Hey! How's your week going?

This week I want to address something I've heard from a LOT of SLPs. Does this sound familiar?

You've done the executive functioning CEUs, read the research, and can spout the lingo: metacognitive strategies, Goal Management Training, Goal-Plan-Do-Review/Revise.

But when a patient is sitting in front of you, you start to think...

📋 Executive Functioning: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here's a concrete plan for how to work on executive functioning in therapy:

1) Task: Pick a multi-step task that is meaningful to your patient. Ex: paying a bill, scheduling an appointment, downloading an audiobook, texting a friend, using the coffee maker, etc.

2) Items: Ask, "What items do you need to do this task?" (This helps with planning and efficiency.)

3) Steps: Break it into small steps, in order. Write them down.

4) Time: Estimate how long each step will take. Later, compare to reality. (This helps build insight.)

5) Stress: Which steps feel hard or stressful? Put a star by them.

6) Strategies: What could make the hard steps easier? Can you simplify it or use a tool?

7) Predictions: What could go wrong, and what's the plan if it does?

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8) Do: The patient actually does the task you planned out together.

9) Review: Did it take as long as they thought? Were the hard steps the ones they flagged? Did the strategies work?

EF Treatment Made Easy

You can definitely make the materials yourself: task choices, steps, strategy options, the estimated-vs-actual time tracker, the reflection prompts, etc.

But if you want to skip the prep, the Virtual Rehab Center has it all ready to go! 🎉

Interactive Treatment 1: Planning Tasks

Try Planning Tasks in the Virtual Rehab Center. This treatment helps patients prepare for common daily tasks by working through the planning process with built-in multiple-choice options.

Patients select a task to plan from choices, then work through the steps in order. This is a great way to get the repetitions needed to really learn the strategy.

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Interactive Treatment 2: Planning Your Tasks

Try Planning Your Tasks in the Virtual Rehab Center. The same sequence as above, but open-ended, to work on your patient's specific goal. They must generate items, steps, time estimates, stressors, strategies, and predictions themselves. (Though, of course, you can still provide cues as needed.)

The best part? A personalized PDF is generated at the end! It has everything they've entered, plus reflection questions to answer after doing the task. This gives your patient the metacognitive strategies and framework for completing the task every. single. time. 💪🧠

We're offering everyone a free 21-day trial of the Virtual Rehab Center to check out all the interactive treatments, handouts, flashcards, and more. It's meant to help guide your therapy so you can focus on patients, not protocols.

The easiest way to provide evidence-based treatment + free home exercises for your patients.

Executive functioning is complex, but even therapy can be broken down into manageable steps. Now that you know what it looks like, give it a try and let me know how it goes!

All the best,
​-Megan

P.S. This is one treatment for one deficit. Want me to break down memory or attention the same way – the actual "here's what you do" version? Hit reply and tell me which one you want next. 👀

P.P.S. Did you know we also have lots of educational handouts on executive functioning in the Virtual Rehab Center? You can download them during your free trial for keeps!