If you’ve hung around Life Skills Advocate long enough, you know that we’re always looking for new ways to help neurodivergent learners get better at executive functioning.
Executive functioning plays a vital role in our daily lives, influencing our ability to plan, organize, prioritize, focus, and regulate our behavior. Strong executive functioning skills are crucial for academic and professional success.
As with many other skills we work on with learners, we know it can be better to target them in social settings. As humans, learning naturally happens in groups.
In this blog post, we will explore 12 executive functioning exercises specifically designed for small group settings.
Click here to jump to the TL;DR summary.
What to Consider When Working on Executive Functioning in Small Groups
Small group settings offer several advantages for executive functioning exercises. They provide opportunities for collaboration, peer support, and shared learning experiences. By establishing a supportive and collaborative environment, neurodivergent learners can observe others who may struggle with similar skills and learn new strategies.
There are some good things to consider when working on executive functioning skills in small group settings.
- Budget extra time – Working on skills in group settings can take more time than when working 1:1. Plan accordingly to allow time for the group to get settled in and time to allow all individuals to share and discuss.
- Begin and end on time – Along with good time management within the group, it’s best for group buy-in and respectful participation to begin your small group session on time and to end on time. If individuals learn they can always be 5 minutes late without missing anything, you’ll soon find people showing up to every session late–not a great model of good executive function!
- Know everyone’s comfort with groups – Not all neurodivergent individuals have the same comfort level with small group settings. Recognize that some group members may want to share a great deal of information while others may need some encouragement to participate.
- Avoid “The Boss” – Some individuals can jump into small groups and quickly become “the boss”, dominating the conversation and offering advice or critique to others without solicitation. Start by laying ground rules for each group session that include how each individual contributes.
12 Exercises to Work on Executive Functioning Skills in Small Groups
Before you read more about executive functioning skills, if you’re new to targeting EF skills, we recommend starting with these free resources:
- What is Executive Functioning? A Comprehensive Guide
- Executive Functioning 101 Resource Hub
- Executive Functioning Skills: What to Expect at Every Age
Planning & Organization
- Visual Schedule Builder – Visual schedules are an evidence-based tool to help neurodivergent learners with planning and organization. But they take time and energy to develop, something that can be overwhelming on its own. Spend a small group executive functioning skills building visual schedules as a team. Participants can either work as a small group or in pairs to design visual schedules to map out their daily routines and tasks. Use a standard template and then assign different groups to complete different routines (homework, morning, bedtime, mealtimes, getting ready for work, etc.) At the end, share each visual schedule with all the members of the group.
- Weekly Planning Meeting – Sometimes neurodivergent individuals benefit from having a peer talk through their plan and help to organize to-do list items. Especially if conducted in a homeroom or resource classroom, students may have similar tasks on their to-do list; holding planning sessions together can ensure tasks don’t get missed and sufficient time is allotted.
For a sample weekly planning agenda, download our free printable .pdf weekly planning checklist.
- The Big Picture – Divide into groups of 3-4 people and provide each group with a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle without the completed picture. Tell the group they have 10 minutes to complete as many pieces of the puzzle as possible. After 10 minutes, pause and discuss with the group what’s missing or making the process difficult (e.g., hard without the overall image, missing the big picture, etc.). Then provide each group with the picture of the completed puzzle and give them 10 more minutes to work. Pause again and discuss the difference in the speed and effectiveness of working when you have a plan or a vision of the big picture.
Time Management
- How Long is a Minute? – Divide a larger group into 3 people. Assign one person to be the time keeper, one person to be the watcher, and one person to be the “guesser.” Set the timer for one minute and instruct the “guesser” close their eyes and not open them until they estimate a minute has elapsed. The person watching should pay attention to what time the guesser opens their eyes. Repeat the process, allowing each person to estimate the time. Then discuss as a large troup that even though everyone has an equal amount of time during the day, how we estimate the amount of time a task will take can make a big difference in how effective our time management is.
- Pace Yourself – For some learners, time management goes well as long as there are no surprises. But when extra work gets piled on or things get messy, it can be difficult to manage the stress. In this exercise, have one group member practice sorting different items into bins (by color, shape, etc.) within a certain amount of time. After practicing a few times, other group members suddenly change the work load, adding more items to sort at unpredictable intervals while the overall time requirement remains constant. Allow each group member to experience having to work under changing requirements. Then discuss what it’s like to have to speed up and slow down your work pace and effectively manage time in the face of real-life changes.
Task Initiation
- Pep Talk – Sometimes all we need to get started on a task is a pep talk, or a bit of coaching to get started. Work in small groups to have each participant in the group record a video of themselves encouraging them to “just do it” and get started. Then swap smartphones and have group members record videos and GIFs for each other with words of encouragement. Send these to each other during non-group sessions for extra support.
- First/Then – Create a deck of tasks from each learner’s typical daily schedule. Then have everyone in the group select a task from the deck. Work as a group to then prioritize and discuss which tasks from the deck should be completed first until all the tasks are in order. Ensure that some tasks in the deck have an obvious order (e.g., eat breakfast is in order before going to bed), whereas others are subjective and may not always have a clear order.
Emotional Control
- Messed Up – Assign a small group a simple task (e.g., sorting papers, setting the table, folding laundry). Create a set of cards with “disruptions” or unexpected things that can make the task more difficult. Ask one member of the group to begin the task. Then give the rest of the group members one of the disruptions cards and tell them that at any point they can play the disruption card and force the member completing the task to practice it in the disrupted way. After each member has a turn disrupting the task, talk about strategies to keep your cool when unexpected things happen.
- Stop. Think. Act. – Stop, Think, Act is a tool to practice stopping to think through solutions before acting. Download our Tough Stuff Flashcard Deck. The scenarios in the Tough Stuff Flashcard Deck and use the flashcards to rehearse and practice in a group how to Stop, Think, and Act before acting emotionally.
Attentional Control
- The Distraction-ator – Assign one member of the group to complete a simple worksheet (multiplication, crossword, etc.) for 2 minutes. Record how much work is done in the time period. In the next 2 minutes, have other members of the group deliberately attempt to distract the individual and compare how much work is completed. Then, ask the individual to use an attentional control strategy like wearing noise canceling headphones or the Pomodoro technique while others continue to distract. Compare notes about what works and doesn’t work for each member of the group.
Working Memory
- Personal Facts – One way to work on social skills and working memory at the same time, is to have your small group complete a “get to know you” session. Set a timer for 5 minutes and ask group members to learn as much as they can about their fellow group members. The next session, review different strategies to build working memory (mnemonics, visualization, “say it back”, etc.) Then set a timer for 5 minutes and ask group members to again learn as much as they can about their fellow group members. Follow up with a discussion on which strategies helped them remember more about the group.
- Telephone – Remember the good ol’ fashioned playground game of he-said-she-said? Even though it’s simple, the practice of taking turns recalling and adding items to a growing list can be an effective way to challenge and improve working memory. Start with a pre-programmed message of a short phrase and pass it around the circle. Then see how many parts you can add. Practice having different members of the group at the start and end of the telephone line.
Want more exercises?
Many of the exercises included here can also be found with downloadable materials in The Real Life Executive Functioning Workbook (coupon code LSA20 for 20% off at checkout). With more than 80 different interventions, printables, and downloadable .pdfs it’s a treasure trove of executive functioning interventions that can be adapted for group settings.
TL;DR – (Too Long, Didn’t Read)
Incorporating these executive functioning exercises into small group settings can significantly enhance skills like working memory, emotional control, planning and organization, time management, goal setting, and task initiation skills.
By fostering a supportive and collaborative environment, these exercises provide valuable opportunities for personal growth and improved executive functioning abilities.
Start implementing these exercises today and witness the positive impact on your group’s success.
Further Reading
- Life Skills Advocate – Real Life Executive Functioning Workbook (coupon code LSA20 for 20% off at checkout)
- Life Skills Advocate – Stop, Think, Act: How to Practice Emotional Control Skills with Your Teen
- Life Skills Advocate – What is Executive Functioning? A Comprehensive Guide
- Life Skills Advocate – Executive Functioning 101 Resource Hub
- Life Skills Advocate – Executive Functioning Skills: What to Expect at Every Age