Growing Executive Function by Solution Tree

Executive Function Growing SARAH KESTY

EMPOWERING SECONDARY STUDENTS WITH SKILLS FOR LIFELONG SUCCESS

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION GROWING

EMPOWERING SECONDARY STUDENTS WITH SKILLS FOR LIFELONG SUCCESS

SARAH KESTY

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kesty, Sarah author

Title: Growing executive function : empowering secondary students with skills for lifelong success / Sarah Kesty.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2026] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2025008117 (print) | LCCN 2025008118 (ebook) | ISBN 9798893740035 paperback | ISBN 9798893740042 ebook

Subjects: LCSH: Academic achievement | Educability | Learning, Psychology of | High school students--Psychology

Classification: LCC LB1062.6 .K47 2026 (print) | LCC LB1062.6 (ebook) | DDC 370.15--dc23/eng/20250708

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025008117

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025008118

Solution Tree

Cameron L. Rains, CEO

Edmund M. Ackerman, President

Solution Tree Press

Publisher: Kendra Slayton

Associate Publisher: Todd Brakke

Acquisitions Director: Hilary Goff

Editorial Director: Laurel Hecker

Art Director: Rian Anderson

Managing Editor: Sarah Ludwig

Copy Chief: Jessi Finn

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Text and Cover Designer: Rian Anderson

Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein

Associate Editor: Elijah Oates

Editorial Assistant: Madison Chartier

For all of my students, past, present, and future: You inspire and teach me every day. It is your faces I see when I push through challenges and stretch myself to create solutions. It is for you that I wrote this book.

Acknowledgments

My heart fills with gratitude when I think of the team of people to whom I owe thanks for their support, guidance, and inspiration in creating this book. This book is the culmination of years of learning from the wonderful people I call family, friends, and colleagues. Without you, this book would not have been possible.

First, I thank Monica Diamond, my professor and friend. You saw the educator and innovator in me before I ever did, and it changed the course of my life.

I feel so much gratitude for my teams at California Teachers Summit, California Department of Education Working Group, Children and Adults with ADHD, Edutopia, my “Neuro Nerds” group, and the creative staffs at districts across the globe, including the Sacramento County Office of Education, Mendocino County Office of Education, Roseville City School District, Twin Rivers School District, Landers Schools, South Bay Union School District, Sweetwater Union High School District, Renfrew County District School Board, Autism Tree, CAPTAIN (California Autism Professional Training and Information Network) and Rise Up Belize. I give deep thanks to my coteachers and colleagues throughout the years: I learn so much from each of you and admire your drive to better our classrooms and our world.

I have grown due to my personal mentors, coaches, teachers, guides, and friends, including Jennifer York, Reyna Beckler, Trish Rebello, Angela Barnett, Nancy Cunha, Nancy Balcom, Nancy Maelo (three of you in a row!), Debra Doman, Jackie Box, Tracy Butts, Laurel Hill-Ward, Sydney Thomas, Sara Colborn, Taryn Blizman, Rachel Babre, Rebecca Rabe, Kris Jennings, Kim Hughes, Terry Dawn, Laura Kirby, Mead Ploszay, Sharlene Harness, Mike Laharty, Seth Perler, Mitch Weathers, Patty Schetter, Terry Davis, Danielle Hylton-Kopshinsky, Ava Lennon, Melissa Winegar, Jeanette York, Vanessa Lujan, Laura Kirby, Peter Paccone, and so many more. I have

endless gratitude for my amazing humans: Myron, Dana, Maya, Onyx, Ava, Maisey, Aidric, Kian, Mattie, Becca, Mushi, Ryin, Lindsey, Henry, Zach, Elena, Ben, Wendy, Lauren, Adelle, Ethan, Everett, Bodie, Ryan, Brayden, Mason, Evelyn, Hunter, Kye, Piper, Dylan, Caryn, Sonya, Vi, Arden, Espy, MJ, Tennie, Sadie, Liam, Bennett, Mel, Reese, Nicole, Kelly, Zeah, Bekah, Michael, Maelee, Kara, Charlotte, Hudson, Ian, Magen, Phillip, Isaac, Nick, Savannah, Imogen, Alexa, Kira, Josh, Lyra, Blake, Andrew, Kamora, Walker, Colin, Arlo, Felicia, Brody, Zack, Sara, Jordan, Jessica, Jen, Rose, Louis, Will, Nathan, Grace, Toph, Lilah, and Emy: You are each a gift to me.

I was so lucky to have my Solution Tree team, including Hilary Goff, Kendra Slayton, Sarah Foster, Rian Anderson, and the many creative humans who dedicate their lives to helping students.

I have so much love for my sister, Amy, who bought me a video bird feeder to celebrate the book. It’s a visual reminder of our unwavering sister connection. I am grateful for my mom, Diane, who sent me funny memes when the writing process got tricky. Your humor kept me going. And, I’m thankful for my dad, Dave, who reads everything I publish and often boasts about it online. Family, your support means the world to me.

Finally, a true, enormous thanks to my husband, Adam, whose support, encouragement, creativity, and joy are mixed into every word of this book. You are an idea factory, holding a vision of a better world for teachers and students and celebrating the beauty of all brains. I love you.

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:

Nathalie Fournier

French Immersion Teacher

Prairie South School Division #210

Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Canada

Caitlin Fox

Chair and Instructor, Bachelor of Education

Red Deer Polytechnic Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Kelli Fuller

Assistant Principal

Howard Perrin Elementary School

Benton, Arkansas

Kelly Hilliard

Gifted and Talented Mathematics

Educator

Darrel Swope Middle School Reno, Nevada

Johanna Josaphat

Educator and Founder

The Urban Assembly Unison Brooklyn, New York

Amy Kochensparger

Biology Teacher and Science Department Chair

Eaton High School Eaton, Ohio

Josh Kunnath

11th Grade English Teacher and Department Chair

Highland High School

Bakersfield, California

Use Capture, Schedule, and Remind (CSR) Systems to Manage Your Work

About the Author

SarahKesty is an executive function, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) coach, author, speaker, and host of The Executive Function Podcast . Kesty began her career in education as a classroom aide in Northern California, quickly discovering the positive impact of empowering students with executive function skills. Her educational roles saw her developing mentor and after school enrichment programs at Oakdale K–8 School, a socioeconomically disadvantaged campus in Sacramento, California. She served as an instructional coach for teachers in Imperial Beach, California, captaining the development of inclusive learning center models to serve struggling students. Kesty is proud to have piloted social communication classes at Castle Park Middle School in Chula Vista, California, where she also began to develop executive function lessons for students in her study skills classes. For several years, Kesty presented best practices for students with autism with the California Autism Professional Training and Information Network.

Kesty is a member of Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD), and in 2013 and 2024 she received the Innovative Program Award for her executive function methodologies with students. She is an educational adviser with Red Rover and an advisory board member of the Charcot Marie Tooth Association. A four-time teacher of the year, Kesty was recognized as Classrooms of the Future Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2021 and Outstanding Special Educator of the Year with the National Association of Special Educators in 2019.

Kesty regularly writes and presents for education groups and publications, including Psychology Today, Edutopia, and KQED public media in San Franciso. Her international speaking engagements empower school teams and parents with tools to grow

executive function. In 2008, Kesty created and delivered a three-day professional development on classroom management to hundreds of teachers in Belize.

Kesty graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Chico, before continuing to earn her master’s degree in special education at California State University, Sacramento.

To learn more about Sarah’s work, follow her on YouTube at youtube.com /@SarahKesty, Instagram at instagram.com/braintoolscoaching, Facebook at facebook.com/executivefunctionpodcast, or Psychology Today at psychologytoday.com/us /contributors/sarah-kesty.

To book Sarah Kesty for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

Introduction

Myron sits across from me in the booth, his pancakes mostly untouched, his face smirking in reflection on his seventh-grade self. “I was such a mess back then,” he laughs. “I can’t believe you put up with me.” Myron’s in town to collaborate with fellow rental managers, called on to share his strategies for connecting tenants with community resources. His employer and the communities he serves celebrate his impact.

Seventh-grade Myron, however, was a different story. Devastated by a family death and struggling with undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Myron was that student on campus: the one all teachers knew but few had reached. His inner struggles were highly visible in his actions, words, and conflicts. When we met, he had, mostly accidentally, stepped on my foot on his way off the school bus, which was the same foot that had seventeen surgeries. It was a painful start to what would be an incredible journey together.

“Did you see my Facebook post a few days ago?” he asks while we eat breakfast. He hands me his phone and tears well up in my eyes at the photo of us: me in my favorite first-day-of-school dress and him with his backpack looking heavier than him. “It all started with a binder party,” his post begins, “and it was the first time I learned that I could learn how to learn and do school.”

Myron’s post celebrated a turning point that, at the time, felt like just another Thursday when we organized his backpack together. I got him a snack, he chose some music, and we dumped the contents of his backpack onto a table. While we explored his understanding of organization, we tested out systems that might work for his brain. We talked about school, home, and the waves of self-doubt that left him feeling defensive.

“What do you think was important about that time?” I ask him.

He ponders for a moment. “I don’t think I realized that there were options for me, that I could learn ways to do things that were hard for me. I thought everyone else was good at school, and I never would be. Everyone told me to try harder, but you taught me how to do the things. Sometimes, it was like we could hack school together.”

“Hacking” school began when Myron learned about and grew his executive function skills, which are the broad spectrum of mental actions people take to reach goals. When we empower students to grow their executive function, their school experience changes tremendously. Students slowly emerge from the fixed mindset of school being hard for them and begin to realize their potential for academic and executive function success.

Whether diagnosed with a learning difference or just growing up as an adolescent, inside each student is a Myron, who may feel lost, defeated, or confused about how to do well in school. While school requires layers of specific skills, such as organizing and planning, our busy schedules may not allow time to teach these requisite skills or, better yet, teach students how to identify their own needs and find resources to grow their skills. We may lament that students turn in their work late or don’t seem to focus in class, and yet we may also feel lost about how to address these challenges. It’s not like we can hit pause and teach How to Be a Student 101. How would we even teach these executive function skills?

Developing students’ executive function skills will take time (albeit not a lot of prep or sweeping changes to your teaching). It will require you to think about your own brain, learning, and the systems you use to facilitate your life. It will feel overwhelming at times. Yet, it may prove to be one of the most important shifts of your teaching experience.

As with many of the challenging journeys we undertake, developing students’ executive function skills is rewarding. It’s a positive snowball, a shot of espresso, an alive time in your classroom that begins as a hum and ends as a roar. The small environmental, teaching, and intervention changes in this book will infuse your perspective and pedagogy, leading to lasting student impact.

Executive function skills stretch beyond your classroom walls. Investing in teaching students to self-regulate, plan, prioritize, and know and adjust for their brains’ needs will spill into their home, college, and work lives. You won’t see the blooms that come from the seeds you’re planting, but you may, like I did over breakfast with Myron, catch a whiff of the blossoms your students have grown because of their awareness of executive function. Our journey in these pages together will teach you how to recognize, support, teach, and coach your students’ executive function.

Students will become aware of their executive functions and the strategies that work for them. Further, they will develop a framework for continuing their growth beyond the classroom walls, knowing how to explore, test, and hone their executive function strategies.

Why Executive Function Matters

Executive function isn’t new. It’s not a pendulum swing, a fad, or something research may later contraindicate. We’ve been there with fads, and it’s not fun. Executive function is here to stay, and for a good reason: It provides the base on which all classrooms are built and all students succeed. Executive function is present whether we recognize it or not.

Executive function describes the broad set of skills we use to manage our lives and facilitate our futures. In school, it’s the skill set we use as teachers to plan lessons, organize materials, manage time, and so much more. Executive function is also the skill set our students use to calendar their homework, manage their attention, and even determine the approaches they use to study.

In 2020, when students and teachers began to conduct school from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, executive function skills were drivers of the experience. Students who were able to reconstruct their student skill set from home flexed their executive function muscles to get to online class on time, manage attention on their own, and keep track of time and energy without the external cues of school adults. Unfortunately, students who struggled likely lacked executive function skills and needed the built-in executive function support that teachers and the classroom environment provided. Student learning during 2020 and 2021 created a new appreciation and understanding of executive function, helping educators see the disparities and needs that may have been less apparent in our usual classrooms.

While we’re no longer primarily teaching and learning online, executive function is still essential, and many teachers share that students’ executive function skills are lagging in the return to in-person school, potentially driving disengagement and other behavioral concerns. In fact, it is my belief that addressing executive function deficits is an impactful way to decrease student behavior challenges. When students can engage, participate, and succeed, their need to protest or avoid work decreases, and their academic success increases (Jacob & Parkinson, 2015). When students can anticipate and meet their self-regulation and attention needs, they are less likely to disrupt the learning environment (Duckworth, Taxer, Eskreis-Winkler, Galla, & Gross, 2019). Empowering a classroom with executive function tools is indeed a powerful answer to the urgent teacher question, “How do we reach and support today’s students?”

Zooming out from the individual classroom, executive function skills are also important for social mobility as well as supporting students with special needs or neurodivergent brains (those with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, or other brain differences). While a growth mindset builds students’ vision, executive function is what paves the way, allowing them to identify and complete the small steps toward their futures. Socioeconomic status impacts executive function development, meaning we have an opportunity to provide students with tools and skills that life circumstances made more difficult for them (Davis et al., 2014). Additionally, students with neurodivergent brains often have lagging executive function skills, and this book seeks to support them in their general and special education experiences. Research indicates that early recognition and support for executive function needs can prevent future school failure, reduce job loss, and draw attention to psychological issues (Morrison, 2016).

By teaching students to recognize their executive function needs, to find and test out tools, and to own their learning processes, we also help students develop resilience within the context of today’s pressures. Executive function skills can help students manage their attention, distractions, and emotions, and having sturdy student skills means less overwhelm and anxiety around school. Students who have strong executive function are independent students, allowing teachers to step back a bit and, hopefully, feel less stretched over time. With well-developed executive function skills, students are more engaged and successful with academic pursuits, which positively translates to improved behavior and social-emotional states.

This book teaches educators how to teach students to be students. It honors the range of developmental readiness levels for students with disabilities and empowers teachers with small but impactful strategies that work. Its open tone and easy-toimplement ideas make it a prime resource for teachers like us, who want positive change and better student behavior without investing huge amounts of time.

Our Assumptions and Agreements

Human brains are beautiful, complex, and ever changing. They are also susceptible to taking cognitive shortcuts and creating biases, which are possible coping mechanisms for managing the vast amounts of information coming into our brains at once (Ruhl, 2023). It’s likely that you have some beliefs about students’ (or even your own) executive function; I certainly know that I do. In support of our shared commitment to student growth and to establish a shared understanding of assumptions moving forward, I invite you to consider the following assumptions and agreements.

Executive Function and Intelligence Are Not the Same Thing

It’s likely most teachers have experienced a confusing observation of a student who scores incredibly high on assessments but loses papers daily or a student who continues to need reminders or support for repeating classroom tasks but can write a stellar, engaging essay. While initially counterintuitive, the truth is a student can be highly intelligent and still have a hard time taking student actions (executive functions). It is possible for someone to be capable of complex cognitive tasks and, at the same time, struggle with meeting deadlines or forget to turn in completed work; this is because intelligence and executive function are entirely separate things.

There are many reasons a student might be bright, enjoy learning, and yet struggle with executive function. Disorders like ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and many learning disabilities do not indicate impaired intelligence, but they are associated with executive dysfunction. ADHD, for example, results from smaller, less developed, or less active areas of the brain associated with executive function (Cleveland Clinic, n.d.).

What’s more, executive function development can be associated with brain development. A foundational study published in Nature in 2006 reveals a connection between how quickly the thickness of a brain’s cortex (the gray, wrinkled, outermost area of nerve tissue in the brain) develops and that individual’s intelligence and executive function (Shaw et al., 2006). Interestingly, the research reveals that when a child’s cortex is thinner for a longer period of childhood, they likely have more neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to change and improve) and a more rapid learning ability. In other words, slower development of cortical thickness is related to higher IQ (Kircher-Morris, 2021). The flipside is that cortical thickening is necessary for executive function to develop. These findings mean that many of our gifted, highly intelligent students may also have delayed executive function skills; their brains are waiting for the cortex to thicken up so that the prefrontal cortex and its executive function come on board (Shaw et al., 2006).

When we separate intelligence from executive function, we can help students preserve their self-esteem and dignity, shining light on a new perspective: Even very smart people still need to grow executive function skills. In my experience, when students no longer feel the threat of feeling “stupid” for lacking skills, they become much more open to developing the skills, no longer needing the protective armor of apathy or fierce (false) independence. When a former student of mine learned that executive function and intelligence aren’t connected, she sighed with relief and celebrated, saying, “If that’s true, and I’m not stupid, then just teach me how to do the student things.”

Performance Reflects Missing Skills, Not Lacking Effort

We live in a world that celebrates performance. Our efforts as teachers are measured and acknowledged largely based on the results we create, such as test scores, well-managed classrooms, and well-facilitated school events. Our students earn awards for their academic and athletic achievements, for earning high grades or attending every school day without fail.

What most people don’t recognize are the underground components that make these achievements possible: going through trials and errors, overcoming self-doubt, shedding tears, and developing skills to perform in the visible ways we do. It makes sense in our performance-celebrating world that we tend to conflate performance with effort. Much of the rhetoric around student (and teacher) experiences reflects an assumption that lack of performance means lack of effort or that one’s intelligence or drive will always show up as high performance. This book challenges some of these commonly held beliefs about behavior, offering new perspectives and opportunities to adjust your own beliefs.

Educational researcher Ross Greene (2010) says, “Kids do well if they can.” This book assumes that a student’s observed shortcoming is the outward manifestation of a lack of skills. Students who do not perform—study, meet deadlines, or take good notes—do not yet fully know how to do so. This book argues that, given the right amount of time, practice, and adjustments, all students can grow their executive function skills and, therefore, perform better in our classrooms.

Executive Function Is Not a Reflection of Morality

You may have heard of the much-admired five a.m. club, whose virtuous members can claim epic amounts of productivity from starting their workday very early. Contrast that with a student who doesn’t turn in their work. The assumption is a lack of effort caused the missing assignment. The word often used is lazy. Many of our cultural narratives conflate morality with executive function. We tend to think virtuous people have impeccable executive function, so we assume those who struggle with time management, forget to turn things in, or consistently interrupt conversations must be lazy, not trying, or of poor moral character.

Let’s bust this myth. Executive function is a set of mental skills impacted by myriad factors, many of which our students cannot control. As you’ll soon learn, executive function skills are the last to develop, as our brains mature back to front, and our executive function is most associated with our prefrontal cortex (behind our foreheads; Shaw et al., 2006). Factors like home environment, sleep, nutrition, mental health, disabilities, and age can impact executive function, making it slower or more

difficult to develop and engage. While executive function skills impact performance, they do not reflect a lack of effort or poor character. Instead, our struggles reflect needs for understanding, learning, skills, and strategies.

We occupy a hopeful space when we can detangle executive function from morality. We and our students are no longer “bad” for being late or for having a moment of emotional dysregulation. Instead, we have the opportunity to regroup, reflect, and recommit to learning the missing executive function skills. It is safe to explore and discuss the vulnerabilities of underdeveloped skills when we don’t see them as character flaws but, instead, as natural outputs of a system that’s still developing.

Assume a Lens of Curiosity Instead of Judgment

Deanna Singh (2022), author of Actions Speak Louder, describes one of her favorite memories of her dad. On my podcast (Kesty, 2022a), Singh shared with me that her father, as a Sikh man, wore a turban. When she walked the streets of their Midwest town with her dad as a child, Singh watched an amazing moment on repeat (D. Singh, The Executive Function Podcast, July 18, 2022). When children would point to or comment on his turban, their caretakers would swoop in to hush them. “It’s not polite to ask,” they’d scold, or they’d quietly pull their children away, apologizing to her dad with their words or eyes. Singh’s father would lower himself near the child, praising their curiosity, and sharing information about his turban. He gently told the parents that it’s good to ask and be curious because we can connect by exploring the things we notice in one another. As an adult, Singh glows in realizing how right her father had been that when we are open and willing to talk about possibly uncomfortable things, we grow and connect.

The opposite is also true. When we pull away, avoid, assume morality, or maintain a similar fixed mindset, we become stuck. Our brains learn to avoid the uncomfortable or confusing parts of ourselves and life and, instead, begin to think we cannot change anything. It’s possible you or your students have some “stuck spots” in executive function. Students who have been judged or shamed about their executive function skills may come to believe they are “just bad at” whatever skill they’ve been told they lack. Phrases like, “You just need to try harder,” “Everyone else can do it,” or “You’re just being lazy,” may have formed a protective layer that we need to remove.

Curiosity is our tool to peel away the protective layers of self-doubt and selflimitations. Replacing a stance of judgment, curiosity employs gentle reflection and open questions of executive function coaching (tools you’ll learn in chapter 4, page 85) to explore a student’s executive function skills. And, dear teacher, this applies to you too. When a lesson flops, when you lose the class a bit, when you stay up late grading (because maybe you also procrastinated a tiny bit), you’re invited to treat yourself to a curious perspective. Instead of judging or shaming yourself, this book

encourages you to zoom out one level and observe, asking yourself the same kinds of reflective questions that help your students grow. This book asks you to be on your own team, growing your executive function skills as you empower your students.

How to Use This Book

This book empowers you, a sixth- through twelfth-grade teacher, with the perspective and tools needed to grow students’ executive function. Think of it as coaching from a friend who has been there, tested out the research, and can give you proven strategies.

Each chapter will deepen your understanding of executive function and give you specific tools to implement right away, often with low or no prep. After reading the first two chapters to create your understanding of executive function, you can choose your next chapter based on your needs. For example, if you work with students with disabilities, chapters 5 and 6 (pages 115 and 139) for executive function deficits and supports may be the best place to proceed. Or, if you’re ready to start directly teaching executive function skills, move on to chapter 3 (page 73), which explores how to teach executive function

To make the invisible visible, when you design your path through the book, you’re using your executive function skills of planning, prioritizing, and likely scheduling. Much of your experience will be like that; you’ll be noticing and possibly growing your own executive function as you learn how to enhance executive function in your students. To help this process, many chapters offer short prompts or activities to reflect on and hone your skill set. The idea is that everyone’s executive function is in constant development. There is always room to smooth out our approach to life and create strategies to support our movement toward our goals.

Like any growth, growing executive function skills can feel uncomfortable. You may notice your brain offering self-criticism, possibly reflecting the societal narrative that executive function skills just should be strong and that if you’re not performing an executive function skill well, then you’re broken or lazy. This book guides you to show yourself compassion and patience along the journey. Noticing, understanding, and improving your and your students’ executive function will be clunky at first, and that’s entirely OK. You will have wins, lessons will flop, and you’ll feel stuck between knowing and doing. And yet, you will love the ride. Embracing executive function in your classroom is a game changer. You have the power to solve classroom challenges that have impacted your students for years, the opportunity to expose them to a new way of thinking that will unfold new paths in their lives, and the chance to reach the Myron inside of each of them, who desperately wants to do well, if only they knew how.

Write in this book (unless it’s a library copy). Talk back to me. Ask questions. Take photos of what resonates and email them to yourself. Leave the book somewhere prominent so you’re not likely to forget it. The ultimate goal is for this book to help and change you. Feel free to read, digest, and use the learning in the way that works best for your brain. And spoiler alert: You’ll be learning so much about what works for your brain that, chances are, you’ll have some new methods for managing your learning process!

What to Expect Moving Forward

Our journey together starts with a strong shared base of knowledge: what executive function is and how you can start supporting it in your students right away. We’ll take a broad view to explore classroom environmental and pedagogical approaches proven to grow students’ executive function. We’ll then move into direct ways to teach and coach executive function skills before narrowing our focus to interventions and tools for special populations. We will close with notes of hope. The following list details what to expect in each chapter.

• Starting with executive function 101: Expanding on the introduction, chapter 1 establishes a working definition of executive function and provides examples of executive function in action for students and for teachers. This chapter is your chance to explore your assumptions, understandings, and personal experiences with executive function, setting a solid base to grow on. You will learn how taking executive function— empowering actions—will change your classrooms, along with methods for explaining executive function to students.

• Creating the executive function–empowered classroom: In chapter 2, practical application is the name of the game. Where are the easy wins for infusing executive function into what you already do? Where are the small changes that yield big results, and how do you both find those opportunities and make those changes stick in your practices? This chapter holds easy-toimplement tools and adjustments to everyday classroom practices, filling your teacher toolbox with executive function builders.

• Teaching executive function skills: Chapter 3 empowers you to write your own lessons to explicitly teach specific executive function skills. You will learn the rationale and how-to for each of the lesson components, with examples to serve as models for your lessons. Written to be student friendly and designed for a gradual release of responsibility, the included example lessons are low- and no-prep options for teachers who are ready to act. With adaptations for differing student developmental ages and needs, the

lessons broadly address common executive function skills such as planning, prioritizing, self-regulating, managing focus, studying, and note-taking. It also teaches you the rationale and how-to for each lesson component, as well as steps for teachers to write their own executive function lessons.

• Understanding executive function coaching: Chapter 4 celebrates a simple and profound shift in student-teacher interactions, positioning you as an executive function consultant rather than a manager. It supports you in developing your executive function coaching abilities, particularly the art of asking questions that challenge students to become self-aware and co-creators of strategies. The chapter explores question stems, examples, and common pitfalls.

• Exploring executive function deficits: Chapter 5 offers a deeper dive into both brain science and the manifestations of lagging executive function. Although this chapter includes discussion of special populations, it is written for all students and all teachers. You’ll gain perspective on what drives some of the behaviors associated with lagging executive function and explore the surprising ways and situations that lagging executive function skills show up (for example, social interactions, testing, avoidance, and apathy).

• Planning executive function supports: Picking up momentum from the executive function deficits chapter, chapter 6’s topic of planning for executive function supports offers perspectives for designing interventions for executive function needs. Empowering teachers to use their own executive function skills to prioritize, plan, and reflect, this chapter offers templates and task breakdowns for individuals and teams ready to systematize their approach to growing students’ executive function skills. Special populations and their associated plans (gifted, 504, and individualized education plans [IEPs]) are addressed as well. The chapter also addresses accommodations to support executive function needs.

• Using executive function lessons: Ready-made, specific lessons and reproducibles for directly teaching executive function are in appendix A. Written to be student friendly and designed for a gradual release of responsibility, the included lessons are low- and no-prep options for teachers who are ready to act. With adaptations for differing student developmental ages and needs, the lessons broadly address common executive function skills such as planning, prioritizing, self-regulating, managing focus, studying, and note-taking.

• Understanding formal executive function diagnostic tools: Appendix B explores the formal assessment tools your school psychologist or a student’s medical professional may use to gauge how well executive function works for a student.

By the end of this book, you will be able to describe and identify executive function in yourself and your students. You will notice executive function opportunities and demands in your classroom and have a bank of approaches, lessons, coaching tools, and intervention ideas from which to draw. You most likely will share some space on the executive function soapbox with me, telling your colleagues about its impact and celebrating the powerful potential unlocked in your students.

Each chapter includes learning and action steps, both for behind the scenes and direct materials for students. Reproducibles for student use, implementation checklists, examples, and more will take your learning from theory to practice. Each chapter concludes with a chapter summary, potential action steps, and reflection questions designed to be compatible with individuals or learning groups like staff book studies or collaborative teams within professional learning communities (PLCs).

To help solidify the presence of executive function in your own mind, you will notice periodic moments to reflect on your thinking processes as you implement strategies. Not only are these great opportunities to celebrate and hone your executive function, but they also provide a chance to take what I call an “empathy walk” in your students’ shoes, where you imagine what it feels like to be a skills learner.

If you stick with the gentle shifts and easy classroom tools, by the end of the book you will have created a new teaching and learning experience. Your students will be more independent, freeing up the time you once used to manage students’ academic actions. The changes you make are designed to be easy and small, but don’t underestimate their impact. Author James Clear (n.d.a) offers a terrific perspective on the positive impact of very small adjustments. Working out the mathematics of exponential growth, he writes, “If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done” (p 16). Ready for our executive function adventure? Let’s do this!

Key Points

The key points from the introduction include the following.

• This book assumes that executive function is separate from and not a reflection of intelligence, performance, or morality.

• This book employs a lens of curiosity and encourages you to do so also.

• The first two chapters provide a base for learning. After that, you can choose how you proceed through the chapters.

Potential Actions

After reading the introduction, consider taking these potential actions.

• Add times to your calendar (and set reminders) for when you will read this book.

• If discussing this book within a collaborative team, consider starting a shared document for questions, reflections, and next steps as a team.

Journal or Discussion Questions

After reading the introduction, answer these questions in your journal or within a book discussion group.

• When you were a student, which skills seemed easy for others but hard for you?

• What, if anything, do you remember about learning how to study, take notes, organize, or plan a project?

• What tools do you use now, as a teacher, that may also help your students?

• What do you hope you can teach students to do for themselves?

Chapter 1 Starting With Executive Function 101

WhenI was ten years old, I was passively practicing my spelling list by rewriting the word communicate with little thought. My brain woke up when I realized communicate no longer had meaning. Did I ever know what communicate meant? It was as if hearing and seeing it too much dissolved its presence in my mind.

Executive function may be like that for you. Sure, you’ve probably heard the term mentioned in a few TED Talks or professional development sessions, but after a while, its meaning dilutes, creating a vague sense of being yet another education buzzword. I’m here to show you that executive function is neither a buzzword nor a passing fad; it is a fact of being a living human being. This book serves to both illuminate executive function’s presence as well as empower you to propel it within your students’ lives.

This chapter will help you understand executive function, learn that you’re using executive function right now, understand that executive function skills can be taught, explain executive function to students, and recognize executive function in the classroom.

C hapter Sneak Peek

By the end of this chapter, you will understand the following.

• Executive function and its implications for you and your students

• How to recognize executive function in your life

• Ways to teach students about executive function

• How to imagine a day in the life of executive function in your classroom

Understanding Executive Function

In its simplest definition, executive function is the set of skills we use to facilitate success and move toward our goals (Baggetta & Alexander, 2016). Many analogies describe executive function: the conductor who leads the orchestra, the office manager who makes everything run smoothly, or the air traffic controller who directs planes (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.; Zeigler Dendy & Hughes, n.d.). While these analogies highlight the role of our executive functions, they leave room for confusion. After all, most of us aren’t overseeing musicians, employees, or pilots; an expanded definition of executive function helps us identify the function and the associated skills. The two following sections will help you better understand executive function by using a visual of the executive function tree.

Use the Executive Function Tree

We’re going to explore executive function using the image of a tree to anchor a broader understanding of the skills involved in executive function as well as provide a visual for conceptualizing what can otherwise feel overwhelmingly complex. See figure 1.1.

I organize executive function into the following three main components, or main branches.

1. Future skills: Things we do now to serve our future selves

2. Emotions and attention: Self-regulation, emotional regulation, and attention management

3. Learning and memory: Strategies to capture, retain, and recall information

As you can see, related skills sprout from these three main branches. For example, future skills encompass anything we do mentally to prepare for the immediate, near, or distant future, such as planning, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Table 1.1 (page 16) provides more examples of the future skills main branch. Table 1.2 (page 16) shows examples of the skills in the emotions and attention branch. Table 1.3 (page 17) includes examples of the skills in the learning and memory branch.

Beyond the basic skill branches, we can envision strategies and behaviors that support these skills as leaves. For example, consider the leaf mental flexibility, which is a vital executive function for all of us, and growing the image of your own executive function tree will require it (Dajani & Uddin, 2015). Mental flexibility (sometimes called cognitive flexibility ) is the ability to adjust your thoughts and actions to a changing environment. It involves curiously being aware of your brain, monitoring

Future Skills Emotions and Attention Learningand Memory

Figure 1.1: The executive function tree.

the environment around you, and adjusting your mental and physical approach as you see fit. It’s a cycle where you tweak the recipe of your moment, adding a dash of this and that while the temperature of your stove and the availability of ingredients change.

You may be tempted to agonize over where a skill goes on the executive function tree or whether a skill deficit stems from future skills or maybe learning and memory. Although these mental explorations are worthwhile for uncovering your own and students’ thinking and behaviors, they don’t lead to the destination of being right. There is no right way to build the perfect conceptualization of an executive function tree because such a conceptualization doesn’t exist.

Let’s explore the messiness of placing a skill on the executive function tree (figure 1.2, page 18). Let’s say you’re observing a student who’s not starting her worksheet. You may interpret her behavior as avoiding the work due to missing academic

Table 1.1: Future Skills Main Branch

Skill Set

Planning

Organizing (physical)

Organizing (digital)

Organizing (mental)

Teacher Example

Writing lesson plans

Arranging classrooms for student use

Using an email management system

Rehearsing the flow of a lesson or conversation

Table 1.2: Emotions and Attention Main Branch

Skill Set

Managing energy levels

Processing a big emotion

Communicating body or emotional needs

Avoiding distractions

Teacher Example

Taking deep breaths after a tough conversation to bring your heart rate back down

Allowing time to rest or decompress when feeling overwhelmed

Communicating your need for movement during staff meetings and agreeing with your principal on what your movement can look like

Changing your phone to silent mode or turning it off during a meeting

Student Example

Planning homework time after school

Using binders and folders

Using folders in digital form

Testing out word order to develop a strong thesis

Student Example

Asking for and taking a break to re-energize for class

Identifying and sharing a feeling that’s getting in the way of learning

Asking for support or a break when emotions feel big

Closing distracting tabs when working on a device

Table

1.3:

Learning and Memory Main Branch

Skill Set

Being mentally flexible

Learning actively

Memorizing deliberately

Managing multiple steps

Teacher Example

Pivoting a lesson when students are lost and need more support

Taking notes when learning something new; reviewing them later

Repeating the names of new people to help you remember them

Creating a list of steps for reference in your phone

Student Example

Trying several different approaches to a mathematics problem

Interacting with text by taking notes or annotating while reading

Using flash cards or other quizzing methods to practice recall

Taking photos of steps to have a visual reference for later

skills. Therefore, you may assume the learning and memory branch will work best, and so you give her a memory aid, such as a multiplication chart. However, another teacher may see her behavior as a form of protest due to dysregulation. Therefore, this teacher may offer to talk about emotions or offer a rest break. Yet a third teacher may hypothesize that the student isn’t working because she doesn’t know how to start. Therefore, this teacher may offer the student a way to chunk the directions or otherwise manage the task of working.

All the teachers’ predictions and strategies have merit. Each embodies a detective perspective of supporting rather than judging and providing tools rather than punishing. But this is where the tree analogy falls short; the goal is to anchor understanding in the tree but not to rely on it for diagnosing a student’s need. We can appreciate the complexity and nuance of executive function skills by visualizing the tree, but we cannot accurately place a student’s lagging skill without investigation. We must talk with our students to understand. As we use the table of contents to find a section of a book, exploring with a student guides you to the right strategy leaves. And, not to worry—the upcoming chapters will fill your brain with strategies and interventions to support your students’ executive function.

You can download a blank version of the tree in figure 1.2 (page 18) at go .SolutionTree.com/lifeskills, which you can use to explore and develop your conceptualization of executive function. Even experts who spend their lives in the executive function world evolve their understanding as they learn from others and from experience.

Avoiding distractions

Managing energy (breaks, snacks,and water)

Calendaring

Planning (leverage schedule and talking points)

Future Skills

Organizing (physical, digital,and mental)

Awareness

For example, “I have a brain that needs quiet to focus”

Strategies

For example, “I can identify and go to a quiet place before I start studying.”

Processing (noticingemotionssignsmanaginginmybody, thefeeling,and expressing myself)

Activelearning (takingnotes)

Learningand Memory

Deliberate practice (flash cards and selfquizzing)

Mental (tryingflexibilitymany approaches)

For example, “I can schedule when and where I’ll study.”

For example, “I studied in the library. I noticed I worked longer and felt more focused.” Do three out of five days.

Figure 1.2: The executive function tree with branches, roots, and leaves.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/lifeskills for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Add Roots to the Executive Function Tree

Your initial interactions with the executive function tree (figure 1.2) will parallel those of your students when they begin learning about executive function—it’s all about awareness and starting to recognize the presence and impact of executive function. The upcoming chapters will help you bridge knowing and doing, taking your new learning into real-life application.

About that bridge between knowing and doing: It can be a little tricky to cross (more on that soon). Adding roots to our executive function tree helps visualize the process we and our students will take to incorporate and use new skills. I divide the aspects of applying executive function into four main roots: (1) awareness, (2) strategies, (3) practice, and (4) reflection, each of which I explain in the following sections.

1. Awareness: This is the root of executive function you’re currently developing by reading this book. You’re learning about it, starting to see it (possibly everywhere), and asking questions about what’s next. You may have some cognitive dissonance, which is the discomfort in your brain when old ideas are shaken up by new learning. The awareness root feels exciting and sometimes overwhelming for teachers and students. When developing the awareness root of executive function, it’s important to engage students in recognizing their own needs and affinity for different types of strategies. For our students, the awareness root has three components: (1) awareness of executive function, (2) awareness of strategies to support it, and (3) selfawareness of their own executive function strengths and struggles. Just like you, students will continually develop their self-awareness of their executive function needs and toolbox, and the forthcoming chapters have resources to support and extend this process.

2. Strategies: The strategies root of the executive function tree involves matching actions with information gleaned in the awareness stage. You’re choosing and trying different tactics for building and supporting executive function skills. This may feel exciting, or it may feel clunky. Strategies will sometimes feel like magic transformations and, sometimes, like deflated parade balloons. This process is messy, and it takes time to settle into the chaos of classroom changes.

3. Practice: After you have identified and tested a few strategies, you’ll head into practice mode, where students begin to own the strategies and adapt them to their personal needs (based on the awareness they’ve built into the first stage). Practice can extend for long periods of time and overlap with both strategy launches and reflection. The key components of the

practice root are opportunity and time. You and your students need time to implement and adjust your tools.

4. Reflection: An oft-skipped root, reflection is an essential element for developing executive function. It allows the opportunity to tease out what went right and what still needs support. It helps students close the feedback loop by directly connecting their choices and tools with results and empowering independence and self-efficacy. Chapter 4 (page 85) will give you loads of ways to make reflection an easy and impactful part of your day.

Learning That You’re Using Executive Function Right Now

As a teacher, you are an executive function machine. Indeed, your executive function skill set supports your teaching, planning, and even reading this book. Let’s celebrate the incredible executive function you’re currently using.

• Planning and time management: You’ve done the get-ready work to be here now. You’ve developed and honed a routine that serves you, allowing you enough time to complete a series of actions to prepare for this moment. For example, you’ve set an alarm (or several) to wake up in time to get ready for the day, which involves estimating time and backward planning.

• Prioritizing and inhibiting behaviors: You’ve acted and resisted other actions to serve your future self and meet your short- and long-term goals. For example, you inhibited the impulse to engage in more instantly gratifying tasks, like sleeping in or browsing the internet, by using self-talk or limiting your access to tempting options (usually accomplished through planning).

• Monitoring your needs and attention: As you read, you’re engaging with concepts, putting them in your working memory, and connecting them to concepts you already know, which moves them to your short-term memory. You’re noticing when your brain or your gaze strays from the page, and you’re gently bringing your attention back to this book. When you notice that your body and brain have an unmet need, you attend to it using a variety of tools, including taking a break, eating a snack, or adjusting your physical experience.

Executive function skills, as ADHD experts Chris A. Zeigler Dendy and Ruth Hughes (n.d.) argue, may be more important than IQ in predicting positive life outcomes! Researchers have found that executive function skills are correlated with

adaptable behavior and are better indicators of academic success than IQ (Gravråkmo et al., 2023). Such skills are also the foundation of successful employment. For example, the list of top reasons an employee is fired includes executive function skills such as poor time management (chronic lateness) and difficulty with multistep directions (poor work performance; Asbill Law Group, 2020). In short, these skills matter a lot.

You may be making lists of executive function skills without realizing it. When you notice yourself thinking or saying, “I wish my students would . . . ,” “Why don’t they just . . . ,” and “You’re in grade, you should know how to . . . ,” remember that these frustrating moments are goldmines for executive function exploration, learning, and teaching opportunities. Your brain is identifying the many ways that executive function needs emerge in your world. In fact, let’s employ an executive function strategy to grow your own executive function awareness by making a physical or digital space where you can capture your list of missing skills as you illuminate them for your students or yourself. Chapter 3 (page 73) shows how to use this skills list as fodder for teaching!

As you increase your executive function awareness, the world around you may change. What used to seem like a behavioral choice may appear a bit more like a skill deficit; what was once annoying (“Click that pen one more time!”) can now feel like an invitation to explore (“I wonder if his body needs movement or if he’s self-aware enough to recognize that sound is bothering others”). Of course, lagging executive function doesn’t mean that students avoid consequences of their actions. A student who’s still learning impulse control, for example, will experience the consequence of acting on the impulse to use a permanent marker on his desk. What changes is your approach to the consequence.

Executive function awareness allows us to see the desk graffiti in a new light. Previously, we might have made assumptions about the student’s character, motivation, or personal nature of the offense. We might have presumed any student who writes in permanent marker on a desk is a naughty student who doesn’t care about school and probably wants to upset us, and we could support these assumptions with our outward observations. However, taking a slight twist to review the behavior provides potential new meanings and opportunities to explore both our thinking and the student’s skill set.

Oh, you’ve written on your desk. Was this one of those moments when your body took over before your brain kicked in? Let’s talk about it while you clean it up.

That looks like permanent marker. How do you plan to clean it up?

Where can you write next time so you’re not missing your personal time to clean up?

Seems like you had an impulse to write on your desk. I imagine you’re pretty tired of getting in trouble for your impulses. Do you want to explore some ideas to help your brain while you clean?

Before becoming executive function aware, many teachers are reactive and disempowered, feeling like they are reacting at the end of a behavior cycle and subconsciously hoping students will just get their executive function skills squared away through osmosis or good luck. When we don’t yet see executive function as a developing (and teachable) skill set, we’re prone to thinking in binary, limited ways. Students either have executive function or they don’t.

With executive function awareness comes a brand-new perspective. We start to see the many implications of executive function strengths and challenges and appreciate our role in developing them. We notice our own patterns of executive function skills and treat ourselves with more compassion as we also learn new tools. We become detectives, wondering what skills to teach or interviewing students to explore their understandings. The patterns of challenge emerge as puzzles to solve rather than poor behaviors that we endure. Executive function awareness helps us recognize our valuable role in supporting students’ skill development instead of painfully waiting for students to “just do it.” Before we know about executive function skills, we may have a more fixed mindset about student struggles, as if the behaviors we observe are reflections of character flaws or lack of effort and permanently fixed. Once we embrace what Carol S. Dweck (2016) describes as a growth mindset for student executive function skills, believing students (and adults) can develop any skill over time, we’re able to step into the space where executive function is taught, nurtured, and honed.

Understanding That Executive Function Skills Can Be Taught

Teaching executive function skills represents what’s next after helping students (and ourselves) develop growth mindsets and self-awareness. Research on neuroplasticity indicates that not only can these skills be learned, but they also can be practiced to automaticity, freeing up students’ working memory to consider the content instead of using purposeful effort on their executive functioning (Voss, Thomas, CisnerosFranco, & de Villers-Sidani, 2017).

Researchers Christina Barrasso-Catanzaro and Paul J. Eslinger (2016) identify social modeling and schooling as two of the four main influences on children’s executive function development, giving a profound context for our work: Teachers and

parents can help children develop the mental actions and resources they need to grow their executive function. Through modeling, direct instruction, and executive function–nurturing environments, they change children’s brains (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.).

Zooming out to see executive function as its most basic components reveals a hopeful simplicity. Yes, executive function represents a long list of skills. But, skills can be learned. Therefore, even wildly lagging executive function skills are enveloped in potential because students can grow how they think, what they do, and the resources they employ, one skill at a time.

While you may focus on one set of executive function skills and choose to wait to address others, consider exploring ways to externalize some of the executive functions. You may want to mindfully augment lagging executive function skills with technology, classroom setup, and routines. Chapter 2 (page 35) has quick and easy changes to your lessons and environment that can empower easier executive function for your students as their skills build.

For example, a student who is not yet independently organizing his belongings and has final exams in two weeks may need to focus first on his study strategies, prioritizing based on the most pressing need. His disorganization represents a skill set not yet learned, but it is best not to address it at the expense of the more urgent skill of studying efficiently. In this case, you may choose to externalize organization systems for him (temporarily) until you’re both ready to tackle organizing. Externalized organization could look like having labeled places for items, prompts and time in class to organize items, and reminders through his devices. These augmentations can support him through the student process while allowing him to focus on the prioritized executive function skills. This support does not mean you’re taking over for him or disempowering him by doing too much. As you move along in your executive function teaching experience, the nuance will become clearer. You will be able to see when it’s time to absorb some executive function leadership to empower focused executive function skill growth.

Explaining Executive Function to Students

We can all probably imagine our students’ faces if we launched into a lesson to teach them all about executive function! However enthusiastic our approach, we’d lose our students pretty quickly. On the surface, executive function isn’t really engaging. But, because it’s everywhere, because it impacts students’ school, home, and social lives, and because it’s very hackable, we can package executive function in ways that capture and empower students. The following are some considerations for explaining executive function to students.

Lean In to Students Wanting (and Already Using) Hacks or Strategies

Human brains are constantly experimenting, noticing results, and using new learning to plan (strategize) the future. Therefore, pitching executive function skills to students can begin with celebrating and possibly laughing about how they already strategize. For example, ask them about the video games they play. When they keep losing a level or struggling with a spot in a game, they adjust and keep trying until they’re able to break through. These adjust-and-try-again cycles count as strategizing!

Students tend to laugh a bit when you bring up strategizing to get what they want. They know how to negotiate with their parents, just as we teachers know how to engage or push our students. Students can share about how they get later bedtimes, permission to go somewhere, or other wins from their parents. Every approach that they share is a strategy! Illuminating that strategies are everywhere can set the stage for upcoming executive function strategy lessons.

Helping students become aware of their brains’ awesome strategy cycles helps open the door for new executive function strategies. They’ll see that these new tools are just like those they already use, and that connection to previous learning will increase both their understanding and their memory of the lesson (Willingham, 2009).

Additionally, laying the groundwork of strategy prevalence and impact reduces student pushback in the future; they’re open because their brains are already “sold” on the idea. (I provide more information on how to extend this approach, through executive function lessons in chapter 3, page 73 and appendix A, page 167.)

Provide Executive Function Tools to Give Context and Relevance to Adolescent Self-Discovery

A middle schooler explained being an adolescent as “wanting to be totally unique and different but also wanting no one to look at me.” Truer words have never been spoken! From about third and fourth grades, when students’ brains start to develop deeper perspective taking and empathy, to their late twenties, students discover who they are and how they fit in with others (Ferguson, Brunsdon, & Bradford, 2021).

Executive function awareness and tools can help students feel empowered during this process and may even be welcomed by those who are starting to notice—but do not know what to do with—some struggles in their lives. For example, as you teach about emotional-regulation tools, you can connect with what students are experiencing, such as, “You know how when you’re really upset, it’s hard to think?” or “You know how sometimes you get in a bad mood and feel like you can’t shake it?”

If students are still developing self-awareness (we know some brains impacted by autism spectrum disorder or those with learning differences may need more time

to be able to see themselves), encourage them to relate the tools to what they’ve observed in others. “You know how when your coach gets really excited, he sometimes doesn’t make sense?” or “Think about a time you’ve seen a friend get upset and stay upset all day, even when things got better.”

Start With an Easy Win Even if It Isn’t in Academics

The power of executive function is its prevalence. Close your eyes and point to an area of your life, and there’s executive function in action! To capture students’ investment, you may consider addressing executive function with less immediate academic applications. Planning school events, navigating social or self-advocacy needs, or learning calendaring systems within the context of fun events can help open the door for future executive function lessons. Just as you open the school year by teaching the systems and protocols of your classroom in nonacademic ways, you can also introduce executive function gently.

Wait to Use the Term Executive Function Skills

You don’t have to label executive function skills to grow them in students. You know your class. If they seem to need a few wins or examples before going big picture, it’s OK to delay the full explanation of what executive function encompasses. When teaching reading, for example, most teachers don’t label phonemic awareness before they teach it. Explore when and why the label could help your students. Rest assured that the skills will benefit your students with or without an official term. After a few lessons or strategies, you can provide the mental folder where students can store their new understandings: executive function skills

Explain Executive Function as Brain Tools or Life Hacks

Executive function facilitates our futures, helping us smooth out the bumps in the road to achieve our goals—and enjoy the ride. Executive function can often be understood by its utility first. Statements like, “You know how sometimes it helps to . . .” or “Have you noticed that your brain seems to need . . .” can provide a relatable experience for exploring executive function. The broader introductory statement may sound like, “You know how you have brain tools that help you get things done and make life go smoothly? That’s your executive function.” In my experience, students also tend to lean in when we contextualize executive function skills as life hacks. “Want an easier way to get your work done? Let’s explore some life hacks!”

Draw the Executive Function Tree

Use a visual representation of executive function to allow your students to interact with their learning in a multitude of ways over several weeks. You can use the tree

from figure 1.2 (page 18) to anchor or introduce lessons and as a reference when coaching students to tap into strategies from previous lessons.

Recognizing Executive Function in the Classroom

Everyone’s brain has different executive function strengths and struggles, which are dynamic characteristics that change in the short term based on factors such as fatigue or hydration (Aubrey, 2018) and in the long term by setting, context, strategies, and accommodations. It’s not uncommon to have what appears to be splintered executive function skills. For example, some students have high levels of competence in one area of executive function and great needs in another (Barrasso-Catanzaro & Eslinger, 2016). In fact, students identified as twice exceptional are those with high IQs and a learning challenge like autism or ADHD. The high-IQ brain develops asynchronously, its learning capacity staying open longer than typical, but at the cost of the development of the prefrontal cortex, the main executive function area of the brain (Brown, Reichel, & Quinlan, 2009; Kircher-Morris, 2021). Think about a student you know who can write an incredible paper, using mental organization and synthesizing learning, but does so at the very last minute, demonstrating some time and attention-management needs.

As a teacher, you may be aware of some of your own executive function strengths and struggles, and it may be tempting to batter yourself with should : “You’re a teacher, you should be able to . . .” Just as we explored in the introduction, there are a variety of reasons why our executive function skills appear at different rates and to different levels of utility. What is certain within all this variability are two things: (1) impaired executive function skills don’t reflect a lack of effort or a character flaw, and (2) executive function skills can be taught, learned, enhanced, and augmented (Jacob & Parkinson, 2015).

In some cases, a student’s executive function needs may indicate a need for support outside of the classroom. Parents may explore student coaching, courses, or parent training to help them navigate the needs associated with underdeveloped executive function. While you help students become aware of their brains and their needs, you may consider sharing about executive function with parents, extending the opportunity for wraparound support at home and at school.

Acknowledging the reality that no student (or teacher) will have perfect executive function skills, let’s explore some of the common classroom activities and the executive function skills they rely on by recognizing where executive function happens before school, at the beginning of class, and during class.

Recognize Executive Function Before School

One of the most executive function–heavy parts of a student’s day happens before school. Creating and managing a morning routine takes planning, prioritizing, time and attention management, and more skills. Here’s an example of when the routine goes well with the skills that ensure success. A student wakes up with an alarm that is set at the right time to allow enough sleep and time to get ready (planning, prioritizing sleep, resisting impulses to stay up, estimating time for morning tasks, and managing attention so that tasks take the allotted time). The student engages in her morning prep routine, staying on track with time and attention, leaning into her tools to pick out clothes, pack her bag, attend to hygiene, and take care of chores (self-regulation for emotions and attention, organization skills, and short-term memory). She leaves for the day with a parent, talking as they commute and arriving at school in time to visit with friends, go to her locker, and get to class on time (emotional regulation, communication, routines for daily habits, time management, and self-awareness).

This ideal student morning is likely smoother than any we adults experience, so it follows that any skill deficit impairing the morning routine may result in rushed mornings, friction with caretakers, and high levels of emotions before the school day starts. And, while it’s tempting to pass the onus to the family to “just figure it out,” we can’t ignore that the “sixteen-hour curriculum” of home lives impacts our students at school. In fact, and thankfully, when we work on executive function skills at school, it can also transfer to better executive function at home. Throughout the book, I will illustrate methods of ensuring generalization of executive function skills so that students’ progress with you improves their lives at home, in sports, in other classes, and in social settings.

Recognize Executive Function at the Beginning of Class

Any transition, whether a shift in activity or space, is going to take some executive function effort. When students begin class, they’re asking their brains to transition from movement to sitting, from talking to listening, and from high stimulation to lower stimulation, even in the most engaging of settings (managing attention). This asks their brains to regulate and shift their energy and attention. These shifts demand both self-awareness and self-regulation. Students need to assess where their energy is, what the environment demands, and adjust if they find a mismatch.

Once regulated, students must often move into item and digital space organization mode, gathering their homework, collecting the tools they will need, and organizing their space to be functional for learning. This can also be a time to self-advocate,

particularly if they need a different space in which to focus better, more time to complete an assignment, or help to locate something required for the day.

Many class-opening routines ask students to copy from the board or otherwise engage in independent learning, orienting them to the lesson while teachers finish quick clerical tasks. This independent time requires students to be both self-aware and have tools to inhibit impulses. Our brains likely want the fun, quick dopamine reward of socializing, and our executive function skills kick in to remind us that our priority is using class time for academics.

Recognize Executive Function During Class

During the lesson, students’ executive function demands continue. They are self-regulating so their energy matches the demands of the activity, finding ways to increase alertness when they feel like they’re slumping or decrease high energy when they need to be still and quiet. Taking notes is a full orchestra of executive function: listening and prioritizing what to write down, capturing the essence of the lesson in written form (which includes managing spelling, organizing thoughts on paper, and adding personal touches to communicate importance on the notes page), tracking the discussion while also writing, and ignoring distractions or at least coming back from them quickly.

Closing a class period is a final sprint for our students’ executive function, which may have waned a bit, exhausted from the previous demands (this explains the paper-shoving-into-backpacks behavior we see and explains why students don’t write down the assignment, thinking they will remember). As students prepare to shift back into transition mode, moving to another class, they’re going to need to first tap into some attention management, allowing them enough time to capture their to-do items in a system that works for them. They need to visualize and use their organization systems to pack up in a way that serves them well in the next class and at home, potentially stopping by a locker to swap necessary tools. They will check in with their needs, prioritizing self-care over socializing during their break between classes.

Recognizing the omnipresence of executive function skills in your classroom can be a game changer. What used to feel baffling, personal, or hopeless can transform into an opportunity to build skills. Where frustration once prevailed, a new sense of steeled focus takes its place; you begin to illuminate the skill prerequisites and, from there, can help students fill in their skill gaps. This awareness also allows you to appreciate the full scope of your incredible influence. You’re teaching academic content while empowering students with skills for life. Please see the “Executive Function Skills Checklist” reproducible at the end of this chapter (page 31) for an expanded list of student executive function skills.

In the upcoming chapters, you will find tools and strategies to saturate your pedagogy and students’ experiences with executive function–supporting and executive function–building components. The upcoming chapters will gently guide you through identifying small adjustments for big impact as well as using direct teaching and intervention for students with significant executive dysfunction. Welcome to the executive function team, teacher. We’ve got this.

Key Points

The key points from the chapter include the following.

• Executive function is the set of skills we use to facilitate success and move toward our goals.

• Executive function skills can be developed and are ever-present in academic life.

• There are many ways to introduce and explain executive function to students.

• Becoming aware of executive function can profoundly change your teaching approach, and knowing the executive function demands in your classroom can help illuminate opportunities for skill development.

Potential Actions

After reading the chapter, consider taking these potential actions.

• Walk through your typical day and list some of the executive function demands on you and on your students.

• Draw the executive function tree and explain it to a loved one, allowing your brain another chance to interact with your learning.

• Start a list describing shoulds, justs, or other moments when you are uncovering missing skills. This will be a treasure chest of ideas and lessons, when you’re ready to use them.

• Schedule a time when you’ll read the next section of this book and set a reminder.

Journal or Discussion Questions

After reading the chapter, answer these questions in your journal or within a book discussion group.

• How would you describe executive function skills to someone who is wondering about them?

• What are your personal executive function strengths and struggles? How do they show up in your classroom?

• What did you notice yourself doing, thinking, or wondering while you read?

• How do your new awareness and understanding change your perspective? How do they change your motivation?

• What are you eager to explore in your pedagogy or with your students?

Executive Function Skills List

When students have strong executive function skills, we observe the following abilities in them. Please keep in mind that these skills represent some of the observable behaviors, but this list is not exhaustive.

Future Skills

• Plan tasks, free time, and self-care at hour, day, week, month, and year scales.

• Use a calendaring system.

• Use time organizers like clocks, watches, and timers.

• Organize their physical space.

• Organize their digital space.

• Break tasks into steps or chunks, assigning due dates to each step.

• Use strategies to initiate tasks, even when they’re dreaded or boring.

• Use a work management system to capture their tasks, schedule their completion, and remind themselves in the future.

• Use the backward plan technique to create short-term deadlines from a due date.

• Prioritize actions based on urgency or importance.

• Develop routines for common tasks (making food, getting ready, completing homework, and so on).

• Develop to-do lists as well as master lists of important tasks and due dates for future tasks.

• Write an email and reply to a colleague, peer, or teacher.

• Ask for help in specific, productive ways

• Set short-term goals, including working on skills, and monitor them

• Manage independent time (in class and at home) to complete tasks.

• Charge devices and bring chargers as necessary.

• Estimate the time a task will take within five to ten minutes of reality.

• Process through directions with a plan and in order.

• Write due dates at the top of assignments and in their calendar system.

• Organize workspace, removing distractions and gathering necessary materials.

• Schedule and use regular time to organize and clean spaces (physical, digital)

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Kesty.

Emotions and Attention

• Recognize distractions.

• Avoid distractions (as possible).

• Plan workspaces and approaches that support focus.

• Regain focus after a distraction.

• Use methods for increasing focus.

• Use methods for increasing mental or physical energy.

• Manage breaks and rest for refocusing and reregulating.

• Self-monitor during work time.

• Express and receive attention and emotional needs to and from others.

• Recognize signs of stress and overwhelm.

• Use tools to manage stress and overwhelm.

• Communicate needs proactively to others.

• Use tools to regulate emotions when upset.

• Understand their sensory needs and limitations.

• Recognize when technology is helping versus hurting their focus.

• Self-advocate for what they need.

• Work in a group effectively (meet deadlines, communicate with group, and so on).

• Know and use their accommodations (as applicable).

• Know and use campus resources.

• Anticipate impulses and temptations, planning strategies to avoid taking unproductive actions.

• Use self-talk to manage emotions and attention.

• Raise hand instead of impulsively shouting out.

• Move on flexibly from a topic (even one of choice or of emotional significance).

• Transition between work and play or between activities and tools for maintaining focus and energy with ease.

• Tolerate schedule changes.

• Use tools to get back on task when distracted or engaged in offtask activities.

• Use reminders and notifications.

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Learning and Memory

• Use systems to manage learning.

• Review or rewrite notes.

• Study in an active way.

• Maintain awareness of short-term memory and its limitations.

• Use systems of offloading working memory (writing things down, using references).

• Develop shorthand techniques for notes.

• Use strategies for note-taking, including personal ways to capture and organize ideas.

• Use assistive technology for academic tasks.

• Know their brain’s strengths and struggles with academic tasks.

• Use strategies for reading and understanding large amounts of text.

• Use teacher feedback and assessment scores to recognize growth areas.

• Create strategies to develop in recognized areas.

• Evaluate their understanding of a topic, using this evaluation to organize studying efforts.

• Check grades periodically and adjust academic approach as necessary.

• Use a syllabus or online resources to manage approach to class.

• Create visuals and references for multistep processes.

• Process through an academic task in sequence, beginning to end.

• Organize research for easy use.

• Use writing tools (like outlines) or oral rehearsal, matched with their need.

• Solve problems flexibly.

• Adjust mental approaches when schedule or situation changes.

• Take perspective of characters, peers, or teachers.

• Organize their thoughts for speaking and writing.

• Annotate directions or prompts to make a list of steps.

References

Baggetta, P., & Alexander, P. A. (2016). Conceptualization and operationalization of executive function. Mind, Brain, and Education, 10(1), 10–33.

Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive functions: What they are, how they work, and why they evolved. Guilford.

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Executive Function Growing

“As a parent, educator, and special educator, I’ve been waiting for a book like Growing Executive Function. I want to give it to everyone I know and see it in the hands of every educator across the country. These tools are exactly what we need to support our students in truly meeting their potential and feeling good about themselves as learners.”

—LINDSEY KENT, Speech-Language Pathologist and Augmentative Alternative Specialist, Santa Cruz, California

“In Growing Executive Function, author Sarah Kesty emphasizes that many executive function skills can be taught and developed, and urges all stakeholders—teachers, school leaders, coaches, therapists, parents, and support staff—to take part in this effort.”

—MITCH

WEATHERS, CEO, Organized Binder

“Using neuroscience combined with years of experience, author Sarah Kesty becomes a supportive guide, providing an executive function road map with easy tools to implement.”

—ELAINE HALL, Founder, The Miracle Project

Some learners seem naturally equipped for school, while others struggle daily with focus and task completion. How do we teach students to be students so that they all can adapt and excel? In Growing Executive Function: Empowering Secondary Students

With Skills for Lifelong Success, author Sarah Kesty offers practical tools to teach vital executive function skills—such as planning, time management, and organization— through classroom strategies, structured lessons, and academic coaching. By integrating these skills into daily routines, teachers can reduce classroom frustration while empowering students to develop self-awareness, responsibility, independence, and ownership of their learning behaviors.

Grades 6–12 teachers can use this book to:

• Understand integral facets of executive function and their impacts on student learning

• Master effective lesson plan structure to instill core executive function skills

• Engage in academic coaching conversations to build students’ skills and self-awareness

• Adopt strategies to encourage executive function for students with diverse learning needs

• Develop support systems for students struggling with executive function development

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/lifeskills to download the free reproducibles in this book.