Demystifying Executive Functioning

Have you ever taught a pupil who either doesn’t start their work or starts but never finishes? A pupil who produces some brilliant but unrelated work? A pupil who can’t seem to remember your instructions? Often, these are the pupils who, despite a thirst for learning, lack the skills required for classroom success due to a potential unmet need linked to executive functioning. This accessible guide explores the executive functioning difficulties that pupils may face which can pose as barriers to learning in the classroom and lead to mislabelling as ‘naughty’, ‘lazy’ or ‘inattentive’. The chapters:

• address key topics including working memory, organisation, self-monitoring and impulse control;

• contain a practical toolkit of resources, including helpful sheets to share with staff, parents and carers;

• demystify the science and theory behind executive functioning;

• provide practical advice, tried-and-tested strategies and ‘what to do’ solutions; and

• place a focus throughout on meeting needs in the classroom through adaptive, well-scaffolded and high-quality teaching.

With hands-on, simple and impactful advice, this guide will enable the reader to put all they have learned about executive functioning into practice to best support the learners in their care. It will be key reading for special educational needs (SEN) coordinators, as well as practising classroom teachers and early careers teachers.