Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional how to strengthen executive functioning?

Does anyone have any suggestions for strengthening executive functioning skills in a five year old who is identified as sensory seeking and gifted, and struggles with impulse control, emotional regulation, staying on task with "boring" work, being distractable, etc. Thanks in advance.

Maybe this is maybe normal 5 year old behavior. I think so many little kids act that way. The schools today demand so much from an early age of sitting still, that is beyond many little kids.
Our (excellent) public school only offers two, 20 minute gym classes a week! No wonder everyone wiggles.
I think sports can be a great away to improve focus and impulse control. Both of my kids swim on an elite swim team 45 minutes for the 6 year old and one hour for the 9 year old, 4-5 days a week. There are lots of ways to do sports- karate, soccer, whatever.

When my DS7 (ADHD, on meds now, was not in K or 1st) was in K, the teacher was AMAZING with helping him. Whenever he was finished with his work she would immediately have something else for him to do. Sometimes it was taking things to the office or another teacher, sometimes it was helping organize books on the shelf, sometimes it was just another (more fun) worksheet.

As for 'boring' work, that would worry me. In K the teacher should be making just about everything as fun as possible. Even though Ethan didn't learn hardly anything in K, he still enjoyed it, because the teachers made everything interesting and fun.

I have a sensory seeking dd who, at 5, (and still sometimes today) has difficulty sitting still and staying on task, being distractible etc. A few easy things to try that might help - that worked for our dd:

1) Have her sit on a sensory cushion - I don't know the technical name, but they look like flat slight-inflated balls. Our OT has a bunch of them at our school, and we purchased one online for our dd (several years ago). I saw a mom buying one at our local toy store a few weeks ago, so I think they must be much easier to find now. DD is almost 10 and still sits on her cushion when she's feeling fidgety (we don't ask her to anymore, she likes to use it).

2) If it's a girl, have her wear a leotard under her clothes - our OT suggested this and it helped with fidgets and posture, even though it's not all that "rigid", something about the contact with her skin made her aware of her body positioning.

3) Swing. We used to send our dd out in the backyard to swing for 20 minutes whenever she was not able to sit still and it really helped.

4) Push heavy things - like a wheelbarrow loaded with something heavy. Our dd used to love to put the other kids at preschool in the school's cart and push them around the playground. The teachers all thought it was crazy and cool, her OT thought it made a lot of sense, she craved the heaviness of it for sensory reasons.

Another thing to think about - vision check. Our dd had severe double vision and we had no clue! Once she'd been through vision therapy we saw a marked lessening in the fidgety behaviors and in her getting up and just wandering around. When she was younger she also went through listening therapy, which helped her focus on staying in her seat and working on school-type work.

DD is, however, even at 10, still a high energy child who is easily distracted by other children in the classroom and who has to work at sitting still. She's been evaluated for ADHD and is *not* ADHD - she's just a fidgety kid by nature.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - I think we often, as parents of gifted kids, make the assumption that when our kids have difficulty staying on task with work that we think they are very capable of doing that it's "boredom" - and many times that's true. OTOH, there were times in early elementary that we thought that for both my EG older ds and my dd mentioned above who is MG - and in hindsight we realized they weren't bored, they were struggling in some way with the work (EG was later diagnosed with severe DCD and dysgraphia, dd had vision challenges that impacted her reading and now also appears to have some type of math visualization challenge).

In addition to what polarbear said, the books "Late, Lost, And Unprepared" and "Smart, But Scattered" might help you identify exactly which executive functioning skills need work, and they have strategies and suggestions for helping kids and parents develop plans to help build those skills.

This sounds similar to our story. My DD6 just got a report card with all great marks but we get notes home every day saying she is off task and plays pretend while refusing to do any work she doesn't find engaging.

Often she seems dreamy or lost in her play and just doesn't care about doing school work.

We have been using Smart, But Scattered and it has helped her develop a routine for getting dressed on time. But we haven't found a 'stick' or 'carrot' to get her to focus in class.

She reads at least at 4th grade level. She can do any math skill on the computer. She writes and illustrates amazing stories. But she just WON'T complete a worksheet no matter what!

We don't know what to try next.

Art Guy,

Will your DD complete worksheets that are actually at her level? If you gave her a fourth grade worksheet, would she be able (and willing) to do it?

If she can and will do the more interesting work, she might have ADD, which can make it very difficult to impossible to pay attention to work that does not "capture" and stimulate her attention, or she could just be bored to tears and even insulted that she is being asked to prove that she knows such babyish material in her class.

If she can't do worksheets that are interesting and at her level, there may be something else going on in addition.

Work and instruction at the intellectual challenge level is actually an accommodation for ADHD, and, oddly enough, is also the appropriate intervention for a gifted child who is demonstrating educational disengagement due to underchallenge.

HTH

We (and a variety of people that have worked with her) have looked into ADD. She shows hyperfocus when making art, playing pretend, and just about any creative task. She shows no aggressive tendencies or emotional outbursts. Sometimes she just tunes out. It gets worse after lunch. I am researching this now. Maybe a stimulant at lunch?

Sorry to hijack your thread TwinkleToes.

Wow, you all are describing my DD to a "T". She's in 3rd now, and we're still trying to get an accurate diagnosis, but she has had school issues starting the very first day of Kindergarten. Basically, the same things you described - impulse issues, complaining of boredom and not wanting to do the boring stuff, fidgety.
Her Kindergarten teacher was great and really worked to find things that helped DD get through the day. The thing that worked the best for mine was the teacher drawing her a little picture on an index card that said something like "Great Job!", etc. If she had a bad behavior day, she didn't get the card and that really upset her and motivated her to do better. Maybe there's some small daily reward you can work out with her teacher?
I would suggest, also, looking into getting her fully evaluated now. We've been waiting for almost 9 months to see the only Developmental Pediatrician in our city. For us, the issues have gotten exponentially worse every year and I wish I had started this process a lot earlier now that I'm seeing just how long it can take.

Just an update, we have a big doctor's visit tomorrow to go over all the data we have had collected on our daughter.

We also have a full examination scheduled at University of Iowa for this summer if we don't get our answers by then.

Good news: DD6 just got great marks on her grade card. She tests 3rd level on BRI. She is improving her executive skills one day at a time.

The big concerns are still getting her to do rote work like worksheets. She'd rather play pretend.

Martial arts, specifically tae kwan do, and yoga have both been connected to improved EF.