Executive Functions, Language and Learning

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Executive Functions, Language and Learning

• Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D.
• lsoifer_at_soifercenter.com
• Southwestern Branch International Dyslexia
  Association
• February 22, 2008

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Executive Skills Thinking Skills to Select and
Achieve Goals (Develop Problem Solutions)

• Planning
• Organization
• Time Management
• Working Memory
• Metacognition

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Executive Skills Guiding and Modifying
Behavior

• Response Inhibition
• Self-regulation of affect
• Task Initiation
• Flexibility
• Goal-directed persistence

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Stroop Coloring Naming

• Black
• Blue
• Red
• Yellow
• Green
• Orange

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Executive Functions and Self-Regulation

• Executive Functions
• Setting goals
• Planning
• Organizing
• Attending selectively
• Restraining and
• delaying responses
• Inhibiting reactions
• Maintaining and
• shifting set

• Self-Regulation
• Self-monitoring
• Self-evaluation
• Self-reaction (behavioral adjustment)

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PEERAMID-2 Verbal Instructions
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Components of Executive Function and
Self-Regulation

• Decision making and planning processes
• Invoked at the outset of a task
• Invoked when faced with a novel challenge

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Self-Regulation

• Behaviors to guide, monitor and direct
• The Ed Koch syndrome
• Applied in specific settings
• Influenced by
• Personal processes
• The environment
• Your own behavior

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Sub-processes of Self-Regulation

• Self-monitoring (self-observation)
• Self-evaluation (self-judgment)
• Self-reaction (behavioral adjustment)

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Rey Complex Figure Test
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Core EF Processes that Affect Academic
Performance (Meltzer, 2007)
Planning and Goal Setting
Self Monitoring /Checking
Organizing
Prioritizing
Memorizing
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Core EF Processes Areas of Academic
Impact

• Reading Comprehension
• Written Language
• Independent studying, homework and long-term
  projects
• Test taking

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Relationships among Executive Functions,
Self-Regulation and Language?

• Metacognitive strategies mediated by language
  (talking yourself through the thought process
  and/or task)
• Vygotsky Speech and language plays a central
  role in
• Self-control
• Self-direction
• Problem solving
• Task performance

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Language, Executive Function, Personality,Emotion
and Learning

• Linguistic
• Cognitive
• Meta-cognitive
• Executive Function
• Self-regulation
• Personality
• Emotion

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Language, Executive Function, Personality/Emotion
and Learning
Mediation of Thinking Decision
Making These processes are involved Linguistic
Function Reasoning and
planning processes in defining the problem at
hand (language areas) that are invoked
at the which requires that one stop to plan
outset of a task and in the
analyze rather than act face of a
novel challenge
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Executive Functions Treatment Approaches
(Richard, G. Fahy, J., 2005 Fahy, 2007)
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1. Modify the Environment

• Change the environment
• Clean up the environment
• Cue the environment

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2.Build Self-Awareness and
Self-Regulation

• Metacognition is not automatic when it isnt
  automatic!
• Awareness before regulation
• Teaching awareness

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3. Treat Language Deficiencies to
Build Self-Talk

• Promote deliberate language
• Capture the missing thought
• Promote thinking via language
• Language needs

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4. Teach Specific EF Skills to Fill in
the Gaps

• Attention
• Working Memory
• Inhibition
• Goal setting
• Initiation
• Planning, organizing, sequencing
• Persistence, flexibility
• Termination, goal achievement

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5. Teach Compensatory Strategies for
the Rest

• Verbal Strategies
• Visual Strategies
• Physical Cues

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Visual-Verbal Strategy
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Modify Expectations Altering Tasks to Enhance
Success (Dawson Guare, 2004)

• Make the task shorter
• Make the steps more explicit
• Make the task closed-ended
• Build in variety or choice
• Provide scoring rubrics

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Principles of Strategy Instruction
(Meltzer, 2007)

• Link strategy instruction to the curriculum
• Teach metacognitive strategies directly
• Teach strategies in a structured, systematic way
• Allow for ample time for modeling and practice
• Motivation and self-understanding are crucial to
  generalization

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Quick Outline Basic Writing Skills (Hochman,
2005)
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Some Strategies

• Parse ideas
• Pause for Self-reflection
• Necessary to transfer metacognitive knowledge and
  strategies to new situations and tasks
• Recognizing when there is a problem,
  understanding why and what to do about it
• Use shorter but complete sentences
• Use an appropriate organizational structure for
  discourse

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The Discourse Menu(Diane German,2000)

• Discourse Menu for Describing Places
• Name and/or type of place
• City where it is located
• What you do when you are there
• Two or three experiences that occurred there
• Whether you plan to return

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• Discourse Menu for Describing Events
• What occurred
• Where it occurred
• When it occurred
• Why it occurred
• How he/she felt about the experience

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• Discourse Menu for Relating Movies or TV Programs
• Title of movie/program
• Main characters
• Main theme
• Examples of events that occurred in the movie or
  program
• Story conclusion

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Summary Thoughts on EF

• Executive Function Processes include
• Metacognitive knowledge
• Flexible use of strategies
• Attention and memory systems
• Explicit and implicit learning
• Self-regulatory processes