FLIPP The Switch 2.0: Mastering Executive Function Skills from School to Adult Life for Students with Autism

This book provides educators with detailed information about executive function skills and evidence-based practices that can be used with students with autism spectrum disorder who experience executive function (EF) deficits to be more successful in school, at home, in the community, and in the future.

Educators often struggle with how to effectively teach students who grasp concepts but are unable to succeed in school or other learning environments. Although these students frequently experience EF deficits, including flexibility, managing emotions, controlling impulses, planning, and problem-solving, educators are given no training in how to remedy these deficits. Educators need evidence-based strategies to create supportive learning environments that build executive function skills students can incorporate into everyday life.

FLIPP 2.0 provides a blueprint for identifying the executive function skills that students need for future success, along with specific strategies that will support kindergarten through high school students in building strong, long-term gains in executive function skills. FLIPP 2.0 expands upon the information provided in the first book, FLIPP The Switch, by providing more complex strategies that can be implemented in the classroom, with detailed instructions for both educators and students on how to incorporate them into the school day. Many students struggle in school and in post-school life, not because they lack academic skills, but because they lack the EF skills necessary to access instruction and support performance. FLIPP 2.0 illustrates how students of all ages can learn to generalize these skills into new environments.

With FLIPP 2.0, readers will gain a deeper understanding of executive function skills and deficits. They will learn how evidence-based practices can be used to increase the EF skills of students of all ages and skill levels. Most importantly, they will learn a specific set of steps for gradually releasing control to students, so that students are eventually able to take responsibility for their own learning and success.

Carol Burmeister, M.A., has a life-long passion for supporting neurodiverse individuals, their families, and the schools and community settings that serve them. Her professional experience includes serving as a paraeducator, general education teacher, special educator, program specialist, university instructor, and consultant across a variety of educational settings. 

Armed with the knowledge that evidence-based intervention practices for children with ASD are the basis on which effective programs are built, Carol served as a reviewer on both the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders’ and the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practices’ updates on evidence-based practices. For the past several years, her work has focused on the crucial topic of executive function (EF), helping students and parents as well as educators understand the complexity of social, academic, and behavioral challenges that accompany EF deficits and how teaching specific skills in childhood and adolescence can have a positive impact on adulthood. 

Carol has presented at regional, national, and international conferences and has authored several articles on this topic. In addition, she is co-author, with Dr. Sheri Wilkins, of the book, FLIPP the Switch: Strengthen Executive Function Skills as well as FLIPP the Switch 2.0: Mastering Executive Function Skills from School to Adult Life for Students with Autism, co-authored with Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Rebecca Silva. She is also an editor and a contributing author to Life After Lockdown: Resetting Perceptions of Autism. Carol currently serves on the board of the Panhandle Autism Society in North Idaho.

Dr. Sheri Wilkins has worked in the field of education for over 30 years at the preschool, elementary, high school, and university levels. She has dedicated her professional career to serving students with disabilities and building the capacity of educators to better serve this unique population. After her son Dominic sustained a mild traumatic brain injury in a car accident in 2010, Sheri gained first-hand experience in the power of environmental modifications and metacognitive strategies to support people who struggle with executive functions. It was this personal experience that led to her work with parents of children with disabilities, specifically children who are inflexible, emotional, impulsive, and poor at planning and problem solving. Wilkins is the co-author, with Carol Burmeister and Dr. Rebecca of FLIPP the Switch: Strengthen Executive Function Skills.

Dr. Rebecca Silva's devotion to children with special needs started when she volunteered in a classroom of young students with severe disabilities in college. She fell in love with this group of very special kids and has committed 40 years to the field of special education as a teacher, grant coordinator, university instructor, principal, and administrator. As the special education administrator in Riverside County California, she developed the Reach Autism Program, providing evidence-based interventions in classroom and in-home settings. Dr. Rebecca has presented on topics related to special education at state, national and international conferences. She has also written numerous grants, articles, manuals and curricula in the area of autism, assessment, self-determination, and transition. Additionally, Dr. Rebecca is committed to the disability community and has served on a number of organizations, most notable her two-year tenure as Co-Chair of the California Senate Select Committee on Autism. She currently serves on the boards of the Autism Assessment Center Inland Empire, and the Autism Society Inland Empire.