Do Executive Functioning Skills Trump Academics?

 As we get ready for going back to school, many parents are concerned about more than just academics when it comes to student success.  How may we set the stage for this to be their best year ever? When we place all of our focus solely on a student’s academic performance and attempt to improve performance by asking the student to study harder, read more, write with more descriptors, and put in more effort, we may be exacerbating the problem rather than “fixing” it. Such commands assume that it is fully within the capability of the student to simply buckle down and grades will go up.  A student may feel defeated and become disheartened. What if the core of the problem began not in the student’s academic capabilities but in his/her lack of effective executive functioning skills? If that is the case, then we must treat teaching executive functioning skills as if it is a subject that must be taught and mastered in much the same way as any other subject that requires the cycle of instruction, practice, fluency and generalization.
Executive functioning skills, or as we coin the term at Tutor Doctor, X-Skills™, include mastery of areas such as, task initiation, prioritization, planning, sustained attention, working memory, time management, organization, and goal setting with goal-directed persistence. A defined weakness in any of these areas will serve as an obstacle to academic success.  Many students manage to do well until they hit the more competitive atmosphere of junior high and high school when multiple subjects, different teachers and juggling assignments and a busy extra-curricular schedule becomes overwhelming.
The good news, however, is that by acknowledging that X-skills are a critical part of academic success and by teaching students to more effectively utilize these skills, we may effectively encourage a student to implement these strategies in conjunction with specific academic tasks and assignments and begin to see grades soar.  This is true not just for the struggling student who may be fearful of facing the new year, but also for the student who wants to improve his/her performance by a letter grade.
Studies have shown that the single greatest factor which influences student success is not academic knowledge but is rather academic discipline. Tutor Doctor offers a specific Academic Game Plan program called X-Skills™.  I may be reached at 661-219-5335 for your Free Consultation- www.santaclaritatutoring.com, www.facebook.com/santaclarita.northvalley.tutordoctor