What’s Going On in the Adolescent Brain?
Executive Functioning and Decision Making Skills in Children and Teens
About the Presenters
Peg Dawson EdD, NCSP and Dr. Richard Guare PhD
are well known and respected clinicians at The Center for Learning and Attention Disorders, a program of Seacoast Mental Health Center, in Portsmouth, New Hamphsire. They are also co-authors of numerous publications including their recently published Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention and Smart but Scattered.
Children and adolescents with poor executive skills can be a little bit like driving in a car, gas pedal to the floor, with the brakes on back order. They have many decisions to make in the course of their day and may appear disorganized or forgetful, easily distracted, careless or rushed. Perhaps, they don’t know where to begin on long-term assignments or they put them off until the last minute, in part because they have trouble judging the magnitude of the task and how long it will take to complete. And this is only in relation to schoolwork! In today’s culture many other situations present themselves: to drink, do drugs, have sex and more. How do we teach children the skills and self-discipline necessary to live in today’s world?
Assessment of Executive Skills
Interventions and Coaching
http://www.kidsontheblockvermont.org/
