Social Emotional Learning

Helping Kids with Feelings of Anxiety & Worry

January 5, 2019 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

All educators, at one time or another, are likely to work with kids and young adults who struggle with anxiety. Sometimes we know about those challenges, and other times, we don’t. As a special educator, I have spent countless hours helping students work through their worries about homework, family situations, fights with friends, high-stakes testing, body issues, long-term projects, the changing of a schedule, getting to school, and so much more. Sometimes the worries can be small and easy to manage, and other times they can be pervasive and impact a student’s entire life.

Worrying itself is a normal emotion. We all worry sometimes. However, when those worries grow or don’t go away, it can be a real issue for kids and young adults. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), over 4 million children aged 3-17 have been diagnosed with anxiety. Many more are likely struggling with anxiety that aren’t diagnosed. Quite often, anxiety can be an invisible disability, meaning we don’t “see” it at first glance. The same is true for kids struggling with severe worries who may not meet the clinical criteria for anxiety.

The fact is that all educators, at one time or another, will be working with learners struggling with worries and challenging emotions. As educators, we have to be prepared to help these learners cope with their worries so they can be successful in and out of the classroom. Here are a few ways to help those students:

Recognize worries don’t always look like worrying. In order to help our learners struggling with feelings of anxiety and worry, we have to understand them more. Anxiety and worries don’t always even appear as worries. This is a common misconception about anxiety that can be confusing. Sometimes, learners might exhibit defiant behavior, aggression, a lack of focus or stomachaches and pains. Other times, students might try to control situations or have extremely high expectations for themselves with their school work. When challenging behaviors occur, it’s helpful to consider what emotions are actually behind them. Note that the visual below isn’t intended to diagnose anyone, just to show that feelings of worry and anxiety can manifest themselves in many different ways.

Teach coping strategies. Coping strategies, or coping skills, are the abilities and activities we use to help us manage our tough emotions on the spot. Simply put, everyone needs these strategies. If you find that a student doesn’t cope well with their emotions, spend time practicing and teaching these skills explicitly. It’s important to note that all people are different; some students will calm down best by coloring or drawing, while others might need to get up and take a walk. It’s helpful to try many different strategies when the student is already calm so that they can actually use the skills when they are emotionally overwhelmed. If you aren’t sure how to teach coping skills, I’ve created this Coping Strategies Lessons & Activities set to help you get started.

Educate yourself. It’s healthy to admit you don’t know everything about a topic. If you’re unsure what anxiety is, take some time to research. It’s important to know the facts and see anxiety as a real mental health issue. There are many websites that give overviews and explanations, including the Child Mind Institute and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness activities are something that benefit all kids and young adults (they even benefit adults, too). Spend some time practicing mindfulness with your learners before times that are high-stress, such as before a big test, after lunch, or just in the morning to start of the day in a calm way. Here are 10 mindfulness activities you can try today.

Use distraction. Sometimes, as educators, we have to do what works in the moment. That was actually a motto we used in my classroom: Do what works. When a student is struggling with worries in the moment, sometimes distraction can get them through. Talk about your student’s favorite game, sport, animal, or anything else. I was known for talking about my dog and sharing a silly story about him. Of course, this doesn’t fix the problem behind the worry, but it can be enough to help your student move past their immediate negative feelings in the moment.

Teach breathing techniques. Sometimes these seem silly at first, but they can make a big difference. By teaching kids and young adults to focus on their breathing, they can calm themselves down more quickly when overwhelmed. When you are focusing only on your breathing, you are also no longer thinking about the worry. I love this free breathe board you can tape to a student’s desk or put in their binder. It’s a great reminder to “just breathe!”

Encourage progress, not perfection. Kids and young adults are constantly under a lot of pressure to be perfect, both in and out of school. The truth that we know is that perfect doesn’t exist. Encourage learners to see their progress and feel proud when they try their best, even if things don’t always come out “perfect.”

Teach positive self-talk. Self-talk is the inner voice we use to reassure and encourage ourselves to accomplish tasks. A positive voice can make a huge difference in helping kids and young adults feel more confident in themselves. You can start by having students choose positive self-talk statements to say to themselves or write out using this free list. Read up more about how to teach positive self-talk and why positive self-talk is so important.

Prepare instead of avoiding. By completely avoiding activities that make kids feel worried, we can make it harder for them over time. Kids and young adults need to face their worries in a structured and supportive way. If a learner feels extremely worried during tests, it won’t fix the problem to avoid tests all together. Instead, discuss the child’s feelings, validate their concerns, help them develop strategies, and prepare them for the tests ahead of time. The same is true for kids who are school-avoidant. Rather than keeping them out of school for longer, help them develop skills and come up with strategies to easier their concerns about school so they can be successful. Start small if you need to and work towards the ultimate goal of the student feeling comfortable on their own.

Allow calm down time. Kids and young adults can feel overwhelmed with emotions in the moment. Allow students the time and space to use their coping strategies when needed. Consider creating a calm down area in your classroom where learners can use strategies to help them regain their calm.

Encouraging journaling. Writing our thoughts out can be an extremely helpful way to make sense of things. For kids and young adults with lots of worries, sometimes their brains have too many thoughts going on at once. By writing these thoughts out, learners sometimes can recognize the true issues and identify steps for what they can do to help. Journaling about other topics can be helpful, too. Have students write about their favorite activities, 5 things they love, what they are grateful for, or a pet they love.

Collaborate with support professionals. It’s always best when all team members are working on the same skills in a cohesive way. Talk with the school counselor, school psychologist, and/or social worker and discuss best strategies for your learner in the classroom to help them manage their worries. These are definitely the experts in this realm and their knowledge is extremely valuable! If your student is seeing an outside therapist, consider getting consent from parents to talk with them, as well. A team approach always is the best option, especially for kids struggling with worries that can impact all areas of their life.

Listen. Whether or not the worries or fears are a big deal for us as adults, they are very real to our learners. With that, it’s extremely important we hear our students out when they are worried. Listen and try to understand first. Sometimes we have to know the whole story before we can even start the problem-solving practice. Once you hear your student out, you might say something like, “I can tell you’re worried about that. I’m here for you. We’re going to come up with some strategies and we’ll get through it.”

Talk it out. Help students make sense of their feelings by talking situations out with them. Sometimes, worries are just based on wrong information or assumptions that don’t make sense. Talking the worries out can help your learner recognize those inconsistencies.

Identify problem-solving actions. Worrying is the worst when you feel you have no control over the situation. With this, it’s helpful to give the student something they CAN do. For example, if a student is worried about an upcoming schedule change, help them identify what they could do going forward. Perhaps they can have a new schedule printed or talk with the new teacher they are going to have before they go in the class. Ask questions like, “So what might your next steps be?” and “What strategies can you use to help you deal with that?” With time, this can help turn your student into a problem-solver, skills they can assuredly use on their own throughout their entire life.

Be structured, but flexible. All kids need rules and expectations, of course. Still, there may be times when it’s important to give a little to help your learner move in the right direction. Be open-minded about solutions to help students make progress.

Take baby steps. If a student is really worried about something, it’s often helpful to start small and get the momentum going. Making some progress is always better than none. If a learner has extreme fear about presenting in front of the class, consider if they could start by presenting in front of just a teacher. If that goes okay, consider doing a small group next time. Starting small can help work towards success.

Teach problem-solving skills. Being able to solve problem is a life skill that can help learners cope with all sorts of challenges. During break time or morning meeting, spend time teaching these skills. One way you can start is introducing problem-solving scenarios. Have students discuss the scenario and consider what they could do to solve the problem. For example, you might say: “You get to school and realized you forgot your project. What could you do?” Students can discuss and develop skills to help them problem-solve and deal with the dilemma, rather than just feeling anxious and worried. I love this set of problem-solving task cards for younger students and this problem-solving set for older kids.

Have learners reflect on progress. At the end of a day, have your student identify what went well, what strategies they used, and what they are proud of themselves for. Allow students to reflect and build on the positive to help them recognize they can overcome their challenges.

Remember that change takes time. Just like with any challenges, kids struggling to manage their worries need time. Keep believing in them, supporting them, and guiding them. With time and effort, you will see your learners grow.

Interventions for Executive Functioning Challenges: Organization

December 16, 2018 by pathway2success 1 Comment

As kids get older, organization becomes ever more important! While it is a critical skill for all ages, kids and young adults are often just learning to develop and strengthen their skills as more responsibilities are added on in their lives. When you think about it, kids and young adults can have a lot to juggle between school, homework, friends, family, and activities. This often means that the level of organization skills can make the difference between things running smoothly and just chaos! Simply put, strong organizational skills set the stage for success for all learners.

What is organization? Organization is an efficient and orderly approach to tasks and keeping materials in order. Skills for organization are greatly related to the ability to plan, as one must have a plan for exactly how to organize! One of the key elements in learning organization is to have a place for everything ahead of time. This includes having binders or folders for each class in a notebook, having a hamper to put dirty clothes, and everything in between. Setting up systems for organization can lead to huge improvements, such as having a specific strategy for organizing binders or cleaning a room. It’s important to note, though, that organization takes real work even after systems have been set up! Learners must constantly re-organize and re-evaluate their systems for organization in order to stay neat and tidy in home, school, and beyond.

• Examples of Organization •

Organization is a critical skill, as it often flows over into all areas of an individual’s life. Just a few examples of what organization looks like includes:

Keeping a neat and orderly room.
Writing an essay with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Bringing required materials, such as pencils, to class.
Having neat and tidy binders.
Developing an organized approach to completing a project.

• Possible Signs of Challenges with Organization •

Identifying challenges with executive functioning skills can make a huge difference for kids and young adults. We all have organization ups and downs, but if some of these behaviors occur on a more regular basis, it should be an indicator to consider extra interventions and supports.

Possible signs of challenges with organization include:

Forgetting to bring required materials, such as a pencil or correct binder, to class.
Misplacing or losing class assignments.
Putting class papers in a binder randomly without a sense of order.
Having a messy desk or set of binders.
Difficulty transitioning from one class to another.

• Interventions, Supports, and Strategies for Organization •

As a positive, organizational skills can certainly be improved and strengthened over time. Here are some activities, tasks, and ideas to help with organization needs in the classroom:

Teach organization and other EF skills explicitly.
Teach how to organize a binder and where materials go.
Schedule an organization boot camp time, focused just on organization skills.
Practice cleaning up and re-organizing as you work through a task.
Provide a visual reminder for what students need before they enter the classroom.
Set students up with a specialized homework folder or binder. Use this free homework binder to start.
Have students keep an assignment calendar or homework log to track daily and long-term work.
Consider apps for organization, like Trello or myHomework.
Write homework in the same exact spot every day.
Color code books and binders to match (i.e. blue for science and red for math).
Keep extra papers in a designated spot for students who are absent or lose them.
Keep a model notebook in a spot for students to review, as needed.
Clearly labels materials in the classroom.
Dedicate the last 3 minutes of every class to getting organized.
Keep a “classroom office” stocked with extra pens, pencils, and paper for students who forget them.
Use graphic organizers for writing assignments.
Use an end-of-the-day reminder sheet to help students think about what materials they need. Use this free reminder checklist to start.
Schedule a weekly 10-minute binder organization time.
Discuss how to organize different areas and where items should be put away. Start with this free organization activity.
Highlight positive examples of organization in the classroom.

• Strategies for Parents to Support Organization at Home •

Parents can play a huge role in supporting executive functioning skills at home. Since executive functioning skills impact all areas on a person’s life, it’s helpful for learners to practice these skills in different environments. Here are some activities parents and families can do to at home strengthen skills for organization:

Create daily and weekly chore charts with organization and cleaning tasks.
Reinforce cleaning up and putting materials away after completing a task.
Create checklists for cleaning and organizing materials.
Try to have a place for everything.
Avoid piles and put things away right away together.
Openly discuss plans and schedules for the week or weekend.
Use a calendar to keep track of home or school events.
Plan a weekly organization and cleanup time.
Play “Where Does This Go?”. Gather materials and have the child put them back in the right spot.
Create a designated spot just for homework with office materials, as needed.
Make organizing more fun by listening to music while you clean together.
Make it a game by gathering 10+ items and time the child returning them to their correct spots.
Use a morning or afternoon checklist to remind the child of their responsibilities before/after school.

Do your learners struggle with organization quite a bit? If so, you can get started by teaching executive functioning skills explicitly right away with some units I’ve developed. I have units to target executive functioning skills for middle and high school learners and executive functioning skills for younger learners. Spending a little extra time early on can make a world of a difference!

Also, this post is part of a blog series focused just on interventions for executive functioning skills! You can also read up on interventions to help with planning.

Interventions for Executive Functioning Challenges: Planning

December 2, 2018 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

Planning is a critical executive functioning skill that helps kids and young adults achieve success in and outside of the classroom. Executive functioning skills are the complex mental processes that work together to help us accomplish tasks and goals. When learners struggle with these skills, daily life activities can become particularly challenging. While all executive functioning skills are important in their own way, this post targets interventions specifically for kids who struggle with the ability to plan.

What is planning? Planning is the ability to think about an end-goal and create a roadmap to help you get there. Someone who plans well is more likely to achieve their goals effectively and efficiently, since making a plan allows us to think through what we want to ultimate accomplish. I like to think of planning as one of the more foundational executive functioning skills, as it sets the stage for success. It’s always best to figure out a thorough plan before starting a task.

• Examples of Planning •

It’s important to note that planning can impact all areas of someone’s life, including academically, socially, and personally. Here are several examples of planning in real life:

Filling out a graphic organizer before writing an essay.
Taking a few extra minutes to think about what needs to be done today.
Writing down homework in an agenda before class is over.
Planning out times for events so activities do not overlap.
Figuring out which college to attend to enter into a specific career.

• Possible Signs of Challenges with Planning •

Identifying possible challenging with executive functioning skills can make the difference between success and struggle for a student. All kids have bad days once in a while, but if some of these behaviors occur on a regular basis, it should be an indicator to provide interventions and supports.

Possible signs of challenges with planning include:

Having difficulty starting or completing long-term assignments.
Forgetting to bring home necessary books, binders, or materials.
Writing papers, essays, or stories that are difficult to follow.
Just start tasks without considering the best strategies to completing the task.
Make impulsive decisions without considering consequences.
Have to frequently re-do assignments because they didn’t follow the guidelines.

• Interventions, Supports, and Strategies for Planning •

Work can always be done to help kids and young adults strengthen their executive functioning skills. Here are some activities, tasks, and ideas to help with planning needs:

Teach planning explicitly by explaining the skill, real life examples, and why it matters.
Discuss the plans of the day during morning meeting.
Use graphic organizers for writing assignments.
Set students up with a homework binder and daily homework agenda (use this free homework binder to get started).
Have students make a to-do list before starting longer assignments.
Provide a rubric for larger assignments.
Show models and visuals of what finished assignments should look like.
Use apps for planning, like Trello and Evernote.
Use a calendar regularly.
Have students place their daily schedules on their binders.
Post the daily objectives and schedule in view.
Keep important dates listed in sight on a regular basis.
Practice developing SMART goals and steps to follow through with them.
Use behavior reflection pages to help consider possible choices.
Use an end-of-the-day reminder sheet to help students think about what materials they need (try this free checklist).
Highlight positive examples of planning in the classroom.

• Strategies for Parents to Support Planning at Home •

Parents can play a huge role in supporting and encouraging executive functioning skills in the home environment. Since EF skills impact all areas on a person’s life, it’s extremely helpful for learners to practice these skills in different environments. Here are some activities parents and families can do to strengthen skills for planning:

Practice making to-do lists together for various tasks.
Create a structured homework time and space at home.
Choose a recipe together and plan out how to cook the meal.
Make a household grocery list together.
Help list out materials, steps, and due dates for long-term projects together.
Use a calendar to plan weekly and monthly family events.
Discuss the day’s plans at morning breakfast or on the ride to school.
Plan a vacation or short weekend trip together.
Develop and write down weekly goals for school work, cleaning, or other tasks.
Have kids list three steps for an activity before they can start it (i.e. going out to the movies or having a friend over the house).
Encourage kids and young adults to gather school materials and clothes for the next day the night before.
Discuss examples of planning at jobs in real life.

If you notice this is an area your learners struggle with, get started by teaching executive functioning skills explicitly today. I have created units to target executive functioning skills for middle and high school learners and for younger learners. Targeting these skills will take a little bit extra time, but will be worth the effort!

This post is part of a blog series focused just on interventions for executive functioning skills! You can also read up on interventions to help with organization.

Using Games to Teach Social Emotional Skills

November 18, 2018 by pathway2success 6 Comments

Games can be the perfect tool to introduce and teach social emotional learning skills to kids and young adults. These are the skills that help kids become more self-aware, develop positive relationships, show empathy towards others, manage emotions, use self-control, resolve conflicts, and make positive decisions. If you need more background on SEL, make sure you read up on the basics of social emotional learning.

So often, educators are so busy teaching our curriculum and content that we sometimes leave these skills behind. It’s so important to make real time for them and incorporate them into many of the activities you already do! For kids who struggle with some of these skills, learning them can be real work. With that said, it’s important to make learning these skills meaningful, interactive, hands-on, and fun. That’s why teaching social emotional skills in the form of a game just makes so much sense!

Here are several games (some I’ve purchase and some I’ve developed myself) that target these critical social emotional learning skills:

1. Social Problem Solving Board Game

Why It’s Important: Social problem-solving is our ability to understand a social situation and use reasoning to deal with it in the most socially appropriate way. We really use these skills every single day. At school, kids might have to problem-solve what to do when someone isn’t nice to them or when they see someone else breaking a rule and aren’t sure what to do. At home, they might use them when an adult tells them to clean their room but they don’t feel like it at the moment.

How It Works: This game focuses on considering a social problem, thinking about what it matters, considering choices and consequences, and ultimately making a decision that is best in the moment. Kids will roll a dice and work through a game board, picking up a situation card for each spot they land on. My favorite part is that kids will also act out scenarios which can help them to generalize the social skills over time.

2. Team Pictionary

Why It’s Important: Teamwork is a critical skill for all ages. This is a skill kids and young adults use throughout the school day, but also outside of school, whether it is during a sports game or playing a game with friends at home. While learning to work together as a team, kids also learn other valuable skills including assertive communication, how to listen, turn-taking, doing a fair share of the work, and how to respectfully disagree with each other. These are not only school skills, but life skills.

How It Works: Split up into two teams. Let each team pick an artist who will draw for their team. Let the artists pick a card with a phrase they will have to illustrate on paper or on the board. Let both artists draw at the same time, while their team tries to guess the correct phrase they are drawing. The catch is that the artist can only draw images and not words, so team members must work together to come up with what the artist is drawing. The team that guesses the phrase first wins! The game can continue again and again, as different artists from the group should be chosen.

3. Social Communication Board Game

Why It’s Important: Simply put, kids need to be able to communicate well with others. That includes having small talk with a classmate in the hallway, understanding nonverbal cues, holding a full conversation with peers at lunch, and using our social filter before we speak. Our communication skills have a huge impact on how we get along with others and develop relationships over time.

How It Works: This game is ideal for all kids, but especially those with social language challenges. Depending on which space kids fall on, they will have to decipher social cues from a real life photo, discuss what they would do or say in a situation, identify how they should think before they speak, or say a specific phrase in a variety of different tones. Since there are over 150 unique cards, kids can just play again and again while practicing these skills.

4. Empathy Board Game

Why It’s Important: Considering and understanding the feelings of others is a foundational skill that supports social success. In order to know the “right” or socially appropriate response to situations, we must first really understand how others feel. Developing empathy isn’t easy for all kids, especially those with social challenges and autism. It’s important to highlight situations by stopping to think how someone else might feel or think. While thinking about how you might feel in a situation is a good start, t’s critical to target how someone else might feel. That’s because true empathy is really about understanding someone else’s thoughts and feelings, which can often be different from our own.

How It Works: Students will work in partners and small groups to get through an empathy game board. For a person’s turn, they will roll the dice and spin the spinner. Their spot on the game board and the spinner will tell them how to answer each card. For example, they might have to answer: Why does it matter? How might they feel? What might they be thinking? What might you do? Students might also have to act out what they would do in that situation. There are over 150 unique situations that help kids discuss and build empathy over real-life scenarios.

5. Social Charades

Why It’s Important: A huge component to social awareness is learning to identify and understand the social cues of others. These social cues, including our body language and facial expressions, often inform others how we’re feeling, what we’re thinking, and what our intentions are.

How It Works: Create a list of different actions or have the kids come up with them themselves. Any action will do! Some examples might be waiting at the bus stop, sharpening your pencil, listening to music, running in a race, taking notes in class, and so on. The idea is that kids will randomly choose one action and act it out for the others to guess. By acting out these scenarios, students will need to consider what social cues would be aligned with that activity. Best of all, this is a quick activity you can do with just a few minutes of class time left that kids will love.

6. Roll & Spin a Coping Strategy

Why It’s Important: Being able to manage our emotions is a critical skill. We all experience tough emotions, setbacks, or challenges along the way. It’s just a natural part of life. How we handle those difficulties can make a big impact on our success. That’s why it’s so important to explicitly teach coping strategies and skills to manage our feelings on the spot. Sometimes, kids cannot self-soothe without being explicitly taught these strategies. Kids and young adults need to learn they can take a quick walk, write in a journal, take deep breaths, and use positive self-talk to calm themselves and feel better in moments of difficulty. Additionally, it’s important that kids practice these strategies when they are already calm so that they can really use them when they are emotionally overwhelmed.

How It Works: Using a one-page board, students will take turns rolling and spinning. Depending on what they roll and spin, they will fall on a space with a coping strategy that they will have to practice. Once they practice that strategy, they can cover up the spot with a chip. Note that students can have their own boards or share if you have different colored chips. The first person to get one whole row across wins! Ultimately, the idea is that kids are practicing a wide variety of coping strategies, giving them access to more skills when they truly need them.

7. Feelings Uno

Why It’s Important: Self-awareness is a critical skill that helps individuals understand their own emotions. In this activity, students can improve their emotional vocabularies by discussing a variety of different feeling words and what they mean. It also helps to normalize talking about different emotions and being comfortable sharing how we are feeling in the moment. Getting kids talking about emotions is key.

How It Works: This game just adds a simple twist to your normal Uno game, which all kids absolutely LOVE! Using the Uno colors, discuss what each of the colors might mean. Blue can stand for feeling sad, tired, bored, or sick. Green stands for feeling happy, calm, focused, and in control. Yellow means feelings frustrated, worried, or nervous. Finally, red should stand for angry. Every time a student plays a color of a card, teach them to use an emotion word that matches the color, share a time they felt that way, or discuss when someone might feel that way.

8. Executive Functioning Challenge

Why It’s Important: Executive functioning skills are the processes in our brain that help us accomplish tasks. Sometimes we might think of these skills as only related to academics, but that’s actually not true. Our executive functioning skills help us use our self-control to stop and think before saying something inappropriate, our flexibility to consider different solutions for social problems, and our time management to make sure we meet a friend on time. When executive functioning skills are stronger, kids and young adults have greater chance for success in school and beyond.

How It Works: This game can actually be played two different ways: partners and small groups, or as a full class. The idea is that students work through a game board, answering a variety of executive functioning questions as they head towards the finish line. The game cards have students completing executive functioning challenges, acting out situations, naming executive functioning skills used in a situation, and proving their knowledge about the skills themselves. For the full class version, kids can work in teams, collaborating on the answers and getting “points” to win the challenge.

If you love the games I’ve put together, you can save by getting them as a whole set! This Social Emotional Learning Games Bundle gives practice with empathy, perspective-taking, executive functioning skills, communication, and more.

Use these games during break times, small groups, as an end of the week reward, or just a fun brain break. Kids will have fun but you’ll know you’re working on serious SEL skills that make a difference!

15+ Strategies to Help Build Self-Regulation Skills

November 5, 2018 by pathway2success 3 Comments

Self-regulation is a critical skill for people of all ages. It is the ability that helps us to control our behaviors to make good decisions for the long-term, rather than just doing what we want in the moment. It’s also the skill that allows us to manage our emotions when we’re feeling angry, disappointed, or worried. These can be difficult for adults, but are significantly more challenging for children and young adults, whose brains are still growing and developing.

There are huge benefits to helping kids and young adults improve their skills for self-regulation. These skills can help kids and young adults to complete their work and chores (even if they don’t want to), maintain lasting friendships, make safe choices when out with friends, stop themselves from breaking a rule, work through challenges when they feel like giving up, and so much more. Simply put, kids and young adults are more likely to lead happier and healthier lives when self-regulation skills are strengthened. Of course, working on self-regulation skills doesn’t just happen overnight. Especially for those who struggle with them, these abilities must be working on and improved over time. The good news is that kids and young adults can learn strategies and skills to improve their self-regulation.

Here are 15+ strategies and ideas to use with your learners:

Practice self-control with games. There are many different games that help students work on their self-control skills! Jenga, Freeze, and Simon Says are just a few of them. One of my favorites is Blurt, but you could really play with any trivia questions or content from your curriculum. You can play with a small group of full class. Just have two students stand together at a desk. Ask them a question (from Blurt or your own), and only those two students can shout out the answer to the question. Everyone else must use self-control and remain silent, even if they know the answer. The person who says the correct answer will move on to the next desk, while the other student will sit down at that desk. As the game continues, the goal is to try and make it all the way around the room. Another one of my favorites is Guard Duty. This one is fun because students actually pretend they are guards at a palace and have be serious, even when someone might try to distract them. Of course, this is a perfect game when walking in the hallway on the way to another class. Try this set of Executive Functioning Games & Play Activities if you want more!

Create a share journal. If your student likes to share a lot of extra information throughout a class lesson, give them a special journal. They can write down all of their questions, thoughts, and connections in the journal. Once or twice a day, make sure to sit down with the student to review the journal and hear what they wanted to tell you.

Explicitly teach self-regulation skills. Some learners who struggle significantly with self-regulation skills can most likely benefit from a small group that targets these skills head on! Put together a group of your own during morning meeting, lunch time, or any other time that works to teach these skills. If you do not have flexibility in your schedule for such a group, consider talking with the school counselor, school psychologist, special education teacher, or social worker to create a group with the student or students you have in mind. More than likely, many other students can benefit from these skills, too! I have created a Self-Control Bootcamp for older students, as well as a Self-Regulation Station (with a train theme!) for younger learners. Use these group times to highlight what self-regulation and self-control are, why they matter, and specific strategies for how students can make improvements.

Use literature. Picture books are a great way to introduce and discuss self-regulation skills at all levels. Even my middle schoolers loved when I got the picture books out for a read-aloud! Some great options to target self-regulation skills include: My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook, I’m in Charge of Me! by David Parker, and What Were You Thinking? by Brian Smith. One of my absolute favorites is Super George and the Invisible Shield by Laurie Mendoza. In this story, George has to learn some strategies to help him stay in control and out of trouble. With whatever books you choose, make sure to highlight the self-regulation skills, discuss how each character uses the skills, and how it relates to your students’ lives.

Use visuals as reminders. Visual supports can be extremely helpful reminders to students about routines and activities in the classroom. You can tailor your visuals for individual students. For example, if a student struggles with calling out during class lessons, add a visual on his or her desk that reminders about raising our hand first. If a student is having difficulty waiting in line, keep a visual showing reminders near the door.

Create a social scripts binder. Social scripts are short narratives about any situation. Create an individualized binder for your student with stories specific to their needs. For example, if a student struggles to self-regulate behaviors during transition times, add a story about transitions to their binder. If they continue having issues getting settled in the morning to start morning work, add a story about the morning routine. To start, have the student read through the social script prior to the activity to remind them what they should be doing before the task. Eventually, the goal is that the student will need the stories less and less, as they become more independent.

Give movement breaks. Kids and young adults who struggle with self-regulation often need extra physical activity built into their day. One simple strategy is to incorporate movement and break brains in between your instruction time. One year, I used our morning homeroom periods to play basketball in the gym. In another instance, I was able to schedule a student with an extra gym class throughout the week. It’s important to be creative because a little extra physical activity can often make a huge difference for these learners!

Practice mindfulness. So often, in our busy world, kids and young adults do not know how to “just be.” Mindfulness can be a perfect solution for that. While it’s not an instant fix, learning to be more mindful can help kids and young adult stay present in the moment, feel calmer, improve focus, and better manage emotions in the moment. There are many different strategies for practicing mindfulness. You can start with simple breathing exercising with these free mindfulness breathe boards. Another great activity is to practice mindful coloring, which involves just coloring and not talking to anyone else. I’ve developed a whole set of Mindfulness Activities to help learners improve these skills over time.

Develop routines for success. While many of these strategies are directed at the student, educators can also play a huge role in creating routines for success. Consider the specific areas where your student is struggling and identify routines and strategies you can implement. If a student seems to never remember to bring back their homework, set them up with a specialized homework binder to go home. If a student continually calls out during lessons, make a plan that you will call on them at least once during a lesson when their hand is up.

Discuss scenarios. Talk about real-life situations that encourage learners to stop and think about managing their behaviors. You might say, “Someone is kicking the back of your chair during a test and it’s really annoying you. What do you do?” Have students talk in small groups or partners and share about how they might handle those situations. While you can’t plan for every situation, using scenarios can help students train their brains for how to think through problems as they happen.

Use role-play. Using any of the topics you discuss as scenarios, act the situations out in small groups or partners. Not only is role-play a lot of fun for kids, but it makes it memorable. Note that it’s always most helpful to act out the socially appropriate way to handle situations. For this reason, it’s extremely helpful to partner students up with peer role models who can help kids brainstorm solutions for handling challenges.

Use guided meditation videos. A guided meditation is just a script that guides people through the practice of relaxing. Youtube is a great free resource for many guided meditation videos for kids and young adults. Another way to practice mindfulness and just being still, guided meditation helps kids learn to be in control of their bodies, thoughts, and emotions in the moment. Again, these would be a great activity to do before a test, after a transition, or just first thing in the morning.

Create a calm down space. Design an area in the room for students to go who need a few minutes to themselves. Not all students will need to use this area, but the ones who do, will benefit greatly. It’s important to teach that the calm down area is a space to self-regulate and get in control of emotions so we can return back to our normal days. Most of all, it’s critical to show all learners that it’s normal and healthy to need a break once in a while. Taking five minutes in the calm down area to gather your emotions is a much better choice than pushing someone or saying mean words you will probably later regret.

Develop SMART goals. A huge component to improving self-regulation skills is being able to get past the “right now”. Students need to be able to see the future and what’s in it for them. Take time with your learner to develop individualized SMART goals on areas that are important for them. Perhaps your student needs to improve the number of class assignments they complete, raising their hand when they have a comment to share, or using appropriate language in the classroom. Any of those could be written out as a smart goal, with specific strategies for the student to work on over time.

Teach how to gauge emotions. I love to use an emotions scale that helps students gauge the level of their emotions. So often, kids who struggle with self-regulation skills are missing this internal meter that lets us know how intense our emotions are at the moment. This helps students learn to be more self-aware about their emotions and body, and once students are more self-aware, they can be more open to finding solutions for their struggles.

Incorporate self-reflection times. All kids and young adults can benefit from becoming more self-reflective. That involves assessing past behaviors and choices, as well as identifying next steps for improvement. This can be a tough skill for kids to learn at first, especially because it can be so personal to admit where you went wrong. I suggest creating a reflection binder that holds information about student SMART goals and areas that the student needs to improve. Each reflection binder really should be individualized because every student needs to work on different things. Some students of mine had data on grades, while others focused more on behavior or attendance. Meet weekly with the student as an intervention. Discuss the goals, progress made, challenges, and next steps for the future. Most of all, try to let the student take the lead! This can slowly help him or her develop the ability to self-reflect and self-regulate in the future.

Encourage positive habits. Having a healthy diet and sleep pattern can contribute to how self-regulated someone is. Talk with the student and family about making sure he or she is well-rested at night to achieve success the next day. If this is an area you are not comfortable addressing yourself, consider consulting with the school social worker or school counselor for extra support.

What To Do When a Student Refuses to Work

October 15, 2018 by pathway2success 32 Comments

Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many “work refusals”. These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about how they just will not complete your assignment. This can be extremely frustrating for educators, especially when teaching a well-designed lesson that you thought would go so well! Let me say that sometimes our lessons themselves can have little or no impact on whether or not a student refuses to work. There are quite often bigger challenges at play that we’ll delve into. Quite honestly, even with a special education background, my college and training did not really prepare me for what to do when students refuse to work. These are skills and strategies I had to develop on the ground running while working with young adults. It’s an area I’m especially passionate about because all kids deserve to learn and feel good about themselves. It’s always important to remember that kids who are refusing are reaching out for help in some way, and you CAN be the one to help them.

Let me say that we ALL have bad days here and there! If a student puts their head down during a lesson and won’t finish an assignment because of a headache, it doesn’t mean you need to sound the alarm. This article specifically focuses on the students who repeatedly refuse to complete work and need specific targeted strategies to help them overcome these challenges.

What does work refusal look like? Really, it can be different for every student. Some students put their heads down and don’t pick them up, despite encouragement and prompting. Other students will look you straight in the eyes and say, “I’m NOT doing it!” while they are clearly expecting a response from you! Other kids might just ignore your directions completely and continue doing what they want to do, whether that is coloring, reading, or any other activity they are engaged in. All of these behaviors are work refusals because they are avoiding doing the tasks that the adult is expecting.

What are the reasons for work refusal? If a student is outwardly refusing to do work in the classroom, there is always a reason. Quite often, we don’t know the individual reasons. Some students have had a history of trauma. Again, we may or may not know about the potential trauma. Other students might be dealing with social or emotional challenges at home or in their personal life. Some examples might include a family divorce, a new baby at home, the death of a family member, and feelings of loneliness with a parent working increased hours. Those truly are just a few small examples. Sometimes, when the challenges in a child’s life become so difficult for them, they can have a need to control parts of their life that they can control (like doing work in school or not). Some learners might be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, while others aren’t. Regardless of the actual reason, it’s important to take a step back and recognize that the child or young adult is struggling with SOMETHING, whether or not we can see it. Thinking in this way encourages educators to be solution-focused, which is what really matters anyway.

Here are some simple do’s and don’ts for kids who refuse to do work:

DON’T:

Don’t just punish. If a child or young adult is struggling with some social or emotional challenges at the moment, a punishment is only going to push them away further. Your punishment will appear as harsh, mean, and uncaring. I know that educators do not intend for punishments to feel that way, but for many students, they do, including those with trauma in their past. This isn’t to say you should “let the student get away” with any behavior. Instead, you can use logical consequences, which I explain below.
Don’t send the student out of the room. I can’t stress this enough! As an educator, I know this is sometimes a preferred option because it deals with the situation swiftly. It does not fix the problem, though. In fact, it will most likely make it worse in the long-term. The student might feel anger and resentment towards you. The message you are sending is that you can’t deal with the situation and you need to send the student out to another teacher or the principal. If a student is just sitting at their desk and refusing to work, it should not be a reason to send them out of class. Kids and young adults are getting much more education being in your room and hearing the discussions than being in the principal’s office.
Don’t get in a power struggle. No one ever wins in a power struggle! So much energy is wasted is wasted and even if the student eventually complies, it will be filled with resentment. Read up on more ways to avoid power struggles.

Don’t just assume the child is lazy. So many times, it is often actually easier for the child to comply and do their work and refuse. So, it’s clear that there is something else in play. Reframe your thinking to remember that the child is struggling and needs your support.
Don’t act out of frustration or anger. When you start to feel frustrated due to a child’s behavior, remember this phrase: “He’s not giving me a hard time, he’s having a hard time.” There is no shame in taking a deep breath and walking away from a situation. As adults, it’s important we are calm and collected so we can make the best choices in each situation. It’s okay to feel frustrated with a situation, just don’t act on that frustration.
Don’t use threats. You might be tempted to say things like, “If you don’t do your work, I’m going to call your parents,” or “Finish this or you can’t go to gym.” Sometimes, these threats can only make a student dig their heels in deeper and you might regret what you’ve said later on. Instead, be mindful about what you say and make sure your consequences fit the crime.
Don’t embarrass the student. Again, publicly calling the student out might result in a power struggle or escalating the situation. Instead, consider ways to privately support the student to help both of you get what you need.

Do:

Keep teaching. Just because a student doesn’t lift their pencil up, doesn’t mean they’re not listening and learning. Continue teaching, talking, and even involving that student if they want to participate. Remember that the ultimate goal is to educate the student, not force them to work. If they are in the classroom, keep teaching them!

Give wait time. When a student refuses work at first, sometimes all they need is a little wait time. It’s okay to let them have their head down or keep their arms crossed. Use planned ignoring and wait to see if they come around within 5 minutes or so.
Ignore the small behaviors. If the student crumples up the paper, breaks their pencil, or scribbles all over it, avoid the impulse to tell the student they shouldn’t do that or give any further instructions. When things like this happen, the student is either agitated or attention-seeking. One intervention that will help in this instance is just giving space.
Be reflective. Consider what you could be doing that might be triggering the student to refuse to work. For example, are you using a harsh tone? Did you embarrass the student by calling them out for something right before? Sometimes, there isn’t anything apparent, but it’s always worth considering first!
Focus on the relationship. For many kids, relationship is everything. Put the work aside for a bit. Spend time with your student during lunch, talk with them after class, and really just get to know them. Teach them about you as a person, too! Once a relationship is built, many times your students will have a much easier time working for you because they know you care. This isn’t a quick process, but it’s always important and worth it. Read up on more ways to build relationships with kids and young adults.

Consider learning challenges. Sometimes students refuse work due to social and emotional challenges, but other times it might be because they think the work is just too hard for them. Consider if the student needs interventions with reading, writing, or math. Sometimes learners might even need direction instruction with executive functioning skills to help them get started and work through challenges. If you are a regular educator, consider discussing the student with the special education teacher or interventionist to get some ideas and strategies.
Meet with the student privately. It’s important that this is seen as supportive and not punitive. Talk to the student, ask them what’s going on, and problem-solve about how you could help. You might say, “I noticed your morning work isn’t being finished, what is going on with that?” When meeting with a student who is struggling to complete work, the most important thing is to just listen! Try to avoid interjecting your own thoughts about what’s happening or giving your point of view. Let the student talk and sometimes you might be amazed at what you learn. Perhaps the student shares that they hate where they sit because someone keeps talking to them, or that they haven’t been getting any sleep at night due to a crying baby. Be open-minded, listen, and be prepared to problem-solve with the student to help them.

Use logical consequences (and consider them ahead of time). Logical consequences are outcomes from behavior that make sense. For example, if a student is refusing to finish their morning work, a logical consequence would be using some break time later in the day to finish at least 5 problems or sending it home as homework to be done later.
Discuss those consequences with the student. Consequences shouldn’t be a surprise to your student. Let them know ahead of time in a positive way. For example, you might say to the whole class, “Everyone needs to finish their work so we can finish watching the rest of the movie.”
Use de-escalation strategies to help calm the situation. In the moment, it can quickly become a power struggle when a student outwardly tells you they are not doing the work. It is critical to know how to de-escalate a situation. My favorite strategy has always been saying, “Let’s talk about this later.” It gives you the perfect way out of a heated situation with a student while letting other students around know you’re not ignoring the behavior, you’re just dealing with it later. Read up on more de-escalation strategies and use this free printable de-escalation strategy worksheet.

Give choices. For students who struggle with work completion, consider giving limited choices for assignments. Limiting the number to two is usually best so that it’s not overwhelming, but it still gives control and choice. You might say, “Would you rather write about this prompt in your journal or draw a scene from the text and write a sentence about it?”
Consider reducing work. Another one of my favorite ways to give choice is to allow the student to choose which 10 problems they will finish. Similarly, you might ask the student to complete only 1 of the 3 essay questions. Sometimes educators have argued that this is making it too easy on the student. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get the student back to completing all the work, without a doubt. However, when a student is outright refusing to do work, completing just one item over none is a success. We all have to start somewhere.
Provide accommodations. Giving accommodations doesn’t necessarily make an assignment easier, it just gives more options for how the student approaches the task. Allow a student struggling with reading to listen to audio books. If a student isn’t writing, allow them access to a laptop. Give out a calculator to a student who gets fatigued with math problems (provided the math skill isn’t calculations themselves). Give a word bank, provide multiple choices, let the student use manipulatives, and so on.
Think about trends. Is the work refusal only happening during math? Or maybe during partner work? Maybe it’s only in the morning or in the afternoon? Think about these trends and really delving into the data can help inform your judgements about what’s really going on.
Consider interventions for task initiation. Our skills for task initiation are like the motor that starts us up. When kids and young adults lack these skills to get started, it can be extremely frustrating for everyone involved. Sometimes, kids don’t actually know HOW to start a challenging task or assignment. It’s important to consider if these skills are lacking when a child or young adult isn’t completing work, because they can be taught. Read up more on this blog post focused on interventions for task initiation skills.
Create an incentive plan, if needed. Sometimes educators are opposed to incentives plans, and I agree they shouldn’t always be a first strategy. However, there is a time when they can a struggling student work towards their goals. You might develop a contract that outlines what the student is responsible for and what incentives the student will get by completing work. A contract sets the tone that you will stick to your word so you expect that the student makes an effort to do the same. Find out what the student would like to work for, remembering that each individual student is motivated by different things (I’ve had some students who want silent drawing time and others who want to help the custodian, for example). My favorite way to find this out is by using a reward inventory. You can visit here to see more about my reward inventories, behavior plans, and contracts.

Collaborate with families. It’s important to note that the first time you call the family shouldn’t be to mention that the student isn’t working. I’m a huge believer in always calling to share something positive first. With that said, it is important to share concerns about students who are struggling to work in class. Be mindful of how you communicate this with families, too. Rather than saying the child is “refusing to work,” share that they are “struggling with getting started even on assignments that are at their level.” Collaborate to discuss if anything is going on outside of home with the child and if there are any other strategies you as the educator can try. Often, parents are more than willing to talk with their child and sometimes (definitely not always) this even fixes the issue from the start.
Focus on your own self-care. This is definitely not stressed enough in the world of education. Working with students who are refusing to work can be emotionally draining. Take time to focus on yourself when you can. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Ways to Help Kids Boost Confidence

October 2, 2018 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

Helping kid and young adults build their own confidence can have significant and long-lasting effects. Confidence kids are better equipped to handle stress, more likely to take risks, feel more prideful in their work, and have increased determination to reach their goals. By helping kids build their self-esteem, we are giving kids the skills they need to achieve their own individual potentials.

Before reading, if you want a printable reminder of these 12 ways to help kids improve confidence, get the FREE confidence poster here. It is the perfect way to stay on top of giving kids and young adults what they need to be successful. As a bonus, it comes with a few other free social emotional learning posters you can hang on to as well!

Here are some simple ways to help kids build up their confidence levels:

Encourage a growth mindset. Kids and young adults need to see obstacles as challenges they can conquer with hard work and determination. They need to see failures as lessons that help them learn better for next time around. They need to believe that they can grow over time. This type of thinking, known as a growth mindset, is foundational to helping kids truly believe they can do anything they want if they work for it.

Encourage independence and risk-taking. Our classrooms really need to be a safe haven for all learners. Kids and young adults should feel comfortable in taking a risk and going outside of their comfort zone. Let kids complete tasks on their own, even if they don’t do them exactly how you envisioned. Sometimes this feels counter-intuitive but this will help give kids the confidence to see they are capable of things on their own.

Remind kids of their strengths. Take time to help kids actually identify their own unique strengths and abilities. Some kids really struggle with this activity. That’s when you know kids really need it! In those cases, I have asked kids to think about what a good friend would say about them. Have each student make a list of their strengths and keep it somewhere to help boost their confidence from time to time.

Give chances for every kid to shine. Take the extra time to recognize individual strengths with kids and put them to good use! If you have a student who is skilled with technology, use them to be your helper in setting up videos or computers. Ask a highly artistic student to help draw visuals for your bulletin board. If you know a learner who absolutely loves books, give them the role of being the class librarian and selecting new books for your collection. The list goes on and on! There are always ways to give all kids a chance to shine and feel good about themselves.

Give specific positive feedback. When a child or young adult is doing something well, let them know! It’s important to be extremely specific so he or she knows exactly what they are doing well. Dig deeper than “Nice job” and “You rock!”. Rather than saying, “Good job on your homework,” say, “I saw that you managed your time really well with your homework. Your started right away and worked completely on your own. Doesn’t that feel good to finish and do it well?” Yes, it’s a bit more work for the adult, but will help your learners see what they did well on specifically.

Teach positive self-talk. Our inner voice is so important when it comes to what we think about ourselves. If we think more positive thoughts, we can become those thoughts. Positive self-talk is increasingly more important today in our all-too-often negative digital world. Teach kids positive phrases and statements they can say to themselves to boost themselves up from time to time. Start with this free list of positive affirmations for kids to choose from.

Teach and discuss resilience. It’s so important to stress that we all experience challenges along the way. Teach and discuss resilience by talking about your own life experiences. Share what challenges you had to overcome to get to meet your goals. Use literature to highlight characters who show resilience by getting back up again when things don’t go their way. You can also highlight successful individuals who had to be resilient in order to meet success. Kids need to hear multiple times and in various ways that when you really want something, you should never give up.

Help kids set and meet individual goals. Spend time developing SMART goals with your learners on areas they really want to make improvements with. Some students might want to improve a grade in a class, while someone else might want to start attending an after school club to make more friends. Whatever the goal, it’s important for kids and young adults to see that if they set a goal and work hard, amazing things can happen.

Help kids celebrate their accomplishments. When kids meet a goal, it should be celebrated! Sometimes these goals are big like making the soccer team after working hard to try out, and other times they are smaller like bringing in homework every day for the week. If a student meets a specific goals they’ve been working on, let me know you notice and you care. It’s important for them to see that hard work pays off and that it’s worth it in the end!

Have kids reflect on growth. Kids and young adults need to see their progress over time. This could be charting grades, reviewing writing samples over several months, or noticing an improvement with behavior over a period of time. By looking at growth over time, kids and young adults can begin to be reflective and consider why they made the growth in the first place. This can help them to see that they are often in control of their own success. A few years ago, I implemented a weekly check-in with my learners. We would sit down and review their progress for the week and over time in general. The best part was that we could review whatever that individual student was working on.

Celebrate diversity and uniqueness. Every child and young adult should feel free to be themselves. In order to achieve this, we need to encourage acceptance and inclusion of others. Use this free tolerance and acceptance pledge to begin discussions with your learners about accepting and understanding those who are different than themselves.

Encourage kids to follow their passions. Spend time to help kids find what they’re interested in, whether it is dirt bikes, animals, painting, building, writing novels, music, or anything in between. Use that topic in your instruction, discuss it with them during morning meeting, or let them complete an independent project showing off their knowledge on the topic.

If you want resources ready to go, I have developed a self-esteem and confidence building activity set! The worksheets focus on building self-esteem while helping kids recognize their own individual talents. They include everything from writing activities and discussion starters to journals and hands-on materials. How do you help your learners build confidence? Let me know!

Practicing Executive Functioning Skills with Play Activities

September 16, 2018 by pathway2success 2 Comments

Executive functioning skills are important for learners at all ages. Sometimes people hear the term and assume it’s only for older kids, but I’m here to dispel that myth! Even our youngest of learners should learn and practice stills for paying attention, using self-control, getting organized, using flexible thinking, and more. Simply put, improved executive functioning skills helps our students become better learners across the board. When kids can focus for longer in class, they can absorb more of the lesson. When they improve their ability to use self-control, they can make better choices with friends. When kids can get organized more efficiently, they can make better use of their time. Those are really just a few examples.

Why Use Play Activities? While I am a huge fun of structured lessons to teach these skills, I’m also always looking for new, fun, and more interactive ways to help learners, too. Not too long ago, I wrote another post about games to teach executive functioning skills. Of course, not everyone has access or time to play Blurt or Pictionary at a moment’s notice. For that reason, I created a set of Executive Functioning Games & Play Activities. Just print the cards, put them on a ring, and play any time you have a few extra minutes. I’ve even included a script to read to your learners, in an effort to make it entirely no-prep! Best of all, kids will LOVE playing these games and activities while they learn the critical skills they need.

When Can Play Activities Be Used? Really, anytime that works for you is a great time to practice these skills! Use them as a brain break between academic work or transitions to help kids move and interact with one another. Play them during break time. You can even start your morning or finish your day with a fun play activity. Since they are fun, kids will see them more as a game and less as “work”.

Here are some executive functioning skills you can teach and practice with play activities:

Freeze. This is a fun brain break activity you can do anytime to practice self-control. Play music and let students move around, dance, and wiggle their bodies. After a minute or two, yell out, “Freeze!” At this time, all students should freeze in place, even with the music still playing! This can be a challenge at first. The goal is to work on self-control enough so we can keep our bodies still when we need to. After a few seconds, yell out, “Melt!” and allow students to move again. You can play this for as long as you’d like!

Musical Chairs. Kids can practice their skills for task initiation and attention while playing musical chairs. Set up just enough chairs in a row so that there is one or two fewer than the number of students you have. Play music and let students walk around the chairs. As soon as you shut off the music, students will have to work quickly to find an empty chair. Those who don’t move quickly enough will be out!

Guard Duty. This is one of my favorite play activities because kids love acting like guards, not realizing they are actually improving their hallway behavior and learning skills for self-control. Let students know they will be acting as guards outside a palace. They have to show they are serious by standing tall and marching in line. You can also let students know that guards never react if someone tries to make them laugh or get their attention when they are on duty. You can practice by having one leader march around the room, with the rest of the students following. This is also a great game you can play while transitioning from class to class.

Simon Says. Most students already know this game, so that makes the directions pretty simple! It’s important to highlight that students will be using their attention skills to really listen what the leader says so they can do the right thing. Give different students chances to be the leader. This is a perfect brain break that can last 2 minutes or 20 minutes, depending on how long you have and what you want your students to do.

Role Play. In this game, kids will practice their skills for flexibility by acting out a scenario with a partner. You really can use any scenario you want: working at a bakery, going to a baseball game, being a teacher and a student, and so on. You can choose the role plays or let students pick. The only rules are that students must stay in character and continue to role play for the time. That means students are practicing being flexible and making up a scenario as they go along. Kids love this one because they really get a chance to use their imagination and have fun!

Keep the Story Going. This is such a fun game to practicing flexibility and attention! Start off a story any way you want with just one sentence. You might say, “It was a cold dark night,” or “The rocket was ready to blast off.” Really, it can be anything. Keep the story going by passing it off to another player. Each time, one person must add just one sentence to the story to keep it going. Kids practice attention by focusing on listening to the story as it goes, and they practice flexibility skills by going with the flow and making sure the story makes sense. Kids love making silly and fun stories with this game!

If you love these activities, check out my Executive Functioning Games & Play Activities to help you target these skills in such a fun way! They include over 30 unique and interactive games and play activities that your students will want to play again and again.

5 Daily Struggles for Kids with Executive Functioning Challenges

September 4, 2018 by pathway2success 3 Comments

A number of kids struggle with executive functioning skills on a daily basis. Sometimes these struggles are obvious, like having a messy binder or forgetting to turn homework in, but other times they are more hidden. This is a critical topic because all educators have these kids in our classrooms every single day. Here are five daily struggles for kids with executive functioning challenges and what you can do to help:

STAYING ORGANIZED. To me, this is one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen after teaching middle school especially. In school, kids are expected to juggle and organize so many different papers, binders, journals, and books. So often, students don’t know the right place to put materials or organize in the first place. Other times, even when students do understand how to organize, there is often just not enough time. The bell rings and it’s time to transition to the next class, so what does the student do? Shove all their papers into the closest folder and heads out right away. Finally, for many kids, disorganization has been the only way they’ve ever known! Some of these kids don’t realize how much easier and orderly life would be if they just learned a few extra skills and tricks.

What you can do:

Explicitly teach organization. Always spend time teaching organization. No matter the age, your learners are going to need to learn your system of organization. That takes time and practice! I developed an Organization Boot Camp specifically for kids and young adults who struggle and need a more in-depth set of activities to teach these skills.
Set up a homework binder. Helping kids set up a specific spot for homework only can make a huge difference for organization. This should be the dedicated spot where all current homework goes. It helps kids differentiate what work needs to be done tonight and what work needs to be filed away in another spot. You can use this free homework binder template to start your students off.
Give time to organize. I would say this is one of the easiest things you can do that is often forgotten about! When you ask students to change from one binder to another, give your struggling organizers sufficient time to do it. Moving on too fast only reinforces kids who shove papers away in a messy manner. These kids are going to take more time putting materials away in the right spot, and they deserve that time to do it.
Use visuals. Take a picture of a model desk to show how it should be organized. Tape the photo on the wall or on a certain student’s desk to help remind them.

TRANSITIONS. Many kids with EF challenges struggle when it’s time to stop something and move on to something else. This task switching really takes a lot of brain power! You have to have self-control to stop what you are already engaged in, use organizational skills to put things away in their correct places, initiate the switch, and be mentally flexible to move on to something new. This can be especially difficult when adults are expecting a learner to transition to a new task or class within just a few minutes. While many students have have routines and strategies to help them during transition times, there is a large portion of kids who just never put those puzzle pieces together. This can often leave them even more disorganized, confused, and behind schedule.

What you can do:

Create routines. Practice your transitions several times with students so they become second nature. Kids who are inflexible and struggle with changing from one activity to another will do considerably better when the transition is practiced and more comfortable.
Give countdowns. Let students know how much time they have left to work on their research papers or during break time. This at least gives a concrete warning. For kids who struggle with time management, setting a backwards timer can be helpful, too.
Use a chime. Using a calming sound like a chime when it’s time for transitions can help prime kids and young adults for the change. It will gain their attention and help serve as a memorable indicator that it’s time to change what we’re doing.
Use visuals. Make a list of steps for transitions that are particularly difficult and keep them posted. This will serve as a visual reminder when it is time to move from one activity to another or switch classes.
Use social scripts. Previewing the steps of a transition can be extremely helpful for kids. A social script is a short narrative a child or young adult can read to themselves prior to the transition to remind them of the expectations and plan. You can create your own or use these social scripts to help kids who need this extra support.

HOMEWORK. The whole idea of homework is that it should be extended practice kids and young adults can do independently. When a learner has a difficulty with executive functioning skills, that is often not the case at first. So often, kids with EF challenges don’t ever stop to write the homework down in class in the first place, or stop to make sure they have all their materials before they head home. This is the first thing that sets them back. Further, starting homework independently takes a good amount of task initiation skills mixed with self-control. For kids with already-weak inhibition skills, playing videogames, chatting with friends, or playing outside seems a lot more enticing than opening up a math book. Finally, when learners do finally start the homework, it can be challenging and, let’s be honest, boring. Sticking with it, or perseverance, is a skill that many students don’t always have on their own. If they come to a task that’s perceived as challenging, it’s often easier to abort the mission than to seek out solutions and work though.

What you can do:

Be consistent. Keep homework written in the exact same spot in your classroom every day. Teach students that this is the one homework spot and keep it consistent throughout the year. This makes a huge difference for kids who struggle with EF skills, since it can become a lot of mental energy and work to figure out where the homework is before even starting the process of writing it down.
Give prompts. Take time to prompt students to write homework down, especially the ones you know struggle to do it. Instead of just telling them to write it down, encourage them to think on their own by saying, “What should you be doing down right now?” or “Look around and notice what others are writing down.”
Make an end of the day checklist. Help kids come up with a list detailing what they need when they walk out the door. This can help students review their homework planners, make sure they know what assignments to work on, and bring home the necessary materials. Use this free end of the day checklist to get started.
Talk to families. Help set up more positive supports at home for kids who struggle with getting their work done. Talk to families about a dedicated workspace for homework and strategies for when the child gets stuck on assignments.

FOCUSING IN CLASS. Attention is a fascinating skill. It’s not something we just keep on permanently. Instead, it’s a skill we learn to focus and re-adjust constantly when we find ourselves starting to zone out. Kids with weak executive functioning often don’t know this secret, though. In a class, these are the students who are frequently looking out the window, playing with something in their desk, or just daydreaming to themselves. It’s not that they mean to not pay attention. It’s often that they don’t know how and when to refocus themselves in the right way. This becomes especially challenging in long classes with lots of lecture and talking. Of course, a child or young adult can also become extremely frustrated when they can’t focus, as it causes them to feel confused and not know what is going on. Sometimes, this can unfortunately snowball into a child who gives up easily and doesn’t try. Again, it’s not that they want to be unfocused, but they are severely lacking the skills to get there.

What you can do:

Incorporate movement. Learning doesn’t have to be stationary! Kids learn better when they are moving. Have students working while standing up at the board during math time, or moving from center to center when completing writing prompt questions. If you have a specific student who needs even more movement, give them specific jobs to deliver messages to another teacher or the office just to get their legs moving throughout the day.
Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is a great strategy to help kids improve their focus while also learning skills for managing emotions and feeling calm. You can use mindfulness activities just before a test, after a transition, or any other time to calm kids feel more focused and in control. Note that mindfulness is a long-term practice and not a quick fix, but can really help kids over time!
Give time for brain breaks. Brain breaks are another great option to get kids moving. They are quick activities that help break up the learning and let the brain recharge for a short period of time. You can do anything from having kids do 10 jumping jacks to practicing a few yoga postures. These activities can be done anytime between transitions to help keep kids alert. I love these executive functioning games and play activities, mainly because they provide a fun brain break while still working on the skills kids need!
Teach attention skills. Explicitly teach what it means to focus in class, what behaviors students can engage in to help them stay focused, and how to refocus when attention wanes.

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS. Sometimes when we think of executive functioning, we only think of academics. That’s actually not always the case! Kids and young adults who struggle with EF skills also can experience big challenges when it comes to social skills and dealing with others. Lots of social situations require us to understand social rules, use self-control, plan our responses, have flexibility when things don’t go our way, and use coping skills to manage our emotions when we are upset. For kids who lack these skills, social interactions can be especially difficult.

What you can do:

Openly express social expectations. If you are having group work, make sure you go over what it means to be a good partners ahead of time. I love using visuals for this because they are something you can keep up to remind students, as needed. Just a simple list for what you do when you are playing games with others or a visual to show group work expectations can go a long way.
Explicitly teach social skills. All kids can benefit from social skill instruction, though some need it more explicitly than others. You can use social skills lessons for younger students or social skills lessons for older kids to teach the skills they need. These lessons and activities can be taught in morning meeting, during a lunch group, or advisory periods.
Use social scripts. Some students really benefit from previewing social expectations right before a situation occurs. You can have social scripts for before recess, lunch, group work, and other social times to help remind students what will happen and what they can do. You can develop your own or use these pre-made social scripts to help support students’ needs.
Give opportunities for positive social interactions. Kids need practice in applying social skills! You can always integrate your content into games and group activities to give students this time with their peers. I also love these games and play activities for executive functioning skills as a way to specifically target the EF skills these kids need.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING RESOURCES & IDEAS. If you are seeking more information about executive functioning skills and how you can support your learners, consider the following blog posts and resources:

Blog Posts:

Resources to Teach EF Skills:

Unique Ways to Teach Coping Strategies

August 2, 2018 by pathway2success 2 Comments

Coping strategies are important skills for kids and young adults to learn. These are the activities and strategies we use to help us calm down when we’re emotionally overwhelmed. We can probably all think of a few kids and young adults who need extra practice managing their emotions effectively! That’s where coping strategies come into play. It just makes sense: kids need to learn HOW they can help themselves calm down and feel better before they can actually do it.

It’s extremely important to note that kids can’t learn new strategies when they are already upset. When we are emotionally overwhelmed, we don’t think straight. That’s why it’s critical to teach and practice coping strategies when kids are calm. You can incorporate these skills as a lesson, small group activities, during a morning meeting, or just woven into your daily instruction.

If you work with learners who need extra help with self-regulation, this list might give you a few extra ideas for teaching and practicing coping skills so that kids can use them effectively when they really need them:

Use task boxes. In short, task boxes are just boxes or crates with tasks for kids to do. All the materials and directions are placed inside the box so it’s easy for kids to just open it up and practice. These coping strategies task boxes focus on learning coping strategies in a fun and interactive way. Each specific task is different. In some, kids will match coping strategies while others have students choose a coping strategy for a specific situation. My favorite tasks even have students actually practicing skills like deep breathing, positive self-talk, and more.

Play a board game. Games are always a fun way for kids to practice skills. In this coping strategies board game, kids will roll a dice and move through a game board as they answer questions about coping strategies. Some of the cards have students practicing strategies, while others allow kids to decide which strategies would be best in different situations. Best of all, you can use this as a “break” activity or end of the week reward since it is a game! Kids will have fun learning coping strategies without considering it work at all.

Use read-alouds. There are many great books that you can use to target and discuss coping strategies. One of my recent favorites is Super George and the Invisible Shield by Laurie Mendoza. This book highlights how one boy uses strategies to help him manage his emotions and stay calm.

Make a wheel. Sometimes hands-on activities can go a long way in teaching skills like coping strategies. A coping strategies wheel is a tool that kids create to practice, discuss, and remember coping strategies. My favorite part of this activity is that kids make their own individualized wheels that strategies that work for them. Note that even after kids make theirs, they can use them again and again to remind them about their strategies.

Complete the 30-day challenge. If you’re looking for a fun and free way to try out a bunch of new coping strategies, this coping strategies challenge is it! Students use their own calendar and try out a new coping strategy every day for 30 days. They can choose their own or you can direct them as to which strategies to try. It’s a great low-prep way to introduce many strategies. Some educators have even told me they have sent this activity home with kids over the summer!

Use an escape room. An escape room activity is a set of puzzles that kids complete to “escape” the room and win the challenge in a certain amount of time. In this coping strategies escape room, kids learn about deep breathing, coloring, yoga, listening to music, and more. The best thing about escape rooms is that kids have to work together throughout the activity. They are a little bit of work to set up, but always extremely engaging for the kids!

Use flip cards. Put together a set of coping strategies cards and put them on a ring for students to flip through and practice. Again, this is an activity that can be used over and over again when students really need to use their strategies.

If you are finding yourself needing resources and ideas for teaching coping strategies, I have put together a huge bundle of Mindfulness and Coping Strategies to target the skills needs need. It includes crafts, interactive activities, lessons, and more, all focused on helping kids and young adults manage their emotions. Mindfulness and coping strategies work especially well together to calm emotions, increase self-control, and create a peaceful community of learners. Give coping strategies a try for your learners!

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