Picture-Based Checklists to Support Executive Functioning

Understanding Executive Functioning

Checklists are often used to help students who struggle with executive functioning, but research shows that pairing pictures with lists is critical to their effectiveness. Executive functioning is a key to students’ success in school and life and can be directly taught and supported with digital tools. Verbal and non-verbal working memory are arguably the most important domains of executive functioning. According to Dr. Russell Barkley, these areas are responsible for keeping you “on track, on time and in control”. This is important because, as Sara Ward, a Speech-language Pathologist points out, “90% of task planning happens in a different space from where you will execute the plan”. Much like a map, non-verbal working memory allows you to visualize the steps needed, as well as potential obstacles, for task planning.

Students then need to hold the plan to accomplish a task in their working memory. It’s helpful for teachers to understand that there are actually developmental norms for how long kids can plan into the future, known as “time horizons“. In typically developing children, these time horizons are:

• Kindergarten – 2nd Grade: Several Hours
• 3rd – 6th Grade: 8-12 Hours
• 6th – 12th Grade: 2 – 3 Days
• 17 – 23 Years: 2-3 Weeks

Keep in mind that students with ADHD or spectrum disorders are considered to have a 30% delay (3-3.5 years) in their ability to plan into the future. The good news is that we can directly teach and support executive functioning skills. Below are some of the digital tools and strategies that teachers can employ.

Picture-Based Checklists

Why are Pictures Important?

Since students with executive functioning challenges need to practice visualizing themselves through the steps of each task. Checklists that contain written steps are not likely to help. Instead, lists should feature a picture of the student having completed the task. Ideally, images should be of the student themselves in the location where the task should be completed. Picture-based lists help students to develop the skill of “thinking in pictures”.

Feature-Blocking Images for Emphasis

Feature-blocking images helps to highlight important aspects of task completion. This is most easily done in Google Slides as follows:

1. Upload an image to Google Slides
2. Use Shapes toolbar to overlay a shape onto important elements of the picture
3. Change the fill color of the shape to Transparent
4. If needed, change the outline color and line thickness
5. Once your image is complete, click File –> Download as PNG or JPG to save the slide as an image file.

via GIPHY

Google Keep Checklists

Google Keep is a perfect tool for the creation of checklists because it allows you to list each step and add images to lists. Keep Notes can be color-coded and tagged with keywords (labels) to help users to stay organized. To create a checklist and add an image or images:

1. Navigate to Google Keep
2. Create a new note by clicking the “+” at the bottom right corner
3. Click the Image icon (#1 pictured below) to add one or multiple images
4. Click the 3 dots to “Show Checkboxes” (#2 pictured below)

This short video shows you how to create checklists and include a feature-blocked image to support students in their development of executive functioning skills.

Google Keep Video Playlist

For more tips and ideas on how you can use Google Keep to stay organized, check out the playlist from GEG New England: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnsd4-Gb__qROt7vUTPDt6pHKHUEhrmlQ

GEG New England launches April 5th and is a free organization to support educational users of Google Workspace. To learn more, check out our website at: www.gegnewengland.com