EXECUTIVE FUNCTION GAMES --> TDAH

INHIBITION

It is clear that one of the difficulties of children with ADHD is the ability to control their behavior, but how can it be improved? There are some of the activities that promote their inhibition skills:

GO-NO GO

With a sun and a moon cards (or other pairs of antagonists, such as black and white, big and small) we will play at teaching them one and saying the opposite. When the sun rises, they should say night and when the moon rises let them say day. After a few attempts doing well, you can change and say what would be right. In case they do NOT get it, you can encourage them to stop for a second before they respond, saying for example "Before you respond, make sure you are okay"

STROOP

This well-known activity consists in saying with what color the name of a color is written, when the tendency is to read the word. Asking for a wait time before responding can be fine as well.

BALL I MÚSICA O CÓRRER I PARAR

These are more attractive due to the movement it needs. They consist in, while a stimulus is shown, such as music, a card, a color ... children has to run or dance, but when they disappears or stops the same , they have to stop suddenly.

OTHER STRATEGIES

-TURTLE TECHNIQUE: It lies in teaching children, not only those affected by ADHD, that when they feel threatened, say "turtle", cover their faces with their arms and relax before resolving the situation that caused them tension.

-NO TO NO: Try to avoid "no" when you want to correct their behavior ("don't shout", "don't get up") and act positively by giving clear instructions on how to behave ("speak in a tone moderate "," sit down, please ")

-STOP: All students have a STOP sign with the following written on the back:

This signal should be used at the beginning of any activity and improves your task monitoring.

REFERENCES:

-Guerrero, A. & Isabel, A (2014). Estrategias de intervención para mejorar la funciones ejecutivas en niños con TDAH: Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. Gotten back from: https://reunir.unir.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3002/AnaIsabel_Adame_Guerrero.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

- https://elsonidodelahierbaelcrecer.blogspot.com/2018/02/control-inhibitorio-prueba-go-no-go-con.html

- https://www.funcionesejecutivas.net/control-inhibitorio/fichas-y-actividades-para-el-control-inhibitorio/

FLEXIBLE THINKING

Another fact which aproximatelly the 40% of children with ADHD encouters with, is the difficulty to have flexible thoughts. That means the use of new strategies to face already stablished problems, the ability to adapt to new situations and inhibit inapropriate behaviors.

There are many creative ways to increase that skill, specially when children are young. Some helpful activities are gathered:

FLEXIBILITY CARDS

They basicly ask for trying to do many things with the same elements. That can be by drawing many figures by joining the same points in different cards:

Classifying some cards using many different criteria:

Asking first to connect ascending numbers, and then ascending numbers too but keeping in mind to alternate circle and square numbers:

Or using the same group of letters in order to make different words.

Some other strategies with stories could be to order desorganized pharagraphs of a story or also trying to create new endings for known stories.

REFERENCES

-Guerrero, A. & Isabel, A (2014). Estrategias de intervención para mejorar la funciones ejecutivas en niños con TDAH: Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. Gotten back from: https://reunir.unir.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3002/AnaIsabel_Adame_Guerrero.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

-Huerta D. (2020). Entrenamiento de la flexibilidad cognitiva en niños con TDAH: Red Cenit. Gotten back from: https://www.redcenit.com/entrenamiento-de-la-flexibilidad-cognitiva-en-ninos-con-tdah/