Eight Tips for Improving Executive Function Through Planning
Planning is the first step in my 4-step therapy framework for improving executive functioning. (To learn more about my full framework, join my online learning community or join my email list so you get the announcement when my executive functioning therapy book comes out.)
Planning as a therapy method is working together with the child to create a plan for the activities we’re doing in therapy or the activities the child will encounter outside of the classroom.
The skill of planning is the ability to create a plan that works for you.
In therapy, a planning activity is not completely independent. A lot of times, the therapist is the one coming up with the plan, or asking the child the right questions to guide them through developing a plan.
Making a plan is fairly simple. A plan is a step-by-step outline of the activities and actions that prompt a child to execute a task. A plan could be as simple as this one for answering a question in class:
Have my thoughts on teacher's question
Think of the answer in my mind
Raise my hand to say the answer
Wait for teacher to call on me to say answer
Once we have a plan in place and the child has practiced it a few times, I can refer to it at any time.
The best part of it is, creating a plan helps the child self-regulate their own behavior. They were an active participant in creating the plan, and it is primarily up to them to follow it. My job as the therapist is simply to remind them of the plan with reflexive questions:
Is this a good time to follow your plan for (x, y, or z activity)?
Is what you’re doing part of the plan?
What’s next in the plan?
Did our plan work for this situation? Should we make any changes to it?
Want to learn more? Join my educational community to learn my therapy framework and participate in my weekly Office Hour, where I answer questions and discuss executive functioning with SLPs and allied professionals from around the world.
Tip #1: Address problems that already exist
When you’re creating a plan for a child to follow, the goal is to improve executive functions. But the best way to accomplish this requires working on actual situations. This isn’t a theoretical activity.
These can be problems the client is running into in the therapy environment, in the classroom, or at home. It’s best to pick a situation the child encounters while you’re around. That way, there is an opportunity for you to observe the child executing the plan and use reflexive questioning to help her stay on track. If you’re a therapist, start with situations the child encounters in the therapy environment. If you’re a teacher, start with a classroom situation. If you’re a parent, start with an issue at home.
Some common examples include plans for:
entering the therapy room
waiting their turn to talk
inhibiting their desire to touch and take everything on the therapy table/teacher’s desk/coffee table
completing a worksheet
doing a book report
studying for a test
setting the table for dinner
asking a peer out on a date
Tip #2: Introduce the idea of planning
It is important to introduce children to the idea of planning before creating the first plan together. I introduce planning to ALL ages of students with the example of a plan for completing a wooden puzzle:
1. Dump the puzzle pieces out of the box.
2. Turn the puzzle board back over.
3. Flip the puzzle pieces over one at a time.
4. Put one puzzle piece back into the puzzle board at a time matching the shape and picture.
5. Repeat step 4 until all finished.
For really young kids or kids with very severe EF dysfunction, I will make a SIMPLE (1-2 step) plan for a very simple concrete task and give them the task. For most other students, I question reflexively through their initial planning of the wooden puzzle task. I do this differently depending on each student. Sometimes I...
Make the plan for the child to show what planning involves.
Make the plan with the child, guiding with reflexive questioning for a plan that might be more effective.
Let the student make a plan that I think may not be effective and allow them to discover for themselves if it worked or not. Then we self-evaluate and adjust the plan. I often do not jump to this level of self-evaluation of errored plans unless students are older and/or have slightly more developed EF skills.
Tip #3: Make plans for any areas of difficulty
We want to strengthen areas of weakness and provide support where needed so that the child may develop these independently. Examine a child's day. Where are they having the most difficulty? That is where creating a systematic plan of action that can be practiced in a structured setting can be helpful. Practice with reflexive questioning feedback is needed before a child is able to implement the plan independently.
Tip #4: Make the plan together
It is crucial to remember that, even though you are probably coming into this activity with a good idea of what the plan should look like, you need to create the plan alongside the child. This is not a lecture where you present the plan and whiteboard it. You are creating the plan together. Use plenty of reflexive questions. A great go-to question I use when creating a plan is, “What do you think comes next?” or, “What do you see yourself doing next?” There could be a wide range of answers to that, from helpful to unhelpful. But I almost always follow on with a question like, “Why should that be part of our plan?” or “Do you think that will move us closer to the goal of our plan?”
If you haven’t already (or you need a refresher), make sure to check out my video on YouTube for more about reflexive questioning.
Tip #5: Details, details, details
Plans need to be very detailed. You need to see in your mind exactly what a child is going to do when they implement their plan. They need to be able to see it, too. If you're assuming or filling in the gaps for them, then the plan is too vague, and the child most likely doesn't have a plan at all.
Here’s an example of a poor plan for completing a wooden puzzle:
Take out the puzzle pieces
Put the puzzle pieces back in
There is so much room for interpretation in this plan. How is the child going to take out the pieces? One at a time? Dump the puzzle over? After he takes out the puzzle pieces, how does he put them back in? One at a time? Two at a time? How does he know where he's going to put the pieces? How does he know where the pieces belong? What is his thought process behind deciding where the puzzle pieces belong?
Here’s an example of a better plan for completing a wooden puzzle:
Dump the puzzle pieces out of the box.
Turn the puzzle board back over.
Flip the puzzle pieces over one at a time.
Put one puzzle piece back into the puzzle board at a time matching the shape and picture.
Repeat step 4 until all finished.
The plan above gives me a clear picture of what exactly the child is going to do. More importantly, this plan provides the child with a clear picture of what they see themselves doing.There are very few open questions to what his actions will look like when he completes the tasks. An effective plan is specific and detailed.
Tip #6: Start simple
It is easy to scaffold up quickly. It can be more difficult (and confusing) to scale back a plan that was too complicated. One way to do this is to start with short plans that have just 2-4 steps. Here are some ideas:
Plan for drawing a circle on the board:
I see myself going to the board.
I take the cap off the blue marker.
I draw the circle in the middle of the board
I put the cap back on the marker.
Plan for doing 10 jumping jacks:
I see myself standing up.
I do jumping jacks while counting out loud.
I stop doing jumping jacks when I get to 10.
Tip #7: Practice and test the plan
This is all about role playing. It helps the child visualize how the plan will go when they really need it. Use reflexive questioning to help the child evaluate whether it was an effective plan. Imagine you created a plan with the client for completing an assignment. It might go like this:
Get your assignment out of your book bag.
Sit down with the assignment and your pencil at the table.
Do problem 1.
Do problem 2.
Do problem 3.
Do problem 4.
Do problem 5.
Therapist: “Now, let’s try it. Are you ready to start?”
Child: “Yes!”
Therapist: “Okay, what’s step 1?”
Child: “Get the assignment out of my bag.”
Therapist: “Great!”
Child gets the assignment out, and sits down at the table.
Therapist: “Do you have everything you need?”
Child: “Ummm…. No”
Therapist: “What do you need?”
Child: “A pencil.”
Therapist: “You’re right! You will need a pencil. What should we add to our plan?”
Child: “We should add a step to get a pencil.”
Therapist: “How about we make our new plan like this:
Get your assignment out of your book bag.
Find a pencil.
Sit down with the assignment and your pencil at the table.
Do problem 1.
Do problem 2.
Do problem 3.
Do problem 4.
Do problem 5.
“Do you think that would work better?”
Child: “Yes.”
Therapist: “Okay, let’s try it.”
We iterate on the plan and try it out until we agree it is an effective, workable plan.
Tip #8: Use reflexive questioning
Reflexive questioning is a key skill for all of the steps of my therapy process. Reflexive questioning teaches children to dig deeper into their own thoughts, actions, and responses through self-awareness. It helps them develop self-reflection about what they’re doing, whether it’s what they need to be doing in order to reach their future goal, and why.
You probably already noticed some reflexive questioning in the principles above, but it is worth calling reflexive questioning out as its own principle. I cannot emphasize the importance of reflexive questioning enough. Some common examples of reflexive questions I use when working on a plan with a client include:
What comes next?
What do you picture doing in your mind?
When you say that, I picture… in my mind. Is that what you’re thinking, too?
What do you think will happen if you do that?
Want to learn more about reflexive questioning (or maybe you need a refresher)?
Ready to learn more? Join my email list!
