As we shared in the launch of the Student Savvy Blog, we defined Executive Functioning Skills as a set of mental skills or cognitive processes that are required to plan, organize and execute daily activities. Executive functioning is a term that is used to describe one’s ability to demonstrate impulse & emotional control, organize, plan, prioritize, use flexibility for problem solving, along with working memory and self monitoring skills.
Often, parents and school administrators ask our team what are the signs to look for in children to assess and address if there may be larger executive functioning issues earlier rather than later.
Read on to see what to look for and when to step in to help your child succeed now and in the future.
Signs of Executive Functioning Issues
- Children with executive functioning issues may show some or all of the symptoms below:
- trouble controlling emotions or impulses
- problems with starting, organizing, planning, or completing tasks
- trouble listening or paying attention
- short-term memory issues
- socially inappropriate behavior
- difficulty solving problems
- difficulty learning or processing new information
These problems can often times lead to poor performance at school, moodiness, trouble making and keeping relationships with peers, loss of interest in activities and low self-esteem. And while it is important to note that these skills do take time to develop in children, if the behaviors don’t improve, it may be an indication that additional help is needed.
How Student Savvy Clubs Can Help
Programs like Student Savvy Clubs help to sharpen students skills in the areas of organization, planning/prioritizing, working-memory, time management, task initiation, self-monitoring, study strategies, flexible thinking, and impulse/emotional control. Our skills groups last from 6-10 weeks and are facilitated by a Social Worker, Speech-Language Pathologist or trained professional at private schools around the Chicagoland area. In addition, we offer executive functioning and social skills sessions at our Park Ridge office location monthly and summer programming.
Parents and teachers agree that by fine-tuning these skills now, students are better prepared for the challenges of upper school, highschool and beyond.
To stay up to date on these and other Student Savvy Clubs events and programming, please visit our website, scroll down to the bottom and sign up for our