Cover Image: Six Super Skills for Executive Functioning

Six Super Skills for Executive Functioning

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Member Reviews

This book aims to help teens improve their executive functioning. It discusses finding your strengths and interests, setting goals, breaking big projects into achievable smaller chunks, motivational strategies and ways to regulate your mood and attention. Positive self-talk might help motivate yourself, and writing goals down can keep you accountable and help plan how to manage your time. A lot of people struggle with procrastination which is a form of self-sabotage as things tend to feel harder and more stressful if you try to fit too much work into too little time. Perfectionism can also be a problem.

Some advice is practical: one important point is that spending a lot of time on the phone or other screen entertainments is a harmful distraction and takes time away from more useful pursuits. Some is more abstract and vague: "Evolve into a more resilient, resourceful, stronger person." Sorry but I'd have no idea how to get started doing that.

I liked that it was not all focused on school work but also addressed social relationships, fitness goals and creativity interests that teens might have and the importance of rest, breaks and fun is also noted. It's not very long but at times I found my attention wandering and it was hard to focus on what was being said. Some points get made repeatedly.

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To be honest, I couldn't get very far into this book back when I still had access to it. I got maybe through the introduction and part of the first section, but I couldn't get much further. A lot of small details kept throwing me off. One thing that definitely stuck in my mind was the casual recommendation of DuoLingo. For a large majority of people, Duolingo is useless. It does not teach grammar. At all. While this may not be a problem if you're just looking to review vocab, for the people who are actually trying to learn languages it isn't great.
I remember there being a bunch of other small details like that that kept throwing me off. The content of the book, the ideas it was trying to convey, and the layout of the book all seemed sound, and like good ideas. Unfortunately, I did not manage to read all the way through the first section, much less beyond it. Simple things like the writing style just kept making it seem off.
All in all, I might recommend this to a friend if they needed it, but otherwise, probably not.

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A really useful book that I have recommended to parents of children in my class and who I tutor. Full of inspiring tips and guidance, even as an adult I found it helpful! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

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6 SUPER SKILLS FOR EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING by Lara Honos-Webb is one of my favorites in this group of posts and is right on target for executive functioning skills as it aims to provide "Tools to Help Teens Improve Focus, Stay Organized, and Reach Their Goals." The six super skills discussed in the text are finding gifts, setting goals, chunking, boosting motivation, managing moods, and finding focus; all are key as we try to help students navigate remote learning. Honos-Webb, a clinical psychologist who has written several books about ADHD, notes that "research shows that self-discipline predicts your grades twice as much as IQ [does]" and she also points out how difficult it is to learn when one is especially anxious. Most schools are seeing an increase in failing (or near failing grades) and I think using some of the mini-exercises here (during advisery or homeroom time?) could really have a positive impact by increasing self-awareness and helping to reduce anxiety. Honos-Webb defines executive functioning and describes the importance of attention, planning, flexible thinking, emotional regulation, and impulse control. If nothing else, this text could build a vocabulary and mental checklist that will really benefit readers and students as they transition to lifelong learners.

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Six Super Skills for Executive Functioning is a wonderful book by Lara Honos-Webb. I absolutely love the way it's written.

I want my son to read this. Will he? No clue. But it's easily written for a teen to stay interested while getting the info they need.
This book includes many life long strategies that will help.
Anyone who knows someone who has executive functioning issues, this affects many areas in one's life. I appreciate the way the author covers so many things.

This is a great book for me, as a parent, as well as my son. It isn't often that I find a book that is written for a teen to be the reader. Well done!

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Easy to read with lots of great features to draw students in and give them the skills to succeed. Perfect for middle schoolers through young adults, this book uses clear, concrete strategies along with positive support to provide students with the ability to take control of their lives. The thought-provoking questions and vignettes will also be helpful for students that are a little more self-reflective. Overall, a nice addition for parents, teachers and support professionals to use with students.

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I really enjoyed this book! I feel like it's a great resource for teens, as well as teens and adults with ADHD. I recently got a diagnosis of ADHD and found a lot of these tools helpful.

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This self-help book focuses on a growing need for teenagers today- improvement in executive functioning skills. Procrastination, decreased motivation, inconsistency in mood regulation, and difficulty with planning and execution of skills plague today's teenagers. This book is written in a way to capture the reader's interest, but yet, remain easy to read and easy to follow. Vignettes are provided throughout each chapter to provide examples and real life scenarios to the reader. Strategies are provided throughout the book to help the teen/student have a positive sense of self as well as, improve these skills. These strategies assist the reader not only at the present time of the reading, but in the future. These are life long skills that are being explored and the reader's acquisition/generalization of these skills will set him/her up for future success. This book breaks down these skills in an easy to follow way. I highly recommend this book.

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This is such an excellent resource for students in high school and college. I really appreciate how a deficit in executive functioning is not just labelled as a disability but rather turned into a skill that all can benefit from strengthening. There are some really practical strategies that will be easy and realistic for students to implement. I think this would be a great resource for parents to work through with their own children who may struggle with attention/focus/executive functioning and a go to for educators.

I am really looking forward to ordering copies of this book for our school’s special education department to use with our staff and students. I will absolutely recommend this to educators, parents and students.

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This book was extremely helpful in defining what I needed to be successful. Grateful that I found it. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in need of help in this area.

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Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this book. I requested this to get some ideas for my children. The book is broken down into 6 main things to help teens be more successful. I thought the ideas were great but think for the targeted audience that the format would have been better with some graphics or told by graphics.

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