Improve Executive Functions: Evidence-Based Strategies to Change Behavior – George McCloskey

Salepage link: At HERE. Archive:

Executive Function (EF) skills form the foundation of success for people of all ages. But individuals with ADHD, Autism, OCD and other conditions have significant EF deficits – failing to thrive at school, work, home and in their most important relationships.

Your work with individuals struggling with EF issues is some of your most rewarding — yet it’s often the work that leaves you the most frustrated and exhausted. Forgotten appointments, unfinished homework, distractibility, procrastination and difficulties organizing thoughts present formidable obstacles to making progress in school or therapy. And the strategies that work so well for other conditions seem to fall short when an EF deficit is present.

Watch this recording and get the targeted skills and tools you need to cultivate lasting change and transform the lives of those who struggle with executive deficits – the chronically lost, late and unprepared!

Watch George McCloskey, Ph.D., the internationally renowned creator of the McCloskey Executive Functions Scale (MEFS) for this incredible recording. An author, researcher, and clinician with more than 20 years of groundbreaking work with Executive Functions, Dr. McCloskey will teach you how to develop customized interventions that can be used with students or clients across multiple settings from the private practice office to the classroom. Practical and easy to apply, Dr. McCloskey’s strategies will help those you serve develop critical time/task management, personal organization, & planning skills, empowering them to elevate their academic and employment performance, relationships, physical & mental health, and more!

Whether you’re a counselor, teacher, OT, SLP or social worker you’ll leave this recording feeling confident in your ability to end the chaos and dramatically improve the lives of those you work with!

1. Analyze a comprehensive neuropsychological model of executive functions as it relates to clinical treatment.
2. Communicate how executive function difficulties are manifested in individuals diagnosed with various psychological disorders and/or enrolled in special education programs as it pertains to assessment and treatment planning.
3. Apply effective assessment techniques based on a multidimensional framework to determine executive function strengths and weaknesses and to target specific intervention needs.
4. Recommend strategies that are appropriate for fostering executive function development and/or for intervening when executive function difficulties are identified.
5. Implement strategies that bridge the gap between “external control” and “internal self-regulation”.
6. Summarize how mindfulness, CBT and other evidence-based programs that foster executive function development and/or remediate difficulties.

Executive Functions (EF) Overview

• The neuropsychology of Executive Functions
• Levels, domains of functioning, arenas of involvement
• A closer look at the self-regulation level
• 7 clusters encompassing 33 functions
• EF development over time
• EFs, DSM-5® diagnoses, educational classifications

Develop an Intervention Plan: Assessment of EF Strengths and Weaknesses

• A multidimensional model to guide assessment
• Norm referenced tests, rating scales and diagnostic interviewing
• Assessing the impact of EF difficulties on academic learning and production
• Learning difficulties versus producing difficulties
• EF-driven Functional Behavior Assessment

Strategies for EF Development and EF Difficulties

• Create an environment for positive change
• Develop and use growth mindsets
• The EF intervention continuum
• Orienting strategies that focus on goals and outcomes
• External strategies for modifying behavior: Cueing, prompting and thinking aloud
• Bridging strategies from externally controlled to internally self-regulated
• Internally self-regulated strategies: Strengthen independent functioning

Evidence-based Programs and Resources to Foster Growth

• Develop EFs in pre-school and kindergarten
• Problem-solving models and programs
• Cognitive strategy instruction and cognitive behavior therapy
• Technology-based approaches
• Mindfulness techniques and EF growth

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks