Train Your Brain for Success: A Teenager's Guide to Executive Functions

Executive functions are a set of thinking, problem-solving, and self-control skills that tell the brain what to do, and this book demonstrates the ways kids use executive functions in school, at home, and in their other activities and shows how these skills can be improved through sustained effort. Beginning with a test to determine executive-functioning strengths and weaknesses, the book then explores in detail eight distinct sets of skills, including planning, organization, focus, time management, self-control, flexibility, memory, and self-awareness. In addition to giving an overview of each executive-functioning skill and how these skills are used in the real world, the book—intended as a self-directed learning guide for students themselves—also provides teens tools and tips for improving executive functions, including how to use video games, iPods, cell phones, and other electronic media to their advantage. A section for teachers and parents who may be dealing with a teenager with one or more executive dysfunctions is also included, as well as information for teens on how to recognize when they need help and where to go for help when a problem arises.

Randy Kulman, PhD, is the founder and president of LearningWorks for Kids, an educational technology company that specializes in using video games to teach executive-functioning and academic skills. For the past 25 years, Dr. Kulman has also been the clinical director and president of South County Child and Family Consultants, a multidisciplinary group of private practitioners that specializes in assessment and interventions for children with learning disorders and attention difficulties. He is the author of numerous essays on the use of digital technologies for improving executive-functioning skills in children and is the coauthor of a chapter in the book Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques, and Frameworks. He lives in Wakefield, Rhode Island.