The Educational Services team at Rush NeuroBehavioral Center consists of highly qualified tutors, trainers, teachers, and administrators who understand how to help parents, teachers, and schools help young people develop and use Executive Function skills.
Executive Function skills are often acquired as part of natural social and mental development through home and school interactions. However, these skills are underdeveloped in many children and there is a need for more formal and organized instruction.
In order to meet the need for instruction, we offer ongoing tutoring for individuals, a range of training programs for teachers, and educational programs for classrooms and entire schools.
- Services for students
- Executive Function Workshop for students & parents, 2022~Click here for flyer
- Workshops for teachers
- Programs for schools
- Training for Early Childhood environments — click here for information sheet
These services and programs can help make parents, teachers, and school administrators more aware of the issues that some of their children face and give them the tools they need to make a difference. They can help children, teens, and young adults focus on important tasks, make better decisions, and be more successful and confident in their schoolwork, which can very often lead to greater success at home and in peer relationships as well.
Executive Function skills addressed during tutorial or educational programs
Materials management: students use Executive Function materials, folders, agenda books, and other organizational tools to manage homework and other papers.
Planning and time management: students are taught to follow calendars and record and pay attention to important due dates and other special events. They are taught prioritization skills as they work on daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly planning of school and personal events in their agenda books, and how to engage in task analysis, breaking down long-term projects and assignments and then mapping these projects in their planners or agenda books.
Study strategies: students are reminded of the importance of planning and maintaining a daily reserved study time, and encouraged to follow oral and written directions by using memory strategies, note-taking, and test preparation techniques. Academic support references are typically provided. These activities and skills help reduce anxiety related to management of assignments and can also make the student’s work load seem lighter because it is more manageable.
Understanding learning strengths: Learning style assessments are an important part of any Executive Function program or tutorial. Students and teachers are encouraged to highlight learning strengths, while working to improve areas of difficulty based on individual student learning differences.
Goal setting: students are encouraged to set both academic and personal goals each week based on the SMART approach (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based). In a school setting, teachers are encouraged to set achievable weekly classroom goals with input from students.
Decision-making: students receive instruction on the problem-solving process, and how to apply it in order to make more thoughtful decisions, in both short-term and long-term situations.
Classroom structure and learning environment: in addition, school-based programs include assessment and recommendations for how to improve the classroom and make the learning environment more effective, including equipment recommendations and organizational models.