Why the ability to resist distraction, a skill scientists call "executive function," may be more important to academic success than traditional measures of intelligence.
Comment: According to the article executive function is an emerging concept in student assessment. I have been a Psychologist for 15 years and have been assessing children and children with ADHD since then. I have always explained to parents that the main problem in ADHD is the child's lack of executive functioning. I have also attended conferences on ADHD in South Africa early in the 90's were this was discussed. So what's new?
Comment: What is EH?
Comment: EH is a descriptive category or paradigm which gives us a way to look at a set of behaviors that are not
'typical' and how they may or may not impair an individual's ability to function successfully at school, work and in their lives in general. Different people define EH in different ways. As a psychologist and an educator, my task is to look at the series of 'symptoms' which have put under that label and to address them. The category called EH has increased my ability to design treatments for individuals based on how these different issues may appear as a group in an individual, how they can be related and how they present themselves across diffferent disorders.
For children with autism this paradigm can be very helpful because these children frequently show a cluster of EH traits. Unfortunately, many parents of children with autism approach school districts with legal threats which demand access to more educational services than most other children, typical or not, will ever have a chance to experience. Special supports and teaching are provided to students whose disability limits their ability to have an equal access to education. Some parents demands go beyond this and essentially they are asking us to 'cure' their children. The cost of these services and of the lawsuits, if we say that we don't feel a specific service is an appropriate use of school funds, is huge and growing.
Parents are beginning to ask the schools to 'cure' their children's executive functioning deficits. We have always addressed the issues which are now called EH. Programs are in place and continue to be studied and refined to teach children skills in areas defined as part of EH such as impulse control and attention deficits.
The difficulty is that we can't possibly 'cure' EH as a disorder because it isn't a specific thing that can be accurately measured. Testing for EH can give us a flavor of the mix of individual disabilities and how they may be impacting a student, so that we can more accurately treat children in these specific areas. Using EH as a specific disability which the schools must treat creates new fodder for the lawsuits demanding the excess services which are draining our educational systems.
I must add as a caveat that I am not demeaning the struggles of children with autism or their parents efforts to provide their child with a meaningful education and the best possible life scenario they can achieve, which is often very good indeed. I have led support groups for parents of children with autism, providing an environment where they can share their worries and frustrations, but also where I can support them in their efforts for their children through any information and insight that I have to offer, and most of all the expertise and support that they can give each other.
Comment: EH is a descriptive category or paradigm which gives us a way to look at a set of behaviors that are not
'typical' and how they may or may not impair an individual's ability to function successfully at school, work and in their lives in general. Different people define EH in different ways. As a psychologist and an educator, my task is to look at the series of 'symptoms' which have put under that label and to address them. The category called EH has increased my ability to design treatments for individuals based on how these different issues may appear as a group in an individual, how they can be related and how they present themselves across diffferent disorders.
For children with autism this paradigm can be very helpful because these children frequently show a cluster of EH traits. Unfortunately, many parents of children with autism approach school districts with legal threats which demand access to more educational services than most other children, typical or not, will ever have a chance to experience. Special supports and teaching are provided to students whose disability limits their ability to have an equal access to education. Some parents demands go beyond this and essentially they are asking us to 'cure' their children. The cost of these services and of the lawsuits, if we say that we don't feel a specific service is an appropriate use of school funds, is huge and growing.
Parents are beginning to ask the schools to 'cure' their children's executive functioning deficits. We have always addressed the issues which are now called EH. Programs are in place and continue to be studied and refined to teach children skills in areas defined as part of EH such as impulse control and attention deficits.
The difficulty is that we can't possibly 'cure' EH as a disorder because it isn't a specific thing that can be accurately measured. Testing for EH can give us a flavor of the mix of individual disabilities and how they may be impacting a student, so that we can more accurately treat children in these specific areas. Using EH as a specific disability which the schools must treat creates new fodder for the lawsuits demanding the excess services which are draining our educational systems.
I must add as a caveat that I am not demeaning the struggles of children with autism or their parents efforts to provide their child with a meaningful education and the best possible life scenario they can achieve, which is often very good indeed. I have led support groups for parents of children with autism, providing an environment where they can share their worries and frustrations, but also where I can support them in their efforts for their children through any information and insight that I have to offer, and most of all the expertise and support that they can give each other.
Comment: I was presenting a class on prayer yesterday and was amazed to learn of the extreme number of people in the class who couldn't even sit through a sermon at Church and listen to it without being distracted in a major way--some of them were employees of highly-intellectually skilled jobs. They reported also difficulty in incorporating prayer into their life (where there is discipline needed to "empty one's mind of distractions). At the time I blamed it on TV and other media-oriented use--having a graduate level education in psychology. This artlcle alerts me to more problems of which I should be aware. Having been gifted with time for this imaginative play when a child--as well as the discipline of classical music as a very young child I realize the tremendous gifts I had--and will seek to offer these as encouragement to parents I come in contact for their children's edification. Thank you verfy much.
Comment: Ok lets see.....dramatic play, talking oneself aloud through a process....seems like typical age 3-10 childhood behavior.... are we interupting or inhibitin the child's natural growth and development patterns by expecting them to learn and do traditional academics in preschool and kindergarten????....Maybe more uninterrupted free play is what "children" really need>>>. albeit with adults to babysit while young children play.
Comment: right. because academic success leads to success in life
instead of changing the way we teach students, we are trying to figure out how to shove different shapes of students into one type of hole. great way of blaming and punishing students for our incompetence
by the way, those "ADD" (a pejorative label for Jung's Extroverted Intuition) students are actually more intelligent than most. they quickly grasp ideas and seek out novelty -- two things that in combination make them get bored of things very, very fast. but those same things make them very intelligent and intensely creative. you can imagine how boring school must be to a hyper-intelligent creative person. in the real world they are some of the most successful people you can find
Comment: This is an interesting study....I am fascinated by the initial results. Hopefully, this trend will become common and may assist in helping soci-economically challenged children to learn easier and more comprehensively.
Comment: Interesting. I found myself thinking of children who are so engrossed in the computer or electronic game that it is difficult to get their attention. Are these children more developed in executive function-able to shut out distractions? Or are they mesmerized?
Georgina Cowie
Comment: My husband was the child you described at the biginning of the article, in fact his mother had to flee Arkansas because she refused to put him on medication. Today he is a highly successful entrepreneur, inventor, SBC National Business Person of the year and his company has hit the INC 500 fives years in a row. He is the smartest person I have ever met and yes just like Einstien and Edison he did badly in school.
Comment: I'm reminded of the "Communication class" that I once took at the Church of Scientology. I hate to advocate anything positive about a cult such as this but they really do have something to offer on this subject. In a nutshell: People are mentally crippled by an inability to remain focused on their own train of thought due to their perception of what is going on around them. They especially have an inability to remain focused in the face of input from others. Scientology has a quick fix for this. It involves facing another person and remaining straight faced while the other person does whatever they can to distract the student. The unusual training from this class produced dramatic changes in peoples ability to focus their thoughts. I was quite impressed by the fast and positive results although I'm no fan of Scientology. Those who completed the class were clearly changed and more focused.
Comment: I have 2 college-age kids, both with significant (unmedicated) ADD. This is information that I wish I'd had when they were young - perhaps I could have made their school lives more productive and less frustrating. Is there any research pertaining to adults, or techniques to use with adults to increase EF?
Comment: We've known for years that training the brain with neurofeedback (eeg biofeedback) can significantly improve executive functioning and reduce impulsivity. Congratulations to the researchers who are finding effective methods of implementing EF training within the classroom!
Comment: I think this applies to adults as well. A lot of us multi-task at work. Typically my computer has 10 windows open, 3 of them task related, few unrelated windows, and couple of windows that has news and other artcles. I find that if I close everything and just focus on one task, I am more efficient. However, I have found myself unable to to 1 task for more than 5 min.
Comment: This is just confirmation that children some children learn differently. If we continue to teach the children the same way then we continue to get the same results. This experiment is interesting. Can you bring the experiment to Petersburg, VA? The student's here (or should I say the school system) are having a difficult time becoming accredited because of SOL scores. I have alway felt that intervention/change needs to start at the earliest age as possible. I hope you continue with your theory and it continues to provide the constant verification need. This could be the biggest step in education yet.
Comment: Interesting; very interesting. I have a grandchild that has many of the issues discussed. Recently, I asked her mother if she had ADD; until recently that was one of the most poplar diagnosises. She struggles in school, but when she focuses she does do better. This is an interesting theory. Please continue and hopefully it will remove many of our children off of medications.
Comment: yes
Comment: INTERESTING, BUT LONGER TERM STUDIES WILL BE NEEDED TO SEE IF THE EFFECT IS PERMANENT OR JUST TEMPORARY. IF PERMANENT, THEN A VALUABLE NEW TEACHING TECHNIQUE MAY HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED. BUT, IF PERMANENT, THE HIGH IQ STUDENTS WILL STILL STAND OUT - JUST AT A HIGHER LEARNING LEVEL.
Comment: Strikes me as probably the most important article I've read on the breakthrough in innovative educational teaching methods that can transform the lower half of our public/private school students into successful students.
The key in making our society into the one we all want, is educational breakthroughs in literacy and problem-solving skills. Finding breakthroughs that will give ALL students top literacy skills -- reading, writing and speaking English well by the 6th grade -- that will support their feelings of success and the ability to
compete and express their most important feelings -- from the first day they enter kindergarten.
That is the key. A nation of individuals who feel strongly they are important and KNOW they can succeed with all the other students around them, because they have the same basic skills to express themselves and be
acknowledged at an early age. Wray Herbert has shown one great new example of the educational breakthroughs that will change our society, in a very healing, positive way, one child at a time. Congratulations to Mr. Herbert and to Newsweek for putting this kind of story front and center.
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