Executive Functioning and Giftedness: Part 2

by: Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT
School Counselor

Part 1: Executive Functioning As a Spectrum of Skills

In Part 1 of this blog series on giftedness and executive functioning, we explored the dimensions of executive functioning and reviewed how to self-assess the various domains of executive functioning.

Many gifted and twice-exceptional students require executive functioning support for a variety of reasons, including a difference in their prefrontal cortex development compared to same-age peers. Many times, gifted students haven’t needed to practice study skills or time management skills due to completing material in class or finishing homework more quickly than their peers. These students can also complete material so quickly that they didn’t learn skills around planning for larger projects.

The domains of executive functioning can be found on a spectrum, and each students’ abilities vary both among the population and within the individual. In this post, you will find information on how to help your student strengthen two domains of executive functioning: organization and time management.

Collaborate: Goal-Plan-Do-Review for Organization

After an individual has identified their executive functioning strengths and weaknesses using a self-assessment (See Part 1 for more information), students should then be invited to collaborate on solutions together. Use the Goal-Plan -Do-Review approach to help students build their organization/planning skill:


    1. Goal: Before beginning, use a “team huddle” to identify what the student wants to accomplish (i.e. write a paragraph for my English essay)

    2. Plan: How will I accomplish this goal? What materials do I need? Who can help me accomplish this goal? Turn the steps into a written list or checklist

    3. Do: Implement the plan
    4. Review: Reflect on how well the plan worked, and what could be improved upon next time

Over time, adults should phase out supervision of the plan and implementation.


Time Management

Students benefit from finding a homework/assignment planner that works for them. Although some students prefer paper planners, others prefer using apps or calendar functions. Have students try out different methods like a science experiment, reviewing what worked and what needs to be tweaked. When students are able to find all of their assignments in one place, along with the due date and a section for notes, they increase their ability to organize materials and prioritize assignments.

Visual timers can be a great resource for students, especially those who experience “time-blindness.” This timer can be used to set five minute increments of work time, and five minute breaks, before building up to longer amounts of time as stamina builds. Apps such as Routinery and Tiimo allow students to set routines with visual reminders and timers.






Although many students struggle with these skills at first, with practice and scaffolding they can build their confidence and sense of self-mastery, until they no longer need adult intervention and supervision.

Executive Functioning and Giftedness

by: Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT
School Counselor

As we settle back into our routine for the school year, many of us emphasize setting resolutions for the new year. These resolutions or intentions can help us accomplish goals when we identify tasks that are meaningful and realistic; how can we encourage our gifted students to set and work towards goals that are meaningful to them?

Executive Functioning and Giftedness

Executive functioning refers to a neurological set of skills that help individuals regulate their emotions, and thereby their actions. These skills are needed in order to plan, organize, and follow-through on activities, and we can think of the executive functioning center of our brain as the concert conductor or air traffic controller of our actions.

Due to the asynchronous development of the brain among the gifted population, we see an extreme range of executive functioning abilities both among and within our students, and many of our students need scaffolding to help build these skills, especially in relation to non-preferred tasks. Due to their cognitive abilities, students may not have had to outline larger projects or executive time management as their same-age peers during elementary school, and they are forced to learn these skills in middle school or high school.

Collaboration with Gifted Students

In order to increase a student’s buy-in to increase these skills, providing education about the gifted brain and fostering collaboration with students can increase the motivation and willingness to pursue goals that are either important to them while increasing their sense of self-efficacy.

A collaborative conversation should be had with the student about a goal, and the adult can then help the student identify the steps into a checklist that the student can visualize and use daily. After using a system, we should then work with the student to evaluate the process and identify which strategies worked, and which need to be tweaked in order to be successful. Eventually, these systems should be modified to reduce adult supervision and intervention, which increases a student’s sense of self-efficacy and reduces the risk of enabling.


Task Initiation

Many times, our gifted students have an outstanding ability to focus and work on things that they find interesting or exciting. With larger or less-preferred tasks, we can help increase our student’s motivation by front-loading the work with enjoyable tasks, as well as setting a firm start time for the work. Short breaks can be interspersed with frequent acknowledgment of the student’s effort and progress. A solutions-focused approach can also be used to explore with the student about things they don’t procrastinate on, and what conditions allow for this increased sense of motivation and self-esteem. In a future blog post, we’ll explore how to help gifted students strengthen their time management skills in order to pursue these goals.

Where to begin? Start with an Executive Functioning Self-Assessment from Smart but Scattered HERE.

Book Resources: Smart but Scattered, and Smart but Scattered Teens.

Image Source for EF graphic: Focus Therapy
Image Source for Homework Planner: Smart But Scattered

Nurturing Young Minds: A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Mental Health

 

Image Source

by: Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT
School Counselor

Over the last few years, educators and parents have identified a need for increased mental health support for children. These needs became especially clear after the transitions and stressors related to the start of the pandemic, and in April U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated that “kids’ and adolescents’ declining mental health is the crisis of our time.” A JAMA meta-analysis of over 80,000 youths globally done in 2021 showed about 1 in 4 adolescents demonstrated clinically significant signs of depression, and about 1 in 5 adolescents demonstrated clinically significant signs of anxiety. 

Parents and educators can partner to provide students with the tools needed to identify and address stress, and these shifts can start with us as the adults modeling healthy coping skills to students. Here are some tips for parents on how to have meaningful conversations about mental health with your children.

• Create a Safe and Open Environment: Begin by fostering an atmosphere where your child feels comfortable discussing their thoughts and feelings. Let them know that their emotions are valid and that you're there to listen without judgment. Encourage them to express themselves in their own time and way.

• Lead by Example: Children learn from observing their parents. Demonstrate healthy coping mechanisms and stress management strategies in your daily life. When they see you prioritize your mental well-being, they're more likely to do the same.

• Normalize Emotions: Teach your child that it's okay to experience a wide range of emotions, and that these feelings are a natural part of life. Use everyday situations as opportunities to discuss emotions and how to deal with them effectively.

• Active Listening: When your child wants to talk, be an active listener. This means giving them your full attention, maintaining eye contact, and asking open-ended questions to encourage them to share more. Avoid interrupting or immediately offering solutions; sometimes, they just need someone to listen.

• Empower Problem-Solving Skills: Instead of solving their problems for them, guide your child in finding solutions. This helps them develop critical thinking skills and boosts their self-confidence in handling challenging situations.

• Teach Stress-Reduction Techniques: Introduce relaxation techniques like deep breathing, mindfulness, or even physical activities such as yoga. These tools can help your child manage stress and anxiety effectively.

• Stay Informed Together: Keep yourselves informed about mental health together. Read age-appropriate books or articles, watch educational videos, or attend workshops that focus on mental health topics. This shared learning experience can spark valuable discussions.

• Seek Professional Help When Needed: Sometimes, children may need professional guidance to navigate their mental health challenges. Be open to the idea of seeking help from a therapist or counselor when necessary. Explain that it's a positive step towards getting the support they need.

• Celebrate Small Wins: Acknowledge and celebrate your child's achievements, no matter how small they may seem. This boosts their self-esteem and encourages them to keep working towards positive mental health.

• Consistency is Key: Make these conversations a regular part of your family life. Don't wait for a crisis to discuss mental health. Consistency will help break down the stigma and create an ongoing dialogue.

Promoting mental health is an ongoing journey, and it's okay to seek guidance from professionals if you're unsure how to approach certain situations. By fostering a safe and open environment to talk about mental health, you can create a lasting impact on your child's mental well-being, ensuring they grow up with tools to be resilient and emotionally intelligent individuals.

Giftedness and Perfectionism

 By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

What is perfectionism?
The American Psychology Association defines perfectionism as “the tendency to demand of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance.” Due to gifted students’ internal and external pressures related to their high abilities, perfectionism shows up among many of our students. It can be helpful to delineate when perfectionism can be a helpful, driving motivation, or serve as a debilitating barrier that prevents students from attempting difficult tasks. 

Perfectionism vs. Healthy Striving

While perfectionism can lead to avoidance or low self-esteem, healthy striving for excellence encourages students to set high yet realistic goals. By pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, you can feel proud when you try new things or make mistakes in order to learn. 

Maladaptive perfectionism, on the other hand, both stems from low self-esteem and contributes to the cycle of low self-esteem. When a student sets a standard for flawless performance and is unable to meet those standards, they often experience either avoidance of the material or obsession related to external validation instead of intrinsic motivation. This video, which is developed for younger students, helps define perfectionism and give concrete examples. 

Healthy Striving

Perfectionism

Assessing for Perfectionism

Individuals can encounter perfectionism in certain domains and not others: for example, one person may experience unrealistically high standards in math or history, while others may only face this while playing sports or developing friendships. In order to help a student address these beliefs and actions, you can help them identify their triggers to then set goals.

For Lower School Students: This worksheet from School Counseling Success can help students identify their perfectionistic tendencies, while also exploring alternatives for healthy striving. 

For Upper School Students: This informal assessment breaks down perfectionism into different categories. 

Resources for Parents

Both Hoagies’ Gifted Education and the Davidson Institute provide parent resources for supporting your students’ growth mindset skills. In a future blog post, I will identify specific strategies you can use to address maladaptive perfectionistic tendencies and support your students’ self-esteem.

SEL: Valentine's Day and Self-Compassion

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

As Valentine's Day approaches, I like to talk to kiddos about self-compassion and loving ourselves, versus focusing solely on external validation for love and acceptance. Many of our students have difficulty practicing the art of self-compassion, and explicit focus on this during Valentine's week can be helpful timing. 

HERE is a self-compassion exercise you can try. 

At its core, self-compassion involves 3 components: 

1) mindfulness: being aware of the thoughts and emotions arising without judgement

2) self-kindness: extending the same kindness to yourself that you would to a friend

3) common humanity: recognizing that to be human is to make mistakes and learn from the mistakes


In order to help students feel proud of their strengths, and also practice accepting their weaknesses, you can have students write kindness letters to themselves, or decorate portraits identifying their self-compassionate parts and self-critical parts. 

Here is a cute photos of the 1st/2nd graders decorating their self-compassion gingerbread people today. This was after we wrote down their self-critical thoughts on toilet paper to be flushed down the toilet! They obviously loved that part.

January SEL Focus - Relationship Skills

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

CASEL defines relationship skills as "The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups." These include the ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed.

Due to the asynchronous development of our gifted kiddos, we see a huge spectrum of social skill development among all ages. These social interactions get even more complicated when a student has a diagnosis such as ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, which impacts a person's ability to effectively use impulse control, regulate emotions, and see a view from another person's perspective.

Identifying Goals Related to Relationship Skills

A way to help students identify their relationship skills is by having them fill out a short social skills assessment to see which prosocial skills students are using and can work on increasing, while also identifying which antisocial skills students need to reduce in order to maintain relationships. With this information, students can then set small goals so that they're able to increase their relationship satisfaction.

Define Healthy Relationships With Your Student

Students benefit from specific instruction on what healthy relationships entail: Respect, equality, safety, and trust. I've included a graphic below from the resource Unhushed that helps break down these components:

 

Relationship Skill Spotlight: Conflict Resolution

I like to tell students that unless you're a robot, you will have conflict arise in any friendship or relationship. We all have different experiences, perspectives, and communication styles, so it would be unreasonable to think we would never have conflict with others. I usually break down conflict resolution using a Restorative Justice lens, and provide the following steps for resolving conflict:

1. Identify how big the problem is (Is it a big problem or small problem? Can it be ignored?)

2. Stop to calm down your brain and body (If you're really upset, take a break before trying to resolve the issue)

3. Talk it out (Use "I" statements to identify how you feel and what you need. Take turns to listen to the other person's point of view)

4. Problem-solve different solutions (What sort of compromise can be developed?)

5. Apologize (We all make mistakes, and owning our part in the conflict is the right thing to do)

As with any SEL skill, your student's relationship skills will also depend on how you model these skills explicitly to your child.

Conflict Resolution: Video Example

November SEL Focus - Social Awareness

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

Over the last two years, we have seen an increased need to coach students on how to practice social awareness. CASEL defines social awareness as "the abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including

those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, & contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports."


Giftedness and Social Awareness


The spectrum of experiences among gifted individuals spans a wide range, and every child will have different perceptions about their ability to empathize with others. One commonality among gifted students, however, includes their asynchronous development compared to neurotypical individuals: although a gifted 7-year-old may cognitively present as a 12-year-old, he may present socially or emotionally as a 4-year-old. This experience can prove confusing not just for the gifted individual, but for the people interacting with the student.


Due to the nature of the gifted brain, gifted students also experience emotions intensely, and this can result in both deep empathy for others and also difficulty controlling emotions, thereby impacting a person's ability to perspective-take and connect with others. By normalizing this experience, we can help our gifted students regulate their emotions in order to take others' perspectives and listen non-judgmentally.


Empathy and Social Awareness

The ACE No Place for Hate Committee has already done a wonderful job this year of promoting activities and stories about diversity and respect in the classroom. As students better understand empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another), they are able to build on that foundation and learn how to listen to one another without judgment, how to read people's body language, and how to imagine others' experiences. I encourage you to be intentional about asking questions on perspective-taking after interacting with others or watching a movie together as a family: What do you think that person/character is feeling? Have you ever felt this way? How would you want to be treated if you felt this way?







You can also watch the video above to start a conversation with your child about empathy, and how they can incorporate this skill into their routine. As students strengthen their capacity to take others' perspectives, we can help students address behaviors that show up frequently among our gifted children: interrupting peers, inflexibility, the inability to manage losing or unfairness, and/or a lack of reciprocity. These skills can be framed through a growth mindset lens: although you may not know how to listen without judgment yet, we will learn how to do so together. You can always remind your child that their brain is flexible due to neuroplasticity and can learn new skills.

As with any SEL skill, your student's social awareness skills will also depend on how you model these skills explicitly to your child.

October SEL Focus: Self Management

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

After students have an understanding of self-awareness and the relationship between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, they can better understand how to practice self-management. Self-management, or self-control, is the ability to regulate (have control over) your thoughts/emotions/behavior and work towards goals. Although self-control sounds simple, it involves a variety of processes: impulse control, stress management, self-discipline, organizational skills, and self-motivation.

Giftedness and Self-Management

Children generally begin to develop the ability to self-regulate around age 4 as the prefrontal cortex "goes online", and this part of the brain continues to develop until around age 25. Although research about the gifted brain is limited, an article published in Nature posits that neural pruning may occur later in children with superior IQs (students scoring with an IQ above 120), indicating delayed executive functioning development. While children with an average IQ begin the neural pruning process at an average of age 8, this article hypothesized that this process didn't begin on average until age 12 for gifted children, indicating a delay in the development of the prefrontal cortex and executive functioning skills. Does this mean that gifted children do not have the capacity to develop impulse control and self-management? Of course not; it simply signifies the need for increased scaffolding and support from adults at home and at school.

Scaffolding Self-Management

A way to help students practice self-management and strengthen their executive functioning skills is to help them identify their strengths and areas for growth around self-management. This short Executive Function Questionnaire for young students can be a starting point in helping your student identify goals around their self-management, while also encouraging internal self-awareness and reflection. 

After helping students identify their areas for growth, help your student develop a plan to address one of the core areas of self-management: Impulse control, attention/focus, and/or emotion regulation. I always recommend starting with emotion regulation, as this skill helps students strengthen all other areas of self-control.

If your student continues to struggle even with increased support, consider connecting with an executive functioning coach, or going through an executive functioning workbook with your student. As always, your student's self-management skills will also depend on how you model these skills explicitly to your child.

September SEL Focus: Self-Awareness

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

September SEL Spotlight: Self-Awareness

This year, I'm highlighting a different SEL core competency each month, and in September we're highlighting Self-Awareness. This core competency serves as a foundation for all other core competencies: self-awareness is the ability to identify your emotions, and recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness also plays into self-esteem: Self-esteem = Self-awareness + Self-acceptance.

Giftedness and Self-Awareness

Due to the nature of the gifted brain and related overexcitabilities, gifted individuals benefit from continual education and reinforcement of self-awareness skills. Individuals who practice self-awareness skills experience more control over their behavior by being thoughtful about the consequences of their actions; self-awareness also helps students focus their attention, thereby increasing productivity. This skill can also can decrease physical pain and increase compassion for ourselves and others.

Modeling Self-Awareness and Mindfulness

A way to strengthen your self-awareness and model this skill to your student is to practice mindfulness: the non-judgmental awareness of what's happening in the present moment (both internally and externally). Here is a link to a short video on the science of mindfulness:

By incorporating mindful breathing (such as 4-count breathing), you can model to your student how to control your breath, which then regulates your nervous system. After modeling a breathing technique, try observing what thoughts pop into your mind without judgement, like watching clouds pass across the sky. The thoughts and emotions are temporary, and we can acknowledge their presence without being controlled by them.

To remember these steps, you can use the acronym RAINS:

R- Recognize your feeling

A- Accept what is here

I- Investigate where you feel it in your body

N- Neutral (This means not assigning "good" or "bad" judgement to an emotion or thought that arises. There are no good or bad emotions, just comfortable and uncomfortable ones).

S- Support Yourself (This could look like self-compassionate self-talk, or participating in an activity that is soothing).

Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, at any time; try setting aside a time with your child to practice this building block to self-awareness.

Giftedness and Anxiety Part 4

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

Parts 1, 2, and 3

In Part 1 of this blog series on giftedness and anxiety, we explored the definition of anxiety as well as the way it manifests between the interrelation of thoughts, emotions/body sensations, and behavior. Part 2 included information on how to help your student manage the physical sensation of anxiety through progressive muscle relaxation and managing sugar/caffeine intake. In Part 3, we reviewed ways to help your student identify their anxious thoughts. In this post, we’ll identify strategies to help your student challenge those anxious thoughts.

Challenging Anxious Thoughts

By using strategies such as mindfulness, your students can identify both the presence of their anxious thoughts, as well as the situations that triggered them. Anxious thoughts often manifest as negative automatic thought patterns, such as catastrophizing (assuming the worst will happen), black-and-white thinking (thinking in absolutes), and mind-reading (assuming what someone else is thinking without data), among other patterns. These thought patterns are often rigid and based on guesswork instead of data, which leads to a distorted version of reality and impacts our ability to participate in rational decision-making. In order to help your student challenge these thoughts, I recommend coming from a place of non-judgmental curiosity while helping your student search for evidence for or against the anxious thought.

For example: if your student is assigned a science fair project and their mind goes to, “I’m stupid and I’m going to fail; what’s the point of trying?”. Try reflecting back their thoughts with a calm tone of voice and relaxed body language; this helps the student feel heard, while also modeling a regulated body and nervous system that lets your student know that they are safe. Reflecting their thoughts could sound like: “I hear you saying that you think you’re going to fail; that must feel really overwhelming. I’m right here with you; let’s figure this out together.”

After validating your student’s emotion, help your student challenge an unhelpful thought by asking the following questions provided by Dr. Dennis Greenburger:

1. If your best friend had this thought, what would you tell her? What advice would you give her?

2. What evidence supports your thought? What evidence contradicts your thought?

3. Have you been in this situation before? What did you learn from a similar experience that could help you navigate this one?

4. If your thought is true, what is the worst-case scenario? What is the best-case scenario? What is the most likely scenario?

For students, it can be helpful to have these conversations while incorporating movement or playfulness, such as going on a walk or throwing a ball back and forth. By connecting with your child during these conversations, you demonstrate that your child does not have to navigate these issues on their own, and you also normalize the presence of these thoughts. In the next blog post, we’ll explore how to use these strategies to address avoidance related to anxiety.

Giftedness and Anxiety Part 3

By Erin Peace, LCSW, RPT: ACE Academy School Counselor

Parts 1 and 2

In Part 1 of this blog series on giftedness and anxiety, we explored the definition of anxiety as well as the way it manifests between the interrelation of thoughts, emotions/body sensations, and behavior. Part 2 included formation on how to help your gifted student manage the physical sensation of anxiety through progressive muscle relaxation and managing sugar/caffeine intake. In Part 3, we will review ways to help your student identify their anxious thoughts.

Anxious Thoughts Overview
When we experience anxiety, we tend to think the following thoughts: 1) The worst case scenario will happen; and 2) I will not be able to handle the situation. Although we can’t control when these thoughts arise, we can be mindful of the situations that trigger them; we can also control how we bring awareness of these thoughts and how we respond to them.

Mindfulness and Awareness

Mindfulness is the nonjudgmental awareness of what is happening in the present moment, and we can help our students use this tool to identify their thoughts and emotions. If a student can name that they are having a “worry thought” or an “anxious thought”, then we can help our students accept that the thought is present while also challenging the content of the thought. Students can practice mindfulness in a variety of ways, and this article  includes multiple activities that parents can use to help their children practice this concept. I practice mindfulness with students often, as we can practice it anytime, and anywhere, including an activity as simple as brushing our teeth.

After students have a grasp of using mindfulness, I also recommend that students track their anxious thoughts, along with what occurred right before experiencing the anxious thought. I have provided an extreme example of this below (although it is extreme, I have heard this thought many times from gifted students!):

Thought Log

I am providing a sample thought log below; encourage your student to fill it out for a week to gather more data. By empowering your student to identify their triggers, you can then help them be proactive about reducing their anxiety.