Late, Lost, and Unprepared: A Parents' Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning

by Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Laurie Dietzel

Overview

Does your child have difficulty meeting deadlines, staying organized, or keeping track of important information? Do they tend to forget details? Are they prone to emotional meltdowns? This book will become your go-to, all-inclusive guide to helping children manage issues with these executive functions.

Late, Lost, and Unprepared is packed with encouragement, strategies, overviews, case studies, tips, and more, explained in accessible, everyday language. In this updated and expanded edition of the highly regarded book for parents, you will find valuable new insights, fresh examples, and an all-new chapter on emotional regulation. Featuring down-to-earth examples and a flexible framework that allows you to think on your feet, the strategies within this book can be adapted to any child or situation.

In addition to providing approaches for helping your child to manage demands in the short run, this book offers strategies for building independent skills for long-term self-management. Late, Lost, and Unprepared gives parents the support they need to help their child become productive and independent – today and in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032507835
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/28/2024
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	288,465
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Ph.D., is a clinical child psychologist who specializes in the treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and other learning disabilities.

Laurie Dietzel, Ph.D. (1962–2015), was a clinical psychologist who specialized in the neuropsychological assessment of ADHD, learning disabilities, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. She was a coauthor of the first edition of this book. Her work lives on in this edition.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I: What You Need to Know

1 Introduction

Why Another Book?

Who Are We?

The Plan for This Book

2 What Is Executive Functioning?

A Formal Definition of Executive Functioning

Understanding Executive Functions by Looking at Life without Them

A List of Executive Functions

How This Book Is Organized

Final Thoughts

3 Development of the Executive Functions

Why Is My Child Having Problems with Executive Skill Development?

I.Q. and Executive Functioning

Typical Development

How Do I Know If My Child’s Executive Skills Are Developing Normally?

4 The Child’s Experience of Executive Weaknesses

Daily Life

Emotions

5 Impact on the Family

Impact on Parents

Impact on Siblings

Impact on Couples

Special Situations

Staying Healthy

6 Assessment: Figuring Out What’s Needed

The Purpose of Assessment

Evaluating the Role of Expectations

The Evaluation Process

Who Does Testing and What Do They Test?

Where Should You Seek an Assessment?

How to Be an Educated Consumer

Once the Assessment Is Done

Now What?

A Note about Executive Functioning and School Plans

7 ADHD, Learning Disabilities, and Other Conditions Associated with Executive Functioning Challenges

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Learning Disabilities (L.D.)

Autism Spectrum Disorders (A.S.D.)

Other Conditions Often Associated with Executive Function Weaknesses

Wrap-Up

Part II: What You Can Do about It

8 How to Help: An Overview

The Two-Pronged Approach

Designing Interventions

Creativity at Work

9 Behavior Change in a Nutshell

Use Real Life to Teach

Take a Teaching versus a Punishing Approach

Collaborate with Your Child

Focus on the Desired Outcome

Raise the Stakes

Reward Even Small Steps in the Right Direction

Use “Tried and True” Behavior Modification Techniques

Trust Your Child’s Own Developmental Urges

When Should You Allow Your Child to Experience Natural Consequences for Behavior?

Change Does Not Occur in a Smooth or Steady Uphill Manner

10 If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try a Few More Times Then … Change Your Expectations!

Don’t Try to Keep Up with the Joneses

The Limbo Game of Setting Expectations

If You Need to Change Expectations

Your Child’s Expectations

Your Partner’s Expectations

Fading Support

11 Helping Children Control Impulses

Strategies to Help a Child Manage Verbal Impulsiveness (Talking Excessively, Interrupting Others, etc.)

Strategies to Help a Child Manage Physical Impulsiveness (Grabbing Things, Pushing and Shoving Others, Hitting, etc.)

Strategies to Help a Child Stop Irritating Behavior

Strategies to Help a Child Control Running Off in Stores or Other Settings

Strategies to Help a Child Manage Homework Problems

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

12 Helping Children Shift Gears

Strategies to Help Children Manage Transitions

Strategies to Help a Child Adapt to New Situations or Environments

Strategies to Help a Child Who Becomes Upset When Peers Break the Rules or Behave in Unexpected Ways

Strategies to Help Reduce a Child’s Frustration When Their First Attempt to Solve a Problem

Isn’t Successful

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

13 Helping Children Get Started on Homework and Other Tasks

Strategies to Help Your Child Get Started with Homework

Strategies to Help Your Child Complete Chores and Other Routine Activities

Strategies to Help a Child Who Puts Off Major Projects

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

14 Helping Children with Working Memory Challenges

Strategies to Help a Child Who Has Trouble Following Directions

Strategies to Help a Child with Written Expression and Other Complex, Multistep Tasks

Strategies to Help a Child Who Interrupts Others So They Won’t Forget What They Want to Say

Strategies to Help a Child Who Needs to Reread or Relearn Information

Strategies to Help a Child Who Has Trouble Taking Notes in Class

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

15 Helping Children to Plan and Organize

Strategies to Help a Child Organize and Track Multiple Tasks over Time

Strategies to Help a Child Who Underestimates the Effort Involved in a Project

Strategies to Help a Child Who Does Homework But Doesn’t Turn It In

Strategies to Help a Child Who Struggles When Prioritizing Bits of Information

Strategies to Help a Child Who Arrives at Events Unprepared

Strategies to Help a Child Organize Their Materials and Their Space (Locker, Desk, Bedroom)

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

16 Helping Children Monitor Their Behavior

Strategies to Help a Child Who Gets Upset with the Outcome in a Situation but Lacks a Realistic, Systematic Approach to Making Things Go Better

Strategies to Help a Child Who Doesn’t Notice When They Have Gone Off on a Tangent

Strategies to Help a Child Who Doesn’t Notice “Careless” Errors

Strategies to Help a Child Who Doesn’t Adjust Behavior Based on Feedback

Strategies to Help a Child Notice When Peers Lose Interest in the Topic of Conversation

Strategies to Help a Child Who Is Genuinely Surprised When They Get in Trouble for Misbehavior (“What Did I Do?”)

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

17 Special Topic: Helping Children with Emotional Regulation

Strategies to Help Children and Teens Build Foundation Skills for Self-Regulation

Strategies to Help Children and Teens Who Need a Little Extra Support to Manage Their Feelings

Strategies to Help Children and Teens Who Need a Lot More Support to Manage Their Feelings and to Recover Once They Lose Control

Case Study: Putting It All Together

Transitioning from Short-Term to Long-Term Goals

Educate Others and Advocate for Your Child

Final Thoughts

18 Concluding Thoughts

The Zen of Intervention Planning

The “No Victims” Approach

Building a Life

Who Can Help?

A Field in Progress

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

LATE, LOST, AND UNPREPARED delves deeply into the world of executive functioning skills, explaining their role in learning and in critical life skills: time management, impulse control (in words and deeds), cognitive flexibility, and initiation, planning and organizing, among others. Part I of the book widens understanding about EF skills in general, including assessing your child or student's abilities. Part II, the "what you can do about it" section is page after page of positive strategies, highly practical tips and case studies that cement concepts and learning. A well-organized, well-written book that's sure to become a well-used addition to your home or professional library.

Autism Asperger's Digest

Two groundbreaking guides explore a burgeoning parenting topic. Executive functioning/executive skills are a series of cognitive skills that regulate behavior and help accomplish tasks, e.g., impulse and emotional control or planning and organizing work. When these skills are weak, children's behavior can be frustrating and vexing for parents who show strength in the particular skills with which their child struggles. Both guides emphasize children's nonperformance as caused by inability, and both illustrate how to improve functioning. Clinical psychologists Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel offer a practical approach through detailed explanations, explorations of causes and effects, and strengthening techniques. Especially helpful are a professional assessment how-to and abundant tips for advocacy at school.

Using a similar tack, Dawson, a psychologist, and Guare, a neuropsychologist, follow up on their clinician-specific Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, with more compassionate and parent-friendly results. They include age-specific questionnaires to assess skills in both child and parent and focus on the fit between children's and their parents' strengths and weaknesses in skill-building techniques and daily living. Notable are several useful checklists and a clear framework for intervention. While both titles include resource lists and clinical examples, Dawson and Guare's personal anecdotes lend immediacy. They also provide lists of toys and games to promote skill development and several relevant web sites. Overall, Smart but Scattered is the more comprehensive, accessible, and hopeful title. Donna Goldberg and Jennifer Zwiebel's The Organized Student:Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond showed the tip of the iceberg, and other books devoted exclusively to Asperger's syndrome or ADHD cater to a specific audience. As the first books on the subject to speak directly, comprehensively, and universally to parents, both titles are recommended for parenting collections in public and school libraries; Dawson and Guare's work should be considered essential.
—Shawna Thorup

Library Journal