As parents, you may ask yourself how to help my child who struggle with reading, improve their learning ability, strengthen their memory, help them to manage their impulses, stay focused, complete homework with less encouragement from you, handle social situations more effectively, become more organized, achieve better academically, becoming emotionally more balanced, make sound decisions (especially during adolescence period), sleep better, and more. While some or many of these difficulties can origin from various issues or disorders in children and adolescent, strengthening a set of key abilities known as Executive Functioning Skills can make a significant difference in improving these areas. In fact, these are very important skills which most children and adolescents can benefit, including improving their study skills among many other benefits. What is Executive Functioning (EF) Skills? Executive Functioning Skills are number of important mental tools that children learn and develop. Among many of these skills, EF skills will help children to help build independence, confidence, and the ability to adapt to new situations and demands they face in their daily lives. Think of Executive Functioning Skills (EF) as the brain's command and control center. It acts as the conductor of cognitive and learning skills, connecting past experiences with present actions. It is like a mental workspace that saves, retrieves, and manipulates information child need to use with different tasks. These are the skills children learn and apply to meet their daily challenges at home and school. When children and adolescents struggle with Executive Functioning, tasks need planning, organization, memory (including working memory which important for learning), time management, and flexible thinking become significantly difficult for them. Common Executive Functioning Difficulties in children and Adolescents: 1. Difficulty in regulating emotions – e.g. easily loosing temper 2. Procrastination 3. Lack of planning when doing things 4. Poor memory 5. Inadequate attention and difficulty in maintaining focus 6. Poor time management 7. Lack of organization in their daily lives How Can Executive Functioning Skills Help Children and Adolescents? Research indicates that children are not born with Executive Functioning skills but are born with the potential to develop them. Just as physical exercise strengthens the body, activities that exercise these skills improve mental capacity. Studies also show that adolescents with executive functioning difficulties are more prone to develop anxiety and depression which can affect negatively on their memory, attention and consequently their learning. Training in Executive Functioning skills can strengthen children and adolescents in following areas: 1. Task Initiation: The ability to begin tasks without delay or procrastination. 2. Response Inhibition: The ability to manage and resist impulsive behaviors to achieve their goals and finishing their projects. 3. Time Management: The ability to use time effectively and productively (such as meeting deadlines, arriving on time). 4. Working Memory: Is the temporary storage and management of information needed for complex cognitive tasks like learning, reasoning, and comprehension. It helps children remember classroom instructions and complete assignments or tests on time. 5. Cognitive Flexibility: The ability to shift plans or adjust thinking. 6. Self-Regulation: A set of abilities that allow children to manage their own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and to adjust their actions to cope effectively with various situations. 7. Emotional Self-Control: The ability to manage their emotions, avoid overreacting to small problems and staying calm when getting frustrated. 8. Focus and Attention: The ability to maintain focus, direct attention, and manage distractions while completing tasks like homework. 9. Task Completion: The ability to sustain focus and energy to finish a task. 10. Organization: The ability to arrange tasks and keep track of their belongings, maintaining order in materials they need to complete a project. 11. Planning and Prioritization: The ability to decide on the next steps for a task, complete projects, and not overlook important details. About DMLL's Executive Functioning Skills Training a. DMLL Executive Functioning Skills training programs are carefully designed for children and adolescent to face the challenges mentioned earlier and help them to improve in all areas of Executive Functioning Skills. b. These programs were developed in the U.S. by a well-known educational psychologist with many years of research and experience working with children of various ages. c. They are based on neuroscience and the Orton-Gillingham approach. d. To place your child in the appropriate training group within our EF training program, we ask parents to complete and return a special questionnaire prior to the start of training. e. Training is provided by our experienced and expert team of bilingual learning specialists. f. After each session, a summary of the covered material and a brief progress note will be sent to parents. g. These trainings are not meant to be of any form of psychological treatment and or replace it DMLL Online Executive Functioning Course Structure: a. Student age: 5 to 17 years old. b. Language: Instruction is in both English and Chinese Mandarin. c. Format: Each training level consists of 15 sessions, 60 minutes per session. d. Setting: Available for individual students or small groups (up to 6 children). e. Method: Trainings are interactive. Children will need to use an iPad with pen to engage in training activities. Through our Executive Functioning training, students will strengthen the following areas: 1. Task Initiation: learn not to procrastinate finishing their chores such as school work and to start any project with less encouragement from parents or teachers 2. Response Inhibition: Including managing their impulsive behavior 3. Focus and Attention 4. Time Management: improving how manage their time effectively to reach their goals and school chores 5. Working Memory 6. Cognitive Flexibility: improve flexibility in their thinking 7. Self-Regulation: improve their ability to manage their own behavior, improve their relationship with others and their peers 8. Emotional Self-Control: learn how to deal with their emotion effectively and less overreact to minor issues in their daily life 9. Task Completion: stay focused to finish their tasks 10. Organization: get their daily plan and things needed to achieve their goals in order and organized DMLL's Holistic Approach to Supporting Students in China To accommodate the busy schedules of today's families, we provide our services after school hours, on weekends, and during most school holidays. This ensures students and parents have timely access to the most effective support through our comprehensive services for students in China. For questions or to enroll your child in our engaging and fun Executive Functioning Skills training program (or to learn about our other comprehensive services), please contact us: by WeChat: 13810799388
