Executive Functioning

Executive functioning is the hot new topic in education this year.  When I attended the NASP summer conference, the keynote speaker spoke about executive functioning.  For professional development my district set up a two-day executive functioning training.  The training was down by Frank Kros of the Upside Down Organization.

In terms of execution, the presentation was excellent (which I would expect from a presenter specializing in executive skills!).  He reviewed the different areas of the brains and their functions.  Most notably he discussed how certain functions of the brain can interfere with one another.  For example, the Amygdala’s job, roughly speaking, is to watch for danger.  If it senses danger (which can be physical or more abstract, such as danger of embarrassment) it reacts and pushes the frontal lobe, which makes rational decisions, out of the way.  Likewise, if chemicals related to anxiety flood the brain, it is harder for the brain to learn.

Of course, he also discussed executive functioning and its definition.  Executive functions are those skills that allow you to plan, organize, control yourself, and make decisions.  According to the Upside Down Organization there 10 separate executive function skills:

-          Time Management

-          Working Memory

-          Organization

-          Metacognition

-          Planning/Prioritization/Sequencing

-          Flexibility

-          Emotional Control

-          Sustained Attention

-          Task Initiation

-          Impulse Control

-          Goal-Directed Persistence

In my opinion, the presentation went downhill after this.  Mr. Kros had us take a self-assessment to determine our executive strengths and weaknesses.  The assessment has major typos, was poorly organized, and had no data or research to back its design or use.

He then taught us a variety of little games that would help children develop executive function skills.  However, he did not share any research that showed the generalization of these skills to other activities.  In fact, I explicitly asked him to share research with me.  He promised to email it but never did.

That is my issue with concept of executive functions in general: the lack of research.  While the Upside Down Organization believes there are 10 executive skills, George McCloskey (who spoke at the NASP summer conference) believes there are about 32.  There is no research to show the relationship between executive skills and success in school or in the world.  There are no research-based interventions for executive skills.  There is no reliable way to evaluate if children have adequate executive skills.  Of course, none of this is surprising if we can’t even agree on a definition.

In short, I find executive skills fascinating.  The concept helps to fills the gap between cognitive ability and successful.  Some of only research that Mr. Kros did share was done by Lewis Terman in the 1920s.  he followed 1,470 children with IQs above 140 and found, after 20 years, that the majority had ordinary careers, quite a few were financial failures, and only a small group were successful.  Clearly there is something besides cognitive ability at work.  I’ll even buy that this something is executive functioning.

This concept of executive functioning as a strong predictor of success, however, is not useful if we do not know what it is or how to improve it.  It drives me nuts when training is offered based off only the barest notion of what is effective.  I hope that more research is done on executive functioning good assessments and interventions are developed.  In the meantime, I know it’s there, but I don’t know what to do about it.

Present Mania

This past week has been one of knitting presents.

A colleague at work had a baby so I made a little baby set.  I was excited about this because most of the women at work choose not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time.  This means that I have made a lot of green and yellow blankets, sweaters, etc.  This particular family (I actually happen to work with both the mother and father in different settings) told me that it was a boy, so I made a little "work outfit".  The patterns are Kiddie Cadet by Alice Schnebly, Manly Bib by Cheryl Fisher, and Bev's Orphan Socks by Beverly A. Qualheim.  My poor puppy was forced to model for me as I do not have a baby of my own.

The other present was for my mother-in-law.  She requested green gloves and I decided to make a matching hat.  The gloves ended up fitting perfectly but the hat was bit small.  Oh, well!  the pattern for both is Wintergreen Gloves by Cailyn Meyer.  I really like the finished project, especially the gloves, but knitting them was sort of a pain.  In dim light, it was hard to tell the difference between the two colors.  I also learned that you can never look away when doing colorwork, which interferes with TV watching.

I'm Back!

Wow, this time I have really gone a long time without blogging!  There are a few reasons for this.  The biggest one is that there has been some family drama going on that has sapped most of my energy.  The past few weeks going to work and dealing with family have been all I think about.  Blogging, knitting, and even things like cleaning have fallen by the wayside.

The second reason is work.  It isn’t so much that work is horrible or overwhelming.  It’s just that I always need some time to adjust to being back at work and this time became lengthened exponentially by all the personal stuff.

So, I’m back! I am committing to posting at least once a week from now on.  And the good news is that I have a lot to tell you!  In our school district we have a new position this year: Behavior Intervention Specialist.  The impact of this on the role of the school psychologist has been interesting to observe, especially in my different building.  I have also recently attending a 2-day presentation on executive functioning that has really got me thinking.  And, of course, there is knitting!  I have a lot to share with you, from adorable baby stuff (not my baby, don’t worry) to my first pattern design.  In fact, I’ll probably post a quite a bit at first to catch up; I’m glad to back!

NASP Summer Conference

Conferences are an interesting thing because you go with this expectation to learn all sorts of things that will change the way you work.  And sometime after the first day, you usually end up feeling a bit tired of sitting in freezing conference rooms and watching power point presentations.  At this point, the expectations are lowered to something like, "I hope the next speaker isn't too boring" or "I hope that lunch is better than that weird chicken thing from yesterday."

The NASP summer conference was a pretty small affair, with a couple hundred people attending the first day and maybe double that for the main two days.  In terms of creature comforts, it was too cold but the food was plentiful and decently good.  I also got a fair amount of knitting done, which some may have interpreted as rude.  I sat in the back and tried to be unobtrusive.  Plus, it can't be worse than cruising Facebook on your phone or laptop.

In terms of the actual conference, by far the best part was a presentation by George McCloskey on the role of executive functions in the classroom.  Dr. McCloskey was funny and engaging while also sharing a great amount of information.  He shared about how to identify specific areas of weakness and ideas for addressing those weaknesses.  You can find his presentation on this website but you need a NASP membership to access it.  I also attended sessions on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), interventions for students with mood disorders, and using technology in your job, all of which were useful.  There was one session that did not go well as the audience become offended when the speaker went off-message.  However, I don't feel like going into that.

One thing I did notice about the conference was the presence of power point presentations.  They were everywhere!  I confess that I have used power points on occasion and probably will do so again so I am already speaking hypocritically.  That being said, it is a pet peeve on mine when speakers simply say exactly what is on their slides.  If that was all I wanted I could simply read the slide handout and save everyone time and money.  One of the things that made Dr. McCloskey good was that he used his slides as structuring tools.  In fact, he often skipped through them to make a point.  I suspect that he would have been able to make the same presentation with about three slides (for a few diagrams) due to his excellent speaking skills.  I hope that at some point in the near future power point presentation will cease to replace research, preparation, practice, and thoughtfulness.

I will now clamber of my soap box, as show you some shawls!  Right before the conference, I visited my mother and, by coincidence, my aunt.  I agreed to make them both shawls to go with their new dancing dresses.

For my mother's shawl, I used the Clapotis pattern by Kate Gilbert.

For my aunt's shawl, I used the Kleio pattern by Rosemary Hill.

The Results of Summer Knitting

Wow, it has been a really long time since I have posted anything!  Between a couple of trips, knitting, and being very lazy, it has simply slipped by me.

I thought I would get back in the swing of things by bringing you up to speed on all the knitting I have been doing.  Be warned, it is an embarrassing amount.

First off, my Las Vegas Shawl.  My husband and I decided to go to Vegas for our first anniversary.  If you know anything about us, you know that this is an unusual decision.  We do not gamble.  We hate nightclubs and crowds.  However, we love good food and shows.  We ended up enjoying ourselves for two days and leaving with no desire to return.

The pattern is Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman.  I had originally bought a pale green yarn (actually crochet thread) for this project.  As I knit and thought, I realized that I had nothing that went with pale green.  I decided to be adventurous and dye the shawl after I finished.  It turned out a blue very similar to the color of blue jeans.

Next up, is Color Affection by Veera Välimäki.  This pattern became wildly popular on Ravelry in the past couple of months and I figured I would jump on the bandwagon.  I thought it would be a nice knit to bring to Vegas as it was so simple.  Unfortunately, I don't like it.  I don't love the colors, the shape, or the general stitching.  The good news is, I have a solution.  I am going to make a matching dog sweater and give to the a charity auction for a dog shelter with which a colleague of mine works.

I also did some baby stuff that I will share when I finish the complete set.  The baby is not due until October so I have some time.  I did learn that another colleague is also expecting so i better make another set.

To break up all the shawl knitting, I decided to make some Knotty Gloves by Julia Mueller.  I love them but I'll be waiting quite a bit to wear them.

Finally, I could not resist the lure of the shawls and I made Fabergé by Laura Aylor.  I love it to bits but I'm not convinced it is the right style and/or color for me.  I made it while attending the National Association of School Psychologists Summer Conference, which I will write more about later.

13 Disabilities of IDEA: The Rest

Despite my slow progress, we have actually made it through most of the IDEA disabilities.  I say this even though there are five we have still not discussed because these five are quite rare.  In fact, a typical teacher is will probably work with only one or two students in each of the remaining five categories in a career at most.  The remaining five disabilities are:

-          Deaf-Blindness

-          Visual Impairment including Blindness

-          Hearing Impairment

-          Multiple Disabilities

-          Orthopedic Impairment

Unlike the other disabilities I am not going to include the idea description of each of these five.  (However, those descriptions are available here.)  The first three of these categories have to do with profound vision and/or hearing impairment.  Depending on your district, students with these disabilities may go to a special school that provides specialized training (in American Sign Language or using a cane to navigate, for instance).  If this is not the case, the student may have an interpreter or paraprofessional who spends most of the day with the student to allow her to access the curriculum.  These students may need support with socialization as they will seem different than the other students.  It may be wise to have a class meeting in which the disability is explained.  It is important for staff to remember than a disability such as a hearing impairment does not mean that a student will also have a cognitive disability.  Students with vision or hearing difficulties are just as likely to have average intelligence as any other student.

This is often true for students with orthopedic impairments as well.  Often, if a student has average intellectual ability and an orthopedic impairment, he will not have an IEP as he does not need specialized instruction.  Instead, he will have a 504 plan that provides accommodations in order to allow him to participate as much as possible.  These accommodations would be most evident in physical education and other classes requiring movement but may be used throughout the school.

Multiple disabilities can sound like it would apply to many students at first glance as there are many students who have two or more disabilities, such as ADHD and a learning disability.  However, this category was designed for very specific cases.  The law defines multiple disabilities as: “Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness or mental retardation-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness” (IDEA regulations § 300, A, 300.8, c(7)).  This means that these students would most likely be involved in a specialized program for students with severe needs.  However, they may still participate in electives and other activities in the school.  It is crucial for staff members to learn about each students individual needs and how to respond if there is a problem.

Now that we are finished with IDEA disabilities, I may have to start a new series.  I might review different assessments and/or resources available.  Any ideas?

Galaxy Shawl

This is the project that has taken longest out of all my projects thus far.  The reason is not that it was incredibly difficult (although it was a completely different challenge than any other shawl I've done).

The reason is that back in October, when my puppy was young and I was naive, I visited Grand Junction.  While there, I went to the yarn store "Tangled" and bought this yarn.  I brought it back to the hotel room, set the bag on the coffee, and left for dinner with my family.  The puppy remained behind after a potty break.  It is important to note that he had several toys with him.

When we returned from dinner, we found (much to my horror and my husband poorly concealed amusement) all 908 yards of both balls of yarn tangled together.  I just now realized that the name of the yarn store has been prophetic.

I spent about 8 hours untangling the first ball and even started the project ("In the Pink" by IzzyKnits).  However, whenever I looked at that second ball of yarn I grew so depressed that I eventually through the whole project in my knitting basket to tackled another day.

About 8 days ago, another day finally came.  I am so glad it did because this is my favorite shawl ever!  I know I say that about all of them but I mean it this time!

I'm sorry about all the pictures, I was just too excited!


The magic of blocking!



Before Blocking