Boosting Executive Functioning Skills During the Summer
Two siblings exercising their executive functioning skills together as they figure out how to play a new game.
As the school year winds down and summer begins, students often find themselves with more free time and fewer structured activities, which is great! This break from routine provides a unique opportunity to focus on developing crucial executive functioning skills, such as organization, time management, and problem-solving. These skills are essential for success in school and life, and the relaxed pace of summer can be an ideal time to practice them in fun and practical ways. Whether it's planning a family outing, managing daily responsibilities, or navigating new challenges, the summer months offer a little more freedom and time grow these skills in a more relaxed way.
Future Thinking, Pre-Planning, & Organizational Skills
Summer Planning: Create a summer schedule or calendar, balancing leisure activities with responsibilities. It doesn’t have to be rigid or fully booked moment to moment, just a structure and ideas to help build future thinking skills.
Packing for Outings: Get your kids involved in planning and packing for family trips or day outings to build organizational and planning skills.
Managing Screen Time: Setting up a system for managing leisure activities and responsibilities, such as using a timer or schedule for screen time and chores.
Event Planning: Allowing your kids to plan and organize a small event, like a family barbecue or a get-together with friends, to practice time management, future thinking, preplanning, and organization. This also fosters intrinsic motivation for tasks that might normally be non-preferred.
DIY Projects: Choosing a summer project, like redecorating a room or starting a new hobby, and guiding your kids and teens through planning, gathering materials, and following through to completion.
Self-Monitoring and Emotional Regulation
Mindfulness Activities: Introducing daily mindfulness practices like meditation, journaling, or yoga to help with self-awareness and emotional regulation.
Reflective Discussions: Encouraging open discussions about feelings and experiences, especially during new or challenging situations, to build self-monitoring and reflection skills.
Flexible Thinking and Problem-Solving
Puzzle and Strategy Games: Playing board games or card games that require strategic thinking and problem-solving. Learning a new game requires working memory, sequencing, and mental flexibility.
Cooking Challenges: Trying out new recipes or cooking challenges where kids must follow directions and adapt plans.
Tips for Parents
Modeling and Encouragement: Model your use of these skills in front of your children. When making plans, remembering things you have to do, or learning something new talk about what you're doing and what you’re thinking about as you do it. You’re kids will start to do it too! If you notice them doing it, notice it out loud too! “Oh, I see how you’re thinking about that before you do it! I bet that will work well!”
Creating a Supportive Environment: Provide models first, then fade out the models when you notice your kids picking up on it. Next, provide little reminders here and there or gentle guidance, then fade that too! Remember the goal is for them to build these skills to be able to use them independently! Give them the support and then fade it out gradually.
If you feel your child isn’t demonstrating age-appropriate executive functioning skills or you have other concerns related to this topic, don’t stress. You can give us a call for a free consultation anytime.
Speech-language pathologists, like the ones on our team, are trained professionals who work in a unique way to target these skills. We work hard to make therapy sessions fun for the student and productive for acquiring or improving these important skills.
