Developing Executive Functioning

Developing Executive Functioning

Young children can be included in making decisions and solving problems that enhance or are consistent with your curriculum objectives in ways that also promote executive functioning. In particular, giving children opportunities to make decisions that involve planning promotes higher-order thinking because it requires processing mental “what-if” scenarios.

For example, two teachers, Jane and Mary, were planning a summer field trip and picnic to a city park with their group of 5-year-olds. The children had visited the park once before. Jane had recently broken her ankle and was in a wheelchair. When one of the children asked, “How will Miss Jane get to the park in her wheelchair?” a “Miss Jane Committee” of children was formed to deal with logistical issues.

The big planning question was, “What kind of things might make it difficult for Miss Jane to get around in the wheelchair?” The children remembered that the park had both sidewalks and gravel pathways. They knew there was a step to get on the city bus. They didn’t think Miss Jane could carry her purse, water bottle, sunscreen, and camera and use both her hands for the wheelchair at the same time. They also worried that the sidewalks and pathways might not provide shade on a hot, sunny afternoon and that she might not be able to get to the area of the park where the playground was. A big question was the location of the handicapped-accessible bathroom.

The teachers helped the children make a list of the challenges and brainstorm possible solutions and recommendations, which they reported to the whole class. After much discussion, the class decided that:

• The two strongest children in the class would be in charge of pushing the wheelchair.
• They designated one child to be responsible for all of Miss Jane’s personal belongings and to pack all of her supplies in a cloth grocery bag and tie it to the handles of the wheelchair. She was also responsible for getting Miss Jane’s things in and out of the bag when they were needed.
• They borrowed a large golf umbrella from one of the other teachers to provide shade.
• They asked Miss Jane to help them make a phone call to the city bus company to find out how they would get the wheelchair on the bus.
• They found a map of the city park from the previous visit and plotted out the best route to get Miss Jane from the bus stop to the playground and to the bathroom.
• They practiced pushing Miss Jane’s wheelchair up and down the hallway and all around the classroom and playground to learn how to navigate turns, slopes, and uneven surfaces.
• They also decided to give Miss Jane some notepaper and a pen to write down anything at the park that they didn’t think of for “next time.”

The teachers obviously could have identified these challenges and planned how to deal with them, but they also knew that the children had plenty of prior knowledge about the park. And because they saw the children as problem solvers and had modeled different decision-making strategies with them, the teachers felt that the children could collaborate to anticipate and plan for what might happen.

After the trip, a debriefing session focused on the importance of the children’s planning to the successful outcomes of the trip. During several subsequent trips to other city parks, unanticipated problems were encountered from time to time, but the children solved them; they even ended up tutoring a new bus driver about how to use the lift (Personal interview, June 30, 2011)!

To involve children in regular opportunities to develop and practice planning strategies, your classroom helper chart might include responsibilities like

• Choosing the read-aloud stories and rest-time music for each day of the week
• Planning the weekly snack menu from a list of available choices
• Reporting on the weather in terms of what kind of clothing will be needed for outdoor time
• Deciding when the classroom plants and garden need to be watered
• Announcing transition times
  

  Place Your Order Here!