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#executivefunctioning

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One of the most prolific children’s authors, Dav Pilkey, was often reprimanded in the classroom and isolated in the hallway, because of what was perceived as disruptive behavior. He showed some of the traits often associated with ADHD—like speaking out of turn—but he also showed ADHD strengths like creativity and thinking outside the box. It was not until adulthood that he went on to publish Captain Underpants, delighting children around the world and making over 10 million dollars.

But what would have Pilkey’s experience been like if he had a teacher who had recognized his talent and celebrated his differences early on? How much suffering could have been avoided and how could his classmates have benefited? If he could go back and talk to his childhood self, he would tell himself to stay true to yourself. How can teachers do that for neurodivergent children today?

With increased awareness of how brain differences affect learning and school avoidance at an all-time high, most teachers want to provide a neurodiversity-affirming classroom where children can be their true selves. But what does that look like?

While the meaning of neurodiversity is generally understood to refer to accepting brain-based differences as a natural and valuable part of human diversity, what does it really mean, on a practical level, to create a neurodiversity-affirming classroom?

Due to large class sizes, unfair wages, pressures to teach to the test and other stressors, it is harder than ever to be a teacher. There is no question that our education system needs to change on a broader level. Discovering what neurodiversity-affirming means for each teacher in their individual circumstances will be a career-long journey, but here are five key strategies that teachers can implement now to use the power they do have to create a neurodiversity-affirming classroom:

Provide Curricula That Celebrates Diversity

The first step is to provide books and curricula that celebrates all types of differences including cultural differences, size differences, age differences, differences in gender identity, and differences in family structure. Communicating right from the beginning that different ways of being are valid and something to be celebrated paves for the way for understanding how different types of brains are also worthy of celebration and attention. Within this larger context of celebrating differences, you can naturally also include books and resources celebrating disability pride and neurodiversity (more here).

Research suggests that children want to see reflections of themselves in the books they read and books featuring diverse characters can help expand their horizons. We Move Together is a great book celebrating multiple types of differences at once. The We Move Together website also includes Education Resources to foster discussion at school.

Once you have set the tone and immersed students in an environment where difference is celebrated, you can teach explicitly about neurodiversity. You can get some ideas from the Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS) curriculum, which is freely available to download online.

Embrace Differences/Maximize Strengths

The next step is to be a role model by embracing differences within your students, themselves. One way to do this is to incorporate your students’ focused interests into their learning. For example, if you have a student who won’t stop talking about dinosaurs, make some of the math word problems about T-rexes and stegosauruses. If you have a student who loves dance, let her pick a dance book to read during silent reading. If your student is particularly outgoing, maybe they can do a show and tell to share about their special interest and related collections with the class. There’s something about infodumping that really brings learning to life for some students.

Another concept to consider is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which discusses creative ways of using teaching and evaluation strategies that naturally match up with a child’s particular strengths. For example, when children need to present what they have learned from a book, instead of having all of them do a book report, give them an option of showcasing their learning with a video for kids who love technology or with a life-size model for more hands-on learners. Some neurodivergent students have trouble doing homework, but working on an interesting project, especially one involving choice, is more motivating.

Also, consider teaching using different modalities. Instead of only lecturing, present diagrams or use hands-on demonstrations. Some students respond especially well to learning games, including educational videogames. By offering more than one modality for learning, you are giving a chance for students to showcase the ways they learn best.

Accommodate Sensory Needs

Neurodiversity also includes acknowledging that different people have different ways of processing the world around them. The room that seems way too loud for one child might be perfectly fine for another, and neither of them is right or wrong.

Setting up the classroom to consider your students’ differing sensory needs is one way to affirm neurodiversity in a practical way. Offering a quiet space and noise-cancelling headphones can be great for students with sensitive hearing. Reducing visual clutter can help children stay organized. Providing natural sunlight for those who need it is also important. For students with a strong need for movement, consider offering them positive ways to move. For example, maybe they get to be the ones to run an errand for you or move around the classroom to hand out papers. You can try taking brain breaks using videos like this one.

Collaborate with Students on Discipline

Neurodivergent students tend to thrive on a predictable environment so having structure and clear expectations is important, but it’s not always easy to figure out how to discipline students in a balanced way. One effective strategy is to have your students help you come up with classroom rules. They are much more likely to follow rules that they have made themselves. You can also get their input on what they think should happen if someone breaks a rule and how they will help keep each other stay accountable.

When individual students seem to have problems meeting adult expectations, instead of assuming that they are being defiant on purpose, consider taking a collaborative approach to working with the student to come to a resolution. Ross Greene offers a range of resources for providers on how to do this with students by hearing their concerns, sharing your concerns, finding out what is getting in the way, and coming up with solutions together. This may take a little longer in the short term, but can be an effective way to establish effective partnerships with children and validate their different brain styles.

Avoid strategies that use public shaming as a way to influence children to follow your instructions. Instead, promote a culture of psychological safety. Also, avoid strategies that seem to work in the short-term, but have negative consequences later. Withdrawing recess, for example, should not be used as punishment. It’s ineffective and in some states, it’s illegal.

One of the most effective discipline strategies is to establish positive relationships with each individual student using strategies like establishing special greetings, checking in regularly, and reminding students that they are a valuable part of a community, among other ideas.

Enhance Executive Functioning Skills

Many neurodivergent students, especially Autistic students and ADHDers, struggle with executive functioning skills (skills that help us plan, organize, and accomplish tasks). An important principle to understand is that students who seem chronically disorganized, often lose things, and forget to turn in assignments are probably not doing it on purpose.

Punishing neurodivergent students for being disorganized is like punishing a student with dyslexia for not reading well enough. Some students need more support than others. Providing executive functioning support is one way of acknowledging that not all brains are the same and that’s okay. You can find numerous executive functioning supports at Understood.org. For example, these graphic organizers are especially helpful for students who struggle with note-taking.

Providing planners alone is generally not enough. Showing students how to use them and regularly checking them to keep students on track is more effective. Directly teaching students how to organize their desks and providing baskets or other tools to sort their papers can be helpful, especially if you use a positive tone while instructing them. Consider using technology to support organization. Some students might benefit from mindmapping software to help them visualize how concepts are connected. Offering frequent reminders both verbally and visually (e.g., using checklists) can help students stay on track.

Neurodivergent students may also need more support from their parents for longer than their peers. Keeping parents in the loop by listing assignments in an online database, along with their due dates, can make a big difference in helping students thrive. Overall, providing executive functioning support is one way of saying “It’s okay if you need help. I will teach you.”

Teachers generally spend 1000 hours per year with their students and have a profound influence on what they learn and how they see themselves and each other. Promoting a neurodiversity-affirming classroom amidst the struggles of today’s educational system is not easy, but taking some of these practical steps can make a big difference for students like Dav Pilkey and their peers.

Creating a Neurodiversity-Affirming Classroom: PEACE

Dr. Woods would like to thank all of the many great teachers who taught her and her children, especially her mother, Linda O’Neil, who specialized in working with neurodivergent children for several decades.

Disclaimer: Dr. Woods and the UWAC may not agree with all content at all links.

Posted in Accommodations, education, Neurodiversity Tagged accommodations, ADHD, autism, education, executive functioning, neurodiversity, neurodiversity-affirming, Sara Woods, sensory

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Elizabeth Blackadder, Cat and Irises, 2001, watercolor

Good Afternoon!!

It’s a long weekend here in Massachusetts (Indigenous Peoples Day), and I’m planning to try to relax and read something other than politics news. Lately I can’t tolerate watching cable news, but I’ve been obsessed with keeping up with everything that is happening in the presidential campaigns. I spend too much time on social media, but it’s the only way to find out what Trump is really up to, because of the legacy media’s compulsive sanewashing of Trump’s demented behavior and speech patterns. 

If you use social media, you may have seen Trump’s bizarre behavior during his speech at the Detroit Economic Club. The speech was supposed to be about economics but, since Trump has no comprehension of economics, he did his usual nonsensical rambling act. The New Republic: Watch: Trump Completely Loses Train of Thought in Awkward Speech.

Donald Trump drifted in and out of coherency during an awkward, weaving speech Thursday at the Detroit Economics Club, where he ranted about tariffs and railed against government mandates on electric vehicles….

But while explaining his fears that Kamala Harris’s policies would cause domestic manufacturing to leave the United States, Trump seemingly got carried away by the tide of his own weave and swept out into a sea of complete nonsense.

“And, it’s so simple, I mean, you know. This isn’t like Elon with his rocket ships that land within 12 inches on the moon where they wanted to land,” Trump said. “Or, he gets the … engines back—that was the first I realized, I said, ‘Who the hell did that?’ I saw engines about three, four years ago. These things were coming—cylinders, no wings, no nothing—and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace, with a circle, boom!”

“Reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have, right?” Trump said, seemingly referring to President Joe Biden’s campaign events that took precautions for Covid-19, in an awkward non sequitur.

“He’d have eight circles, and he couldn’t fill ’em up. But then I heard he beat us with the popular vote. He couldn’t fill up the eight circles, I always loved those circles, they were so beautiful, so beautiful to look at,” Trump continued.

Trump claimed that Biden “used to have the press stand in those circles, cause they couldn’t get the people. And then I heard we lost, no we’re never gonna let that happen again.”

“But—” he continued. “We’ve been abused by other countries, we’ve been abused by our own politicians, really, more than other countries.”

There are more examples of Trump’s insane rambling at the TNR link. But it’s not just rambling–it’s dementia; and it seems to be getting worse all the time. He flits from tangent to tangent, because his executive functioning is failing, likely from damage to his frontal lobes. You can watch the video clip at the TNR link.

This is disgusting, but I’m going to post it anyway. Trump appeared to either break wind (or foul his diaper) at least twice during his speech in Detroit. This is something that was happening even when he was in the White House. Reporters also noticed it happening during his fraud trial. WTF?!

Trump also slammed the city of Detroit during the same speech. The Guardian: Trump insults Detroit during speech … in Detroit.

Donald Trump attacked the city of Detroit in a speech he was giving while stumping for votes in Detroit.

The former US president and Republican nominee was speaking on Thursday at the Detroit Economic Club in the city, which is the biggest city in Michigan – one of the most crucial swing states in the 2024 US election.

But Trump, whose speeches are frequently rambling and lengthy discourses rather than set piece deliveries, could not stop himself from lambasting the city in which he was speaking by pointing to Detroit’s recent history of economic decline from its heyday as the home of American car production.

As he was speaking about China being a developing nation, Trump said: “Well, we’re a developing nation too, just take a look at Detroit. Detroit’s a developing area more than most places in China.”

He later returned to the theme, warning of an economic disaster if his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, wins in November’s election.

“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said….

Democrats in the state reacted angrily to the insults and saw a chance to score political points.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer posted on Twitter/X: “Detroit is the epitome of ‘grit,’ defined by winners willing to get their hands dirty to build up their city and create their communities – something Donald Trump could never understand. So keep Detroit out of your mouth. And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”

More frightening Trump news:

Alternet reports that Trump is planning to continue and perhaps escalate his violent, racist attacks on immigration and immigrants: ‘That’s how you lose’: Trump refusing aides’ requests to tone down anti-immigrant attacks.

Former President Donald Trump is aware his rhetoric about migrants has become increasingly toxic, yet he has decided to double down on that strategy in the final weeks of the campaign cycle.

According to Rolling Stone’s Naomi Lachance and Asawin Suebsaeng, the ex-president is even rebuffing advice from his campaign team to “play it safe” as voters prepare to head to the polls on November 5. Lachance and Suebsaeng cited two unnamed sources close to Trump in their report, writing that Trump intended to “slam his foot on the gas” rather than pull back on his anti-immigrant message.

Agnes Miller Parker, Siamese Cat and Butterfly, 1950, wood engraving

“That’s how you lose,” Trump reportedly said in response to one of his aides.

The publication’s other unnamed source said the ex-president paid close attention to which lines at his rallies garnered the biggest reactions from his audiences. This includes not only his false claim that there are 13,000 undocumented immigrants freely roaming the United States who have been convicted of murder elsewhere (most of those 13,000 are currently incarcerated), but also his call to be a “dictator” on “day one” of a second term….

The former president recently demonstrated his willingness to take his condemnation of migrants to a new low on Friday night, posting a lengthy screed to X (formerly Twitter) in which he promised to use an 18th century law to round up, detain and deport immigrants. That law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — would allow for the detainment of migrants without trial based solely on their country of birth. The last time that law was used was to force Japanese-Americans into detention camps during World War II.

“November 5th, 2024 will be LIBERATION DAY in America,” Trump tweeted. [W]e will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.”

And you’re not safe if you’re a legal immigrant, as Trump and Vance have both made clear in their attacks on Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. 

The Guardian has another excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book: Mark Milley fears being court-martialed if Trump wins, Woodward book says.

Mark Milley, a retired US army general who was chair of the joint chiefs of staff under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, fears being recalled to uniform and court-martialed should Trump defeat Kamala Harris next month and return to power.

“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley recently “warned former colleagues”, the veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward writes in an upcoming book. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”

By Elizabeth Blackadder

Woodward cites Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chair and White House strategist now jailed for contempt of Congress, as saying of Milley: “We’re gonna hold him accountable.”

Trump’s wish to recall and court-martial retired senior officers who criticized him in print has been reported before, including by Mark Esper, Trump’s second secretary of defense. In Woodward’s telling, in a 2020 Oval Office meeting with Milley and Esper, Trump “yelled” and “shouted” about William McRaven, a former admiral who led the 2011 raid in Pakistan in which US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, and Stanley McChrystal, the retired special forces general whose men killed another al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in Iraq in 2006.

Milley was able to persuade Trump to back down, Woodward writes, but fears no such guardrails will be in place if Trump is re-elected.

Woodward also describes Milley receiving “a non-stop barrage of death threats” since his retirement last year, and quotes the former general as telling him, of Trump: “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country.”

More threats of violence are coming from Trump pal Roger Stone. The Guardian: Roger Stone calls for ‘armed guards’ at polling spots in leaked video.

The longtime Donald Trump ally and friend Roger Stone said Republicans should send “armed guards” to the polls

 in November to ensure a Trump victory, according to video footage by an undercover journalist.

The video, first published by Rolling Stone, shows an embittered Stone, still angry about the 2020 election and ready to fight in 2024. Stone described the former US president’s legal strategy of constant litigation to purge voter rolls in swing states.

“We gotta fight it out on a state-by-state basis,” said Stone. “We’re already in court in Wisconsin, we’re already in court in Florida.”

When the journalist, posing as a member of a rightwing voter turnout organization, pressed Stone for details on efforts to make sure Trump wins in 2024, Stone told him that the campaign has to “be ready”.

Mary Feddon, Tabby

“When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you dispute it,” said Stone. In Detroit in 2020, there was a chaotic scene at a ballot counting center when GOP vote challengers pounded on the walls of the center and demanded to be let in.

Filmed at an August event in Jacksonville, Florida, called A Night with Roger Stone, the footage also reveals Stone’s lasting anger toward former attorney general Bill Barr, who he calls “a traitorous piece of human garbage”.

While in office, Barr acted as a staunch Trump ally, even pushing for a lighter sentence for Stone, when the operative was found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice in connection with a congressional inquiry into Russian interference during the 2016 election. Barr lost favor with the former president when he declined to publicly back Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, drawing outrage from Trump’s closest allies.

“Once we get back in, he has to go to prison,” Stone exclaimed. “He has to go to prison, he’s a criminal.”

This is from the usual suspects at The New York Times (Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Shane Goldmacher): A Frustrated Trump Lashes Out Behind Closed Doors Over Money.

Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party.

There was Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge fund manager who finances Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes, and Warren Stephens, the billionaire investment banker. Joining them were Betsy DeVos, the billionaire former education secretary under Mr. Trump, and her husband, Dick, as well as the billionaire Joe Ricketts and his son Todd.

Some politicians might have taken the moment to be charming and ingratiating with the donors.

Not Mr. Trump. Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances.

He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more.

By Miroco Machiko

He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as “retarded.” He complained about the number of Jews still backing Ms. Harris, saying they needed their heads examined for not supporting him despite everything he had done for the state of Israel.

At one point, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that these donors had plenty to be grateful to him for. He boasted about how great he had been for their taxes, something that some privately noted wasn’t true for everyone in the room.

The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, underscored a reality three weeks before Election Day: Mr. Trump’s often cantankerous mood in the final stretch. And one of the reasons for his frustration is money. He’s trailing his Democratic rival in the race for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it.

Not only does Ms. Harris have far more money to buy ads and pay for staff after raising $1 billion in less than three months as a candidate — a sum greater than the total Mr. Trump raised all year — but she has also been freed from having to plead directly to donors anymore. She raised more than twice as much as Mr. Trump in July, August and September.

Good! Let him keep wallowing in self-pity, driving away people who could donate to his campaign.

I’ll end with something truly unbelievable: On October 16, Fox News and Trump are planning a town hall on women’s issues! From the press release: 

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Harris Faulkner will present a town hall with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump focusing on issues impacting women ahead of the election and news of the day at Reid Barn in Cumming, Georgia. The event, which will be held with an audience entirely composed of women, will pre-tape on October 15th and air on October 16th on The Faulkner Focus (11 AM-12 PM/ET). FOX News has a standing invitation to Vice President Harris for a townhall event of equal stature which has been extended to her campaign multiple times since she became a candidate for president in August.

In commenting on the town hall, Faulkner said, “Women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is paramount that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter to them most. I am looking forward to providing our viewers with an opportunity to learn more about where former President Trump stands on these topics.”

Orovida Pissarro, Cat and Mouse, 1966

Faulkner joined FNC in 2005 and currently serves as the anchor of The Faulkner Focus and a founding co-host of Outnumbered. At 11 AM/ET, The Faulkner Focus features interviews with top newsmakers and analysts and is cable news’ most-watched program in the timeslot, averaging nearly 2 million viewers. Outnumbered features an ensemble of four female panelists and one male breaking down the day’s headlines from all perspectives and dominates the competition at 12 PM/ET with 1.8 million viewers. Both programs outpace broadcast program’s NBC’s TODAY Third Hour, TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, The Kelly Clarkson Show, NBC News Daily, ABC’s GMA3, CBS’ The Talk and The Drew Barrymore Show.

As the first Black woman to helm back-to-back weekday cable news programs, Faulkner has also played integral roles in FNC’s election coverage over the last several cycles. She is the lead of the network’s “Voter’s Voices” segments and recently presented a series titled, ”Families in Focus,” where she interviewed the family members of the then-presidential candidates during the 2024 primaries. Additionally, Faulkner has hosted a variety of primetime specials and townhalls focused on current events, including forums focused on policing in America, the ongoing conversation of justice in the country and education during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other topics.

That should be good for a laugh.

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

https://skydancingblog.com/2024/10/12/lazy-caturday-reads-trump-horrors/

The New Republic · Watch: Trump Completely Loses Train of Thought in Awkward SpeechDonald Trump rambled about “beautiful” circles and defined “groceries” during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
Replied in thread

@BruceMirken @Simplicator

Yes and yes and 'we'll see..."
People are still processing, prepping.

Not speaking to the prep effectiveness nor the continuing lack of consequences for the #TrumpVirus stunts... I'd just add that a lot of people are curious about what #cognitive scientists call #ExecutiveFunctioning - beyond naming an elephant or woman-man...

Biden has (had?) soul, moral guidelines and intellectual skills (and also human)

The enemy of #truth is #TrumpVirus + #GQP #disinformation

I love the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), but I am a bit surprised that agendas for meetings or clear objectives for meetings isn't an accommodation (for any disability but esp. executive functioning and memory)?

Yes, it's best practice, I know. I need something that proves to HR why I need this. Why meetings with no structure and 100% flexibility impair my memory, ability to organize my mind, plan, & etc

I have an extremely important grant application to complete (start!) this weekend.

I'm having great difficulty with it. All I can do is stare at my laptop screen. The only thing I've done so far is get people to write letters of support for me, which are all fabulous.

But my goodness the #ADHD and poor #executivefunctioning is off the charts today.

It makes me think about how many opportunities I've missed out on because of not being able to fill out paperwork or finish a task.