Overcoming Underachievement in School: Interventions for Specific Skill Deficits Ed Link Foundation.

Overcoming Underachievement in School: Interventions for Specific Skill Deficits

Ed Link Foundation

Intervention for Specific Executive Skills Response inhibition - thinking before

acting

Kristin often blurts out answers and interrupts other children during circle time. Her teacher always remind her of the class rules to not interrupt and talk out of turn.


actingEnvironmental Modifications: • increase external controls - a child who throws should not be able to reach breakable things • increase supervision - physical presence or proximity to child • find ways of cuing - posting and reviewing class rules, reminders of self-control behaviors


actingTeaching the Skill: 1. Explain skill being worked on - interrupting for recognition, need to raise hand.2. Walk the child through the process by practicing.3. Cue her right before using the skill.4. Reinforce immediately after use of skill.5. Ignore disinhibited response.6. Gradually fade cuing / reinforcement.


acting Kristin’s teacher introduced a “talking stick” and said that only the person holding the stick could talk. She also gave 2 chips to each child they could “spend” by asking questions when the speaker was done. The children would raise their hands for the teacher to call. Kristin learned to wait her turn and be conscious of spending her chips.

Intervention for Specific Executive Skills Working memory - ability to hold

information while doing tasks

Mario, 11 yrs old, would always forget the materials he needed to bring home from school, his assignments, and permission slips to be signed. His mother would have to drive him back to school to get the things he forgot. She felt this was rewarding him for forgetting, so she stopped.


information while doing tasksEnvironmental modifications: • Storage devices - calendars, notebooks, electronic devices (PDAs, tape recorders,etc) • Cuing devices - verbal reminders, alarms, page systems, visual cues, naturally occurring cue in the environment


information while doing tasksTeaching the skill:1. Explain the problem as it shows.2. Provide a range of options for younger children, generate options for older children.3. Mentally rehearse association between the cue and working memory.4. Devise a monitoring system.


information while doing tasks

Mario, his mom and his teacher developed a list of things he may need to remember to bring home everyday. They put the list in a plastic sleeve with an erasable pen. On the last 10 minutes of the day, a school aide and Mario went through the checklist item by item. For quite some time, the aide supervised Mario. Now she just says “get your checklist” and he can do it.

Intervention for Specific Executive Skills Self-regulation of affect - the ability to

manage emotions to achieve goals

Recess time is always hard for Timmy. He loves to sit on the green swing but it was often being used whenever he got out to the playground. Once he got to use it, he resisted giving anyone else a turn. Timmy would get angry, shout and would lose control.


manage emotions to achieve goalsEnvironmental modifications: • Anticipate • Teaching coping strategies • Giving children scripts • Break tasks to smaller steps • Model practice of positive self-statements • Teach child what you think = what you feel


manage emotions to achieve goalsEnvironmental modifications: • Anticipate • Teaching coping strategies • Giving children scripts • Break tasks to smaller steps • Model practice of positive self-statements • Teach child what you think = what you feel • Use literature


manage emotions to achieve goalsTeaching the skill1. Explain skill to the child.2. Have child practice skill.3. Reinforce child for practicing it well.4. Cue the child to use skill in real life

situations (classroom/home settings).5. Reinforce the child for using the skill

successfully.


manage emotions to achieve goalsSpecific strategies that can be taught: • Self-statements • Have the child verbalize a goal • Use visual imagery • Have the child incorporate practicing the skill

into a routine activity (I.e. journal writing)


manage emotions to achieve goals Timmy learned a strategy to manage his

emotions. The teacher’s deal with him was that he could swing the 1st 5 min of recess time and then, if he gave up the swing to another child w/o a fight, he would be given the last 3 min to swing again. She taught Timmy to say to himself, “If I don’t get mad, I can swing again.” as he got off the swing. In time, he learned to wait his turn as well.

Intervention for Specific Executive Skills

Sustained attention - capacity to maintain attention in spite of distractibility

Sarah, a 4th grader has the hardest time getting her seatwork done. When the teacher assigns a task, she starts it right away but quickly gets distracted. She stands up to sharpen her pencil, go to the bathroom, talk to to her classmates. She may overhear a conversation and join in. Her teacher tried keeping her from recess to finish her work. Her parents objected to this solution.



Environmental modifications • Using incentive systems • Breaking tasks into subtasks - with breaks • Setting a timer • Using a self monitoring tape • Providing supervision • Making tasks interesting • Praise and attention



Teaching the skill1. Help then become aware of their attention

levels and capacities.2. Teach how to break tasks down.3. Help them make a work plan - active

reading (highlighting, note taking); creating a script; using timers, etc.

4. Cuing to follow plan5. Reinforcing and transferring responsibility



Sarah worked with her mom and teacher to identify what distracted her. She used a self-monitoring tape and a checklist to keep her focused on her work. Her mom added the incentive of watching her favorite TV show when her work was done. Gradually the checklist and tapes were removed. Sarah improved her work production through better attention.


Task initiation - ability to begin working

Lisa had a very hard time starting her homework after dinner (the time set by her mom as “study time”). After several late nights and constant arguing, her mom decided it was time to teach this as a skill.



Environmental modifications: • Verbally cuing to get her started • Arrange visual cues • Walking her through the first portion • Ask her to specify how she can be cued - alarm clock, “immediately after dinner”



Teaching the Skill1. Have her make a written plan.2. Ask her to determine what cue will be used

to remind her to begin the task.3. At the point she is supposed to begin, make

sure she does so promptly.4. Gradually fade supervision.



Lisa and her mother sat down and make a “homework plan”. She listed what her assignments were and when she would start each one. When it was time to start her homework, her mom would pull out the planner and asked Lisa to look at it. After her mom made sure she got off on a good start, she would leave Lisa alone to finish.


Planning - the ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal

Tom, an 8th grader,had a bad habit of leaving projects until the last minute and then having no idea what he had to do to complete the assignment. This created a great deal of tension at home and experienced meltdowns as deadlines approached.



Environmental modifications: • Have an adult provide a plan or schedule • Use scoring rubrics when giving work • Break long-term projects to assigned subtasks and attach deadlines to each • Create a template



Teaching the Skill1. Walk him through the planning process

many times.2. Gradually turn over the process by

asking questions that will help them make a plan.

3. Use analogy (roadmap - plan; destination - goal)



Tom’s mom arranged with the school to be notified when long-term assignments were given. Together, she and Tom drew up a plan for each assignment. They would brainstorm and identify all mat’ls needed. Then they wrote down deadlines on a calendar that he could check each day.


Organization - the ability to arrange things according to a system

Joan, a 9th grader, was forever losing worksheets and assignments. She tended to write slowly and at the end of class, was still taking down notes, rushing to write down assignments and gathering her things. As a result, she tended to stuff papers into her notebooks or folded them into her books w/o paying attention where.



Environmental Modifications • Provide schemes: room cleaning,

backpacks with pockets and separators, color coded systems for school papers, desk organization

• Supervise, reinforce, gradually fade prompts



Teaching the Skill1. Provide a checklist/template and help

them “over learn” these schemes.2. Cue, reinforce, practice, fade prompts.3. Once she has internalized a scheme,

help her generalize how to organize other areas of her life.



Joan now has a system involving two brightly colored folders to put assignments and finished work to be submitted in. She has learned to make it a habit to put papers in the right place and automatically check if she has to submit anything or if she has written down the homework.


Time management - estimate, allocate and execute time constraints.

Fred, an 11th grader, was constantly getting work done at the last minute or asking teachers to give him an extension for the due dates. He perfected the art of believable excuses. However, his teachers were losing patience with him.



Environmental modifications: • Provide a schedule to follow and prompt them at each step of the way • Impose time limits and provide reminders for how much time is left • Use cuing devices: clocks, bells or alarms



Teaching the Skill1. Help him understand what the task

involves - steps, how long it will take to do each step.

2. Make him create a plan to accomplish a task and guess how long each step will take.

3. Compare estimates with actual time required, discuss factors that affected mismatch.



Fred learned by comparing his estimated time of completion to the actual time it took for him to finish his tasks that he was off an average of 25%. With this knowledge he can now make more accurate estimates.


Metacognition - ability to take a bird’s eye view of oneself in a situation.

Joe, in 2nd grade, often failed to note the operation that he was supposed to perform in math. He would add when he needed to subtract.

Sam, in 5th grade, would stop after the 1st step of a multistep math problem and give that as the answer.



Environmental Modifications: • Embedding questions that elicit metacognition (how did you solve that?) • Build error monitoring into tasks (showing that they have checked math computations) • Encourage children to evaluate themselves - give themselves a grade • Use scoring rubrics to show expected quality of work



Teaching the Skill1. Develop error-monitoring checklists.2. Teach child a set of questions to self ask

when confronted with a problem (what is my problem?, what is my solution?, am I following my plan?, how did I do?)

3. Tailor sets of question to specific problem situations (personal space)

4. Define, steps, practice, cue, reinforce, fade



Joe’s teacher taught him to say to himself before he began answering math problems “Am I adding or subtracting?” With practice, he made fewer mistakes.

Sam’s therapist taught him to write down a notation after reading each step of a multi-operational math problem as a reminder. As he completes each step, he crosses out the notation.

References Dawson P. and Guare R., (2004) Executive Skills in Children

and Adolescents, A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention, The Guilford Press, New York, NY

Overcoming Underachievement in School: Interventions for Specific Skill Deficits Ed Link Foundation.

Documents

child practice skill

goals specific strategies

writing slide

environment slide

memory ability

use literature slide

tasks mario

goals timmy