School - What does it Take to Succeed? Executive Functioning and Communication Skills

What comes to mind when you think of school?  The traditional - reading, writing and arithmetic?  Or does it seem as though it feels like a time of torture for some children?  What does it really take to be successful in school?  Of course, it differs from grade to grade as the expectations increase, but the basics are actually simple to describe.  Unfortunately, it is becoming harder and harder for many students to make the grade.

Executive Functioning

Executive functioning refers to the ability to attend, to plan and organize, to encode and recall data and to problem-solve, including considering the efficacy of your solutions and coming up with a valid plan B.  Consider if you will, the student with attention problems, who very well may want to learn and be motivated, yet misses one of the three directions that the teacher gave.   He asks a friend what the direction was and gets in trouble for talking in class.  Likewise, the student who calls out an answer and has to stay in for recess because the teacher already told her five times to raise her hand.  Don't forget the student who forgets his homework twice a week, either not bringing it home, or completing it but not putting it is his folder, or in his backpack, or taking it to school but somehow the sheet doesn't make it from the folder to the teachers' inbox. 

Communication Skills

Communication skills involve the ability to understand and use language to share information.  To be an effective communicator, you need to have the muscular strength and coordination to produce speech sounds, the knowledge of age-appropriate vocabulary, sentence structure, and language concepts, the ability to know when to use all of those words and with whom, and, as students get older, the ability to express your knowledge in an organized and well-written fashion.  Consider the 2nd grade student who grabs instead of asking.  Most students learn to share and ask in preschool or kindergarten.  Perhaps this student really doesn't understand the social rules.  What about the student who is listening to the book being read aloud but just doesn't have the words to explain who the main characters are when he is asked?  The teacher may assume that he doesn't know the answer, or doesn't want to participate, when in reality, he is a student who needs more time to formulate the language he is going to use.  On a similar note, there are those middle and high school students who speak eloquently in class, yet can't seem to get their great ideas on paper.  

What Can Be Done?

For these and many other students, school is a challenge.  If a child's experience in  school leads him to the thought that learning is hard and school isn't fun, it can impact his self-esteem and his desire for lifelong learning.  Luckily, there is much that can be done in an attempt to keep students with learning challenges engaged and feeling good about their education.  Special education services are options for those who qualify, and tutoring and out-patient therapies are options for those students who struggle, yet do not qualify for school-based support.  Some students benefit from a combination of in-school and out-of-school support to reach their highest possible levels of achievement.  Speech therapy tackles both challenges in communication and in executive functioning through a combination of therapeutic activities and the use of tools and strategies.  Educational support services and tutoring can help a student in their efforts to get on the track to academic and social success.  In today's schools, students often need a level of support that is beyond what involved parents and caring guardians can provide.   

If you feel that your child is experiencing challenges in school, consider contacting Successful Learning for speech therapy, educational support, and tutoring in writing and math (with a certified math teacher).  

Tara Holzman is a speech-language pathologist with over 16 years of experience, and the owner of Successful Learning, a new, local small business offering educational support services, speech therapy and tutoring for all ages in Sharon center.  She can be contacted at info@successful-learning.com or by phone at 781-727-7672.  You can read more about this new business at www.successful-learning.com.