Comparing Executive Functioning Curriculum, Interventions & Guidebooks

Executive functioning skills, such as planning, organization, time management, and self-regulation, are often overlooked despite laying the foundation for student success. Yet many students struggle quietly, falling behind in ways that were once misinterpreted as general academic challenges or lack of effort. Today, these challenges are recognized as executive dysfunction.

Educators, families, and other professionals now have a wealth of tools to support these skills, ranging from comprehensive curricula to targeted interventions and guidebooks.

How do you choose the right fit for your learners, with so many options to choose from?

In this article, we will review some popular executive functioning curricula, interventions, and guidebooks and review which may be the most appropriate for different age groups, needs, and contexts.

What is Executive Functioning?

Executive functioning (EF) is a set of mental skills that allow us to manage our thoughts, actions, and emotions to reach our goals. Executive functioning skills include skills like working memory, planning, organization, time management, task initiation, self-monitoring, and emotional regulation. These skills begin developing early on in childhood and continue through early adulthood. These skills are critical for success in class and in social relationships.

Why Teach Executive Functioning Skills?

Executive functioning skills are a necessary foundation to develop other academic and functional skills. Executive functions can be developed over time and help learners access their academic knowledge and daily living skills. Many students struggle to participate in the classroom due to barriers such as limited active listening, difficulty problem-solving, or losing and misplacing materials. When teachers reframe executive functioning struggles as skills to teach rather than behaviors to manage, they can shift from asking, “Why won’t this student do it?” to “What skill does this student need help developing?”

While many educators and professionals incorporate executive functioning strategies into existing classroom curricula and activities, other students may require more explicit instruction on these skills. Below is a collection of various executive functioning-specific curricula that can be used to help target specific executive functions.

Curriculum, Intervention, and Guidebooks: Key Differences

Before choosing an executive functioning program, it’s important to know how curricula, interventions, and guidebooks differ.

• Curriculum–A structured program with sequenced lessons, activities, and materials designed to teach specific skills or knowledge. EF curricula provide explicit instruction over time for a group of students.
• Intervention–A targeted, skill-building approach for students who struggle with specific EF skills. Interventions are more individualized than curricula and often include goal setting, progress monitoring, and consistent practice across settings.
• Framework/Guidebook–a guided model or structure that helps educators, families, other professionals, and neurodivergent individuals understand certain principles, skills, or developmental sequences. Guidebooks do not provide a step-by-step instructional sequence or protocol. In executive functioning, a guidebook may help inform the selection of strategies, but leaves implementation up to the people involved.

Curriculum or guidebook strategies can function as an intervention if they target a specific skill and progress is monitored. This is often the case when a formal EF curriculum is not available. Alternatively, interventions can be implemented with a whole class if broader support needs indicate that this intensive support is a better fit. It all depends on the needs of your learners!

Unstuck and On Target!

Unstuck and On Target! is a step-by-step executive functioning curriculum designed to build skills such as flexibility, planning, organization, and self-regulation across different age groups. The curriculum is structured in six units covering topics like understanding thinking styles, staying on target, working with others, and planning, with a final unit celebrating progress. All three versions can be purchased from Brookes Publishing for a one-time fee of approximately $70.00.

Ages 8-11, Original Version (Second Edition)

The first version of the Unstuck and On Target! curricula was created for students ages 8 to 11. This is the original version, released in 2021, and is now in its 2nd edition. It focuses on foundational executive functioning skills using explicit, step-by-step routines and activities. Some examples of activities include using visual charts for feelings and coping strategies.

Ages 11-15

This version of the Unstuck and On Target! curricula is designed for middle school students who are between the ages of 11 and 15. This curriculum is meant to focus more on the nuances of middle school, such as managing more complex independent work and peer interactions. This version was released in 2024.

Ages 14-22

This version of the Unstuck and On Target! curricula is designed for teens and young adults aged 14 to 22. These activities are geared toward developing more complex executive functioning skills that will help with transitioning to higher education, vocational demands, and day-to-day independent living.

This curriculum includes six units, with chapters focused on skills including understanding your thinking style, staying on target, working with others, planning, and a celebration at the very end. This is the newest version of the series and will be published soon!

You can find some excellent, free resources on the Unstuck and On Target Resource Hub, which has videos, games, training, fact sheets, and parent worksheets. You can also find examples of a lesson and a chapter from the curriculum in this resource base.

Smart but Scattered – Second Edition

The Smart but Scattered series, written by executive function experts Drs. Richard Guare and Peg Dawson provide practical strategies to help learners develop executive functioning skills at home and school. All editions include downloadable worksheets and forms to support implementation. The goal is to equip learners with the skills they need to meet current demands while building lifelong habits for success.

Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential

Smart but Scattered is a widely used executive skills guidebook, made to help learners between the ages of 4 and 13 develop foundational executive functioning skills. The curriculum provides strategies to help learners improve skills like sustaining attention, managing emotions, following routines, incorporating visual support, and using a learner’s interests to foster motivation. The book is 328 pages long and is divided into three sections, covering executive dysfunction, establishing a strong foundation, and strategies across various areas.

Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential

Smart but Scattered Teens extends the executive skills guidebook to meet the developmental needs of adolescents in grades 6-12 as they face more challenging academic, social, and personal expectations. This resource focuses on developing strategies to meet these complex demands, such as managing long-term assignments, organizing multiple classes and activities, maintaining motivation, and taking greater responsibility for daily living tasks.

This approach helps educators, families, and other professionals focus on different skill-building techniques such as study plans, consistent routines, self-evaluation tools, and metacognitive strategies. Teens are taught what to do and how to understand their own thinking.

Smart but Scattered—and Stalled: 10 Steps to Help Young Adults Use Their Executive Skills to Set Goals, Make a Plan, and Successfully Leave the Nest

Smart but Scattered–and Stalled is another version of the popular series focusing on young adults who are struggling to move towards independent living. The book presents a 10-step process that helps families and young adults identify strengths, target needs, and develop an actionable plan. Strategies taught include increasing accountability, clarifying personal goals, and creating routines to support follow-through.

Life Skills Advocate: The Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook

The Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook by Life Skills Advocate is a versatile guidebook that helps adolescents, teens, and young adults build practical executive functioning skills in day-to-day contexts like school, work, and home. Designed by Chris Hanson and Amy Sippl, it includes the eleven broken-down areas of executive functioning. Each chapter begins with a pre-assessment and includes different activities to meet individualized needs. It includes 81 hands-on exercises and recommendations to expand on these activities.

The workbook works well for self-guided use, one-on-one coaching, or integration into home or school-based services. The PDF is fillable or can be printed for use.

SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum

SMARTS is a comprehensive executive functioning curriculum designed to provide strategy lessons to learners in grades 1-12. SMARTS is an acronym standing for strategies, motivation, awareness, resilience, talents, and success. SMARTS focuses on helping students strengthen “the five cogs” of executive functioning, including goal setting, cognitive flexibility, memorizing, organizing and prioritizing, and self-checking and monitoring. Lessons are aligned to Response to Intervention (RtI), which allows the program to be adapted to general education, special education, small-group, and individualized sessions. There are up to 50 lessons on different strategies, which can be used as needed and in whatever order the teacher determines is needed. The SMARTS classic printable curriculum can be purchased for elementary and secondary settings. The new SMARTS Connect is an online curriculum that can be purchased for elementary, middle school, or high school.

Licenses to access the SMARTS curriculum can be purchased on their website. Each curriculum can be purchased for individual users or multiple users. Single-user licenses range between $595.00 – $775.00 per year. Other tools can be added to your purchase for more data-tracking options.

Homework, Organization, and Planning (HOPS) – Second Edition

HOPS is an executive functioning intervention that teaches students to track what has been assigned, gather the right materials, break tasks into smaller steps, plan ahead, and turn work in on time. Learners are taught explicit ways to organize their belongings and create a system for recording assignments and tests and managing homework. They monitor their use of the system and are rewarded for keeping up with the system, based on their motivations. This reward system and plans to implement the system after school during homework or studying time are meant to be implemented at home through a school-home partnership. This intervention is based on behavioral principles and is dependent on consistency and collaboration.

The second edition of this intervention was published in 2022 by the National Association of School Psychologists. A paper copy or e-book can be purchased for about $70. There is also an accompanying parent guide, which was published in 2014.

Everyday Speech

Everyday Speech is a social skills curriculum that is known for being no-prep and personalizable for whole-class, small group, and individualized settings. The curriculum includes video modeling, games, and worksheets to practice a variety of skills. When reviewing the intervention materials specifically, there are goals targeting executive functioning, setting goals, solving a problem, perspective taking, making decisions, and using your self-controller. These areas address various executive functioning skills such as cognitive flexibility, impulse control, emotional control, and attentional control. Resources can be assigned and tracked to individual users and groups, and can be differentiated based on preschool/kindergarten, elementary, and middle/high school.

Individual users and departments can purchase access for $499.99-$599.99, and schools can inquire about cost. Single users can pay on a monthly basis for $59.99, with recurring payments.

AxiomLearning – Executive Functioning Curriculum for Every Learner

AxiomLearning’s EF curriculum was created by alumni from Harvard and Stanford and can be adapted for students in grades K-12. The lessons are scripted and ready to use, and have minimal prep time (1-3 minutes). The curriculum is organized into 20 modules, which are each broken down into four 15-minute lessons delivered once weekly. Before engaging in the activity, students take a pre-assessment and their progress is tracked over time. The curriculum also focuses on identifying the root cause of a learner’s difficulty. Based on whether that cause is related to executive functioning, cognitive processing, or sensory-motor skills, students are matched to EF activities, brain warm-ups, or regulation activities. This curriculum also follows the PICL framework to reinforce learning, by having students break skills down, prepare, notice and adapt skills, and reflect and remember skills.

Conclusion

Choosing the right program depends on the learner’s needs, goals, and context. For preventative, whole-class skill-building, a structured curriculum like SMARTS or Axiom Learning may be most effective. When targeting specific skill deficits, guidebooks or interventions such as HOPS‑2 or Smart but Scattered provide practical strategies for small groups or individual students. Neurodiverse learners often benefit from starting with a needs-based intervention.

Your budget is also a key factor; subscription-based platforms may offer robust features but require ongoing costs, whereas one-time purchases (such as books or manuals) can be the most cost-effective for individuals or small-scale implementations. Assessing student needs, setting, and resources is essential before investing in an EF program.

TL;DR – (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

Executive functioning skills such as planning, organization, time management, and self-regulation are essential for student success. Educators, families, and professionals have access to a range of tools, including structured curricula, targeted interventions, and guidebooks to meet the unique needs of their learners. Some of these helpful resources include:

• Unstuck & On Target! (all versions: elementary, middle, teen/adult)
• Smart but Scattered (Kids, Teens, and Young Adults / Stalled)
• The Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook
• Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) – Second Edition
• SMARTS Executive Functioning Curriculum
• Everyday Speech
• Axiom Learning Executive Functioning Curriculum

The resources you choose to use with your learner will vary depending on their unique needs. Be sure to review the different options in depth to see if they include the skills your learner needs the most support with. Consider the type of resource as well as the price when making your decision. If consistent use of one program does not result in the change your learner would like to see, browse around for other solutions that fill in those gaps.

Further Reading

• AxiomLearning (2025) – Students Don’t Need To Struggle Anymore!
• Everyday Speech (2025) – Strengthening Executive Functioning in Students: Lessons, Strategies, and Resources
• Everyday Speech (2025) – Teach Social Skills with Zero Prep
• Guilford Press (2024) – Smart but Scattered Second Edition: The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential
• Guilford Press (2013) – Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential
• Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (2025) – About the Intervention
• National Association of School Psychologists (2024) – Homework Organization & Planning Skills Interventions (HOPS), 2nd Edition (Print & Digital)
• Pathways to Success (2020) – 12 Reasons to Teach Executive Functioning Skills Explicitly
• SMARTS (2024) – Teach Students How to Learn
• Unstuck and On Target (2025) – What is Unstuck?
• Life Skills Advocate (2025) – Introducing: The Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook
• Life Skills Advocate (2022) – What is Executive Functioning?