Using the ipad to strengthen executive functioning skills

The following is a guest post written by Tara Roehl of www.speechykeenslp.com I asked Tara to write this post as she specializes in using the apps & iPad to strengthen executive functioning skills in young children. Please be sure to visit Tara's site, and blog, for even more information on how to use apps to strengthen executive functioning. 

Executive functioning skills are a part of our everyday lives as adults. These skills begin emerging in infancy and see rapid throughout early childhood and adolescence. There are many ways to encourage the use and development of executive functioning skills throughout a child’s day, and the iPad is no exception.

I’m a big proponent of utilizing the iPad as a tool to support professionals and parents in working with children. I love using it as a tool by itself, as well as a “springboard”. It’s key to take something the child is playing/practicing on the iPad and move it into multiple environment as well as across skill domains. Below are three apps I use when working with young children to support the development of executive functioning skills. I’ve included some key areas of executive functioning they address, as well application ideas.

One thing I want to emphasize, before discussing these apps, is how important it is to start using these tools and games in a fun way. If we jump right into using them with difficult topics/tasks, we lose the “buy-in” with children. Apply it directly with very fun tasks, and model it with more everyday tasks (ex: how you make dinner, how to get to the copy machine, etc). As you see their abilities improving, then you can begin applying it to “less fun but more necessary” areas.

 Happy Apping!

-        Tara Roehl, MS, CCC-SLP


Get even more creative ideas for executive functioning! 

Tara Roehl is a nationally certified Speech-Language Pathologist. She owns a telepractice-based private practice in Colorado focusing on the social/pragmatic and executive functioning needs of students with ADHD, High Functioning Autism and related disorders.  She speaks across the nation on executive functioning and the integration of the iPad with gamification theory in therapy. 

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