Train Your Brain for Success

A Teenager's Guide to Executive Functions

Randy Kulman

• Publisher: Specialty Press/A.D.D. Warehouse
• eBook ISBN:
  9781937761110
• Year: 2013

Executive functions are a set of thinking, problem-solving, and self-control skills that tell the brain what to do, and this book demonstrates the ways kids use executive functions in school, at home, and in their other activities and shows how these skills can be improved through sustained effort. Beginning with a test to determine executive-functioning strengths and weaknesses, the book then explores in detail eight distinct sets of skills, including planning, organization, focus, time management, self-control, flexibility, memory, and self-awareness. In addition to giving an overview of each executive-functioning skill and how these skills are used in the real world, the book—intended as a self-directed learning guide for students themselves—also provides teens tools and tips for improving executive functions, including how to use video games, iPods, cell phones, and other electronic media to their advantage. A section for teachers and parents who may be dealing with a teenager with one or more executive dysfunctions is also included, as well as information for teens on how to recognize when they need help and where to go for help when a problem arises.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgment
• Contents
• 1 Introduction - How to Get Your Act Together
• 2 Learning about Your Skills - Take a Survey about Your Skills
• 3 Organization - Where is My Stuff?
• 4 Planning - What Should I Do?
• 5 Focus - When You Have to Pay Attention
• 6 Time Management - When You ‘Ve Got Too Much to Do
• 7 Self-Control - How to Stop, Relax, and Decide
• 8 Flexibility - Try Something New
• 9 Working Memory - If I Could Only Remember
• 10 Self-Awareness -1 Understand, I Understand
• 11 High-Tech Ways to Improve Your Skills - Mom, Dad, I Need My Cell Phone!
• 12 Keep on Going and Growing - You Will Get Better and Better
• Addendum: Parents’ Guide