I love this article.
As an executive function coach, I've been focused on strategies with my new clients. What app can I suggest to a young person? What kind of grid can we make to help them plan their homework? What accessible technology can I teach them?
In this flurry of reaching for the "right" tool to share or show (and worrying that I won't remember the "right" one for them in the moment!), I'm realizing that it's easy to overlook the more important, and, in my experience, the deeper and more intuitive side of executive function issues: the mental space that goes along with success or failure. Because at the end of the day, what is procrastination, task avoidance, task initiation problems, or lack of planning? According to this article, it's a challenge, struggle or deficit often coupled with anxiety.
Here's what the author describes (and I have both witnessed & have experienced personally!): child/learner/human has a big task ahead of them. They encounter a struggle or roadblock. Anxiety and/or negative thinking kick in: "I can't do this, I'll never be able to do this, why can't I do this?, what's wrong with me, I ruin everything", etc., etc. until the negativity becomes overwhelming and unbearable. As Jessica Minahan writes, in those stressful situations, the "flight, fight or freeze" response might kick in. And for students with anxiety, "flight" might look like avoiding the task, not initiating or procrastination.
This makes sense to me. I personally struggle mightily with task initiation. Knowing I have a big workload can lead to hours of off-topic tasks (although, strangely, I always knew it was easier to get down to work when faced with concrete tasks and short deadlines!) However, this summer I had a lot of both unstructured time and work. I worked on being very conscious about how I approach this struggle and tried deploying as many supports as possible: writing down my workload, breaking the work down into chunks, planning it out, and blocking out times to do the work.
Doing this work, (and accepting my own limits) suddenly made it MUCH easier to get down to work. Why? I hadn't overnight changed my brain chemistry. I hadn't really "learned" a new coping strategy (I definitely was aware that all these strategies existed and should be used!). But actually using these strategies zapped the anxiety out of the tasks. They were no longer amorphous, unending or uncompleteable. I had a plan in place and a timeline to completion and therefore was able to "plug in" and plug away at them in a way that had seemed impossible before.
When I think about my clients & students with educational challenges, this approach is offers a valuable insight to me. It says that no matter what issue we are supporting or teaching about, the underlying issue we are treating is educational fear and anxiety. Giving students a taste of success, teaching them that they can succeed with the appropriate supports, that they are not fundamentally broken or flawed, and that they can overcome roadblocks and challenges - these are things that can get them out of the death-spiral of stress-response mode and back to learning. No matter what a student's challenges (ADH/D, autism spectrum disorder, learning disability, executive function challenge, etc.), no person can learn when they are locked in fear. Learning tools can help them exit that space, but they need coaxing & gentle permission to even attempt to use them. That's a space where we as educators and/or coaches can come in.
Here's an excerpt from "Skill-Building Approaches to Anxiety-Fueled Work Avoidance" that I particularly loved about helping students ask for help:
"It’s always best practice for students to be aware of their stumbling blocks, and it’s invaluable to teach them how to ask for specific help (e.g. “I don’t know how to start this assignment. Please help me think of what to write about,”). Once the student internalizes that they require help with only a small part of the assignment, such as getting started, they may feel less ashamed and overwhelmed. Building this skill empowers the student to reflect on where he is actually stuck, realize it’s just a small part of the overall task he is stuck on and get the help he needs more efficiently. "
In other words, helping students see that they are not broken or incapable, but rather are stuck in a very specific part of the assignment- that is a skill that will carry with them throughout their education.
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