Executive Functioning

I met Ben on the first day of his eighth grade year. He had been a student at our school, which specialized in students with language-based learning differences, since the third grade. Once the school year was underway, it did not take me long to realize that Ben was a wonderful young man. He was always kind and tolerant of his fellow classmates, but also knew how to set clear limits with his friends so they did not overstep their bounds. In fact, Ben went on to win the eighth grade Kindness Award at graduation that year.

It also quickly became clear to me just how intelligent Ben was. Not only did he have an IQ of 130, but it was also obvious in everything Ben did that his mind was moving a mile a minute. He was a technological whiz, and we learned to count on Ben as our in-house “IT guy.” Ben was able to fix any problem with a laptop or SMART Board, usually in a matter of minutes. When Ben shared comments in class, he regularly showed evidence of strong critical thinking skills. He became a leader among his classmates, often leading discussions and inspiring “outside the box” thinking from his classmates.

Indeed, Ben was an avid reader who had developed a strong working vocabulary through his choice of challenging variety of books. His favorites were science fiction and fantasy stories, such as A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but he also enjoyed historical fiction novels like Johnny Tremain. Ben’s highly creative and inquisitive nature appeared to seep out of his very pores. In his spare time, rather than playing mindless computer games or gossiping with friends, Ben would build figures out of paper clips or Post-It notes; he even made me a wallet out of duct tape on one occasion.

While Ben had largely learned to compensate for his dyslexia over the years, he still had one big issue: executive functioning. After working with Ben for a month of so, it became clear that homework completion was a big problem for him. It was almost impossible for Ben to begin assignments and to sustain his focus long enough to complete them. His grades began to drop because, though he regularly spent four or five hours a night “doing his homework,” most of this time was spent daydreaming or fiddling with whatever office supplies were nearby. Ben could spend an entire class period deciding on the font for an essay. On numerous occasions, I saw him get bogged down with online “research,” margin sizes, header and footer styles, and other minutiae that prevented him from getting his work done.

Ben’s parents were wonderful, supportive people who had done everything in their power to help their child. Ben had to use his homework planner every day (a task he despised); we also allowed him to record his homework as a voice memo on his cell phone or email assignments home to himself. Ben had a well-organized, quiet study area to complete homework at home. It seemed as though everything was in place, but still Ben was not getting his work done.

A breakthrough occurred about halfway through the year, when I volunteered to have Ben stay in my classroom after school for one hour, once or twice a week. During these times, I essentially functioned as Ben’s homework drill sergeant. Instead of allowing him to languish in the decision-making process, I simply instructed him to “begin your math homework” or “read Chapter 14 before you do anything else.” I found that, once Ben got started, he could continue working and complete an assignment with minimal prompting. He just needed someone to help him get going. It also worked well to chunk Ben’s work time; for example, if he completed a paragraph of an essay, he could take a 2- or 3-minute break to do what he wanted. Rather than focus on Ben’s intelligence or capability, we began to compliment and reward his effort, pointing out over and over the improvement we saw in him and how hard he had worked to complete assignments on time.

Ben is now a freshman at a highly academic high school in San Francisco, where he is a happy and involved student. Though he still struggles with task initiation and other executive functioning issues, Ben is able to be successful along with the help of a one-on-one tutor during the day and his ever-vigilant mother at night. To me, he is the perfect example of an executive functioning success story. With the right strategies in place, I have no doubt that Ben will continue to be highly successful in school and in life, sharing his many wonderful strengths with the rest of the world.