Executive Function in Education: From Theory to Practice »

Lynn Meltzer, PhD, is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Learning and Development (ILD) and ResearchILD in Lexington, Massachusetts. She holds appointments as an Associate in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Tufts University Department of Child Development. Dr. Meltzer's clinical practice, research, publications, and presentations have focused on understanding the complexity of learning and attention problems using a multidimensional model to bridge the gap between theory, research, and practice. A fellow and past president of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, she is the founder and chair of the national Learning Differences Conference.

This uniquely integrative book brings together research on executive function processes from leaders in education, neuroscience, and psychology. It focuses on how to apply current knowledge to assessment and instruction with diverse learners, including typically developing children and those with learning difficulties and developmental disabilities. The role of executive function processes in learning is examined and methods for identifying executive function difficulties are reviewed. Chapters describe scientifically grounded models for promoting these key cognitive capacities at the level of the individual child, the classroom, and the entire school. Implications for teaching particular content areas—reading, writing, and math—are also discussed.

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Reviewer:Christopher J. Graver, PhD(Madigan Army Medical Center)
Description:The executive functions of the human brain are integral in our daily functioning and absolutely critical for optimizing the educational process. Unfortunately, they are fragile and can be affected in a multitude of ways by various diseases and developmental problems.
Purpose:In this book, the author endeavors to focus on the role of executive function in education, the ways in which executive functions are often disrupted, and ways to work with children to compensate for executive deficits.
Audience:An appropriate audience clearly would include educators, school counselors, psychologists, and speech and language therapists. In major measure, the contributing authors are gathered from the staff at the Institute for Learning and Development and surrounding institutions. While experienced in their respective areas, the list of contributing authors has missed key areas of expertise, including neuropsychology and adolescent psychiatry.
Features:The book is divided into three main sections: a theoretical overview, executive functions in specific diagnostic groups, and interventions. The chapters have been organized to convey a logical progression of knowledge acquisition and are interconnected in a fluid manner. Individual authors refer to other chapters when expanding concepts and further illustrating ideas. The inclusion of a chapter on the unrecognized syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities is especially thoughtful. The final section on interventions contains a mix of general and specific practical suggestions for remediation and enrichment of executive functions in the classroom. The one major weakness is the fact that the chapter authors sometimes refer to obstacles in assessments, interventions, etc., but these are not genuine obstacles; rather, they stem from the chapter authors' lack of expertise in particular areas. Furthermore, the editor has irresponsibly revealed privileged information about how to complete assessment instruments that render them useless and does a serious disservice to the evaluators and children who rely on these tests to make accurate diagnoses and recommendations.
Assessment:This represents a unique look at how executive functions fit into educating students and the ways in which this can be problematic in certain diseases and developmental problems. There is competent coverage of the issues and helpful suggestions for managing executive difficulties in students. Nevertheless, a broader representation of key fields involved in this topic area would make this a much richer text and it could do without exposing critical information regarding assessment instruments.

I Executive Function: Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks 1

1 Executive Function: Binding Together the Definitions of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Learning Disabilities Martha Bridge Denckta 5

2 "Hill, Skill, and Will": Executive Function from a Multiple-intelligences Perspective Seana Moran Howard Gardner 19

3 Executive Capacities from a Developmental Perspective Jane Holmes Bernstein Deborah P. Waber 39

4 Connecting Cognitive Science and Neuroscience to Education: Potentials and Pitfalls in Inferring Executive Processes Kurt W. Fischer Samantha G. Daley 55

II Executive Function Difficulties in Different Diagnostic Groups: Challenges of Identification and Treatment 73

5 Executive Function Difficulties and Learning Disabilities: Understandings and Misunderstandings Lynn Meltzer Katyani Krishnan 77

6 Nonverbal Learning Disabilities and Executive Function: The Challenges of Effective Assessment and Teaching Judith A. Stein Kalyani Krishnan 106

7 Executive Dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorders: From Research to Practice Sally Ozonoff Patricia L. Schetter 133

III Interventions to Address Executive Function Processes 161

8 Executive Function in the Classroom: Embedding Strategy instruction into Daily Teaching Practices Lynn Meltzer Laura Sales Pollica Mirit Barzillai 165

9 Executive Control of Reading Comprehension in the Elementary School Irene West Gaskins Eric Satlow Michael Pressley 194

10 Addressing Executive Function Problems in Writing: An Example from the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model Steve Graham Karen R. Harris Natalie Olinghouse 216

11 The Strategic Math Classroom: Executive Function Processes and Mathematics Learning Bethany N. Roditi Joan Steinberg 237

12 Teaching Metacognitive Strategies That Address Executive Function Processes within a Schoolwide Curriculum Irene West Gaskins Michael Pressley 261

13 Deficits in Executive Function Processes: A Curriculum-Based Intervention David Rose Katherine Rose 287

Index 309