers in mind--introduces a flexible seven-step model that incorporates Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and the use of metacognition. Features include: (1) Descriptions of each skill and its impact on learning; (2) Examples of instructional steps to assist students as they set goals and work to achieve success; (3) Strategies coded by competency and age/grade level; (4) Authentic snapshots and "think about" sections; (5) Templates for personalized goal-setting, data collection, and success plans; and (6) Accompanying strategy cards. Whether you teach kindergarten, high school, or anything in between, you can make executive function training part of your teaching. As students' proficiencies improve, you will see their confidence and capability increase--setting the stage for their success in school "and" in life.

A growing body of research indicates that three foundational cognitive skills--executive function, motor skills, and spatial skills--form the basis for children to make a strong academic, behavioral, and social transition to formal school. Given inequitable early learning environments or "opportunity gaps" in the United States, these skills are also a source of substantial achievement and behavioral gaps. "Hands On, Minds On" describes the importance of children's foundational cognitive skills for academic achievement in literacy and mathematics, as well as their connections with other areas of school readiness, including physical health, social and emotional development, and approaches to learning. The author emphasizes how social relationships and interactions, both in and outside the classroom, encourage or constrain young children's development in these skills. The book concludes with a summary of the growing evidence in favor of guided object play, which teachers can introduce to children to exercise and strengthen foundational cognitive skills. This book features: (1) applies prominent theories from cognitive psychology to explain how children learn in the early childhood classroom; (2) includes text comprehension review questions, short exercises, and realistic examples of preschool classroom scenarios; (3) examines different types of play and their association with learning gains, especially for children of lower socioeconomic backgrounds; and (4) proposes shifts in early childhood practice toward guided object play to give all students an opportunity for early success in school. [Foreword by Sharon Ritchie.]

A primary aim of the neuropsychological revolution has been the mapping of what has come to be known as executive function (EF). This term encompasses a range of mental processes such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility that, together, regulate our social behavior, and our emotional and cognitive well-being. In this book, top scientists from a variety of fields investigate executive function as it develops in early childhood. Because researchers differ in their conceptualizations of basic processes and even in how they define EF itself, contributors begin by discussing comparability and replicability, key issues which are of primary importance to those seeking to move the field to a new level of rigor. Next, they tackle the nuts-and-bolts of the development of EF in preschoolers, including the neurobiological mechanisms and circuitry that underlie EF development as well as the role of EF in assessing risk--and its counterpart, resilience. Finally, they highlight exciting new clinical applications of EF research, including the use of EF in contextualizing and assessing family risk, the impact of socioeconomic status on neurological development, and the promotion of EF development through early education programs. This book is comprised of three parts. Following an introduction to executive function in preschool-age children by James A. Griffin, Lisa S. Freund, Peggy McCardle, Rebecca DelCarmen-Wiggins, and Abigail Haydon, Part I, Conceptualization and Measurement of Executive Function, contains the following chapters: (1) Why Improving and Assessing Executive Functions Early in Life Is Critical (Adele Diamond); (2) Incorporating Early Development into the Measurement of Executive Function: The Need for a Continuum of Measures across Development (Stephanie M. Carlson, Susan Faja, and Danielle M. Beck); (3) Structure, Measurement, and Development of Preschool Executive Function (Jennifer Mize Nelson, Tiffany D. James, Nicolas Chevalier, Caron A. C. Clark, and Kimberly Andrews Espy); (4) Longitudinal Measurement of Executive Function in Preschoolers (Michael T. Willoughby and Clancy B. Blair); and (5) Conceptions of Executive Function and Regulation: When and to What Degree Do They Overlap? (Nancy Eisenberg and Qing Zhou). Part II, Neurodevelopment and Executive Function, contains the following chapters: (6) Infant Cognitive Abilities: Potential Building Blocks of Later Executive Functions (Susan A. Rose, Judith F. Feldman, and Jeffery J. Jankowski); (7) Psychobiology of Executive Function in Early Development (Martha Ann Bell and Kimberly Cuevas); (8) Imaging Executive Functions in Typically and Atypically Developed Children (Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Scott K. Holland, and Lisa S. Freund); and (9) Development of Selective Sustained Attention: The Role of Executive Functions (Anna Fisher and Heidi Kloos). Part III, Executive Function and Translational Research on Risk and Prevention, includes the following chapters: (10) Preschool Executive Functions in the Context of Family Risk (Megan M. McClelland, Leslie D. Leve, and Katherine C. Pears); (11) Socioeconomic Status and the Development of Executive Function: Behavioral and Neuroscience Approaches (Gwendolyn M. Lawson, Cayce J. Hook, Daniel A. Hackman, and Martha J. Farah); (12) Assessing Developmental Trajectories of Executive Function in Low-Income, Ethnic Minority Preschoolers: Opportunities and Challenges (Margaret O'Brien Caughy, Margaret Tresch Owen, and Jamie Hurst DeLuna); (13) Promoting the Development of Executive Functions through Early Education and Prevention Programs (Karen L. Bierman and Marcela Torres); and (14) Conceptual Clutter and Measurement Mayhem: Proposals for Cross-Disciplinary Integration in Conceptualizing and Measuring Executive Function (Frederick J. Morrison and Jennie K. Grammer). Contains an index and a section about the editors.