Boosting Executive Skills in the Classroom: a Practical Guide for Educators, Grades K-12. Joyce Cooper-Kahn & Margaret Foster, $35.95

Students with weak Executive Function skills need strong support and specific strategies to help them learn in an efficient manner, demonstrate what they know, and manage the daily demands of school. This book shows teachers how to do exactly that, while also managing the ebb and flow of their broader classroom needs. From the co-author of the bestselling parenting book LATE, LOST, AND UNPREPARED, comes a compilation of the most practical tools and strategies, designed to be equally useful for children with EF problems as well as all other students in the general education classroom.

Rooted in solid research and classroom-tested experience, the book is organized to help teachers negotiate the very fluid challenges they face every day; educators will find strategies that improve their classroom "flow" and reduce the stress of struggling to teach students with EF weaknesses.

Calm, Alert, and Learning: Classroom Strategies for Self-Regulation. Stuart Shanker, $55.00

Recent research tells us that one of the keys to student success is self-regulation — the ability to monitor and modify emotions, to focus or shift attention, to control impulses, to tolerate frustration or delay gratification. But can a child’s ability to self-regulate be improved?

Canada’s leading expert on self-regulation, Dr. Stuart Shanker, knows it can and that, as educators, we have an important role to play in helping students’ develop this crucial ability. Distinguished Research Professor at York University and Past President of the Council for Early Child Development, Dr. Shanker leads us through an exploration of the five major domains—what they are, how they work, what they look like in the classroom, and what we can do to help students strengthen in that domain.

Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers: Teaching Students with Tourette’s, Bipolar Disorder, Executive Dysfunction, OCD, ADHD and More. Leslie Packer & Sheryl Pruitt, $34.95

Current estimates indicate that 20% of school-aged children, K-12, have one or more neurological conditions, and of these, most have multiple diagnoses.

Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers is an educator's go-to source for creating a supportive environment to successfully teach children with multiple neurological disorders including Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, ADHD, LD, Nonverbal Learning Disability, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Asperger's Syndrome, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Executive Dysfunction, Sensory Processing Disorder, Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep (PANDAS), Bipolar Disorder, "Storms" or "Rages", Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Sleep Problems. Parents, school psychologists, and social workers will also find this book essential reading.

The wealth of practical tools and strategies discussed in this book are founded on the authors' considerable experience treating children with neurological disorders in their private practices and conducting training workshops for teachers, as well as parenting their own children with multiple diagnoses. Full of charts, graphs, lists, quotes, and vignettes, this well-organized resource makes it easy for busy teachers to find the information they need, including:

• Understanding neurological disorders and why they may overlap, the behaviors they cause, and sanity-saving premises about understanding these students
• Each disorder's characteristics, impacts on academics, behavior & social relationships, teacher/student-friendly strategies, other conditions to be on the lookout for
• Conditions commonly observed in students with neurological disorders such as handwriting & visual-motor integration issues, language deficits, and difficulties with written expression, math calculation, reading, and more
• Assistive technology, testing accommodations, homework issues, interventions to address challenging behaviors, school-based related services, positive school-home collaboration, and helping children with peer relationships

Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers also includes a glossary and resources, and its appendix of screening tools, forms, and checklists are on the accompanying CD-ROM for easy reproduction.

Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits. Peg Dawson & Richard Guare, $38.95

This practical manual presents an evidence-based coaching model for helping students whose academic performance is suffering due to deficits in executive skills, including time and task management, planning, organization, impulse control, and emotional regulation. In just a few minutes a day, coaches can provide crucial support and instruction tailored to individual students' needs. From leading experts, the book provides detailed guidelines for incorporating coaching into a response-to-intervention framework, identifying students who can benefit, conducting each session, and monitoring progress. Special topics include how to implement a class-wide peer coaching program.

Disorganized Children: a Guide for Parents and Professionals. Edited by Samuel Stein &Uttom Chowdhury, $34.95

Disorganized children may display a range of behaviours symptomatic of ADHD, autism and/or conduct disorders, but they often fail to meet all the criteria for a clear diagnosis.

In this book, psychiatrists, speech, family and occupational therapists and neurodevelopment specialists present a range of behavioural and psychological strategies to help disorganized children improve concentration and performance in the classroom and deal with a variety of behaviour and social interaction difficulties. The authors provide an insight into the mind of disorganized children and practical guidance on how parents and professionals can best to help them achieve their full potential.

The ECLIPSE Model: Teaching Self-Regulation, Executive Function, Attribution, and Sensory Awareness to Students with Asperger Syndrome, High-Functioning Autism, and Related Disorders. Sherry Moyer, $26.50

The process of attributing or assessing our circumstances is a neglected area for young people with Asperger Syndrome and other pervasive developmental disabilities, yet it poses severe challenges for them. The ECLIPSE Model targets the global skills needed to improve social competence, such as executive functioning, theory of mind, causal attribution, processing speed, and working memory. Without effective use of these skills on a regular basis, development of other areas of functioning, such as academic, adaptive or activities of daily living, and social and vocational skills will be challenged. This curriculum provides step-by-step lessons for teaching these vital skills in a way that is motivating to young people.

Essentials of Executive Functions Assessment. George McCloskey & Lisa Perkins, $53.95

Quickly acquire the knowledge, skills and tools you need to understand and assess children and adolescents struggling with executive functions deficits.

Executive Function & Child Development. Marcie Yeager & Daniel Yeager, $26.50

Poor executive function (EF) in the brain can mean behavioral and attentional problems in school. This book explains to professionals and parents how EF develops in kids, what EF difficulties look like, and what creative and effective interventions can meet their needs. Executive functions involve mental processes such as:

• Working memory–holding several pieces of information in mind while we try to do something with them–for example, understand and solve a problem or carry out a task.
• Response inhibition–inhibiting actions that interfere with our intentions or goals.
• Shifting focus–interrupting an ongoing response in order to direct attention to other aspects of a situation that are important for goal attainment.
• Cognitive flexibility–generating alternative methods of solving a problem or reaching a goal.
• Self-monitoring–checking on one's own cognitions and actions to assure that they are in line with one's intentions.
• Goal Orientation–creating and carrying out a multi-step plan for achieving a goal in a timely fashion, keeping the "big picture" in mind.

Executive Function in the Classroom. Christopher Kaufman, $37.50

Practical strategies for improving performance and enhancing skills for all students. This teacher-friendly guide lays a clear and simple path to stronger executive skills for all students and lasting academic and social success.

Executive Function in Education: from Theory to Practice. Lynn Meltzer, editor, $30.50

This uniquely integrative book brings together leading researchers and practitioners from education, neuroscience, and psychology. It presents a theoretical framework for understanding executive function difficulties together with a range of effective approaches to assessment and instruction. Scholarly and authoritative yet highly practical, the book provides guidelines for intervening at the level of the individual child, the classroom, and the entire school.

Executive Function: Practical Applications in the Classroom. Sandra Rief, $13.95

This 4-page, laminated reference guide is designed to provide practical strategies for helping students strengthen Executive Function skills, as well as key supports and accommodations that are so important for those with EF impairments, such as ADD/ADHD.

Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Russell Barkley, $38.50

This groundbreaking book offers a comprehensive theory of executive functioning (EF) with important clinical implications. Synthesizing cutting-edge neuropsychological and evolutionary research, Russell Barkley presents a model of EF that is rooted in meaningful activities of daily life. He describes how abilities such as emotion regulation, self-motivation, planning, and working memory enable people to pursue both personal and collective goals that are critical to survival. Key stages of EF development are identified and the far-reaching individual and social costs of EF deficits detailed. Barkley explains specific ways that his model may support much-needed advances in assessment and treatment.

Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: a Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention, Second Edition. Peg Dawson & Richard Guare, $43.95

Concise and practitioner friendly, this bestselling guide has helped put executive skills on the map for school-based clinicians and educators. The book explains how these critical cognitive processes develop and why they play such a key role in children's behavior and school performance. Provided are step-by-step guidelines and many practical tools to promote executive skill development by implementing environmental modifications, individualized instruction, coaching, and whole-class interventions. In a large-size format with convenient lay-flat binding, the book includes more than two dozen reproducible assessment tools, checklists, and planning sheets.

Find a Way or Make a Way: Checklists of Helpful Accommodations for Students with ADHD, Executive Dysfunctions, Mood Disorders, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD and Other Neurological Challenges. Leslie Packer, $22.95

Find a Way or Make a Way is designed to provide lots of practical ideas to incorporate into a student's plan, with sections on accommodations for homework, tests, sleep problems, and handwriting problems.

Focusing and Calming Games for Children: Mindfulness Strategies and Activities to Help Children to Relax, Concentrate and Take Control. Deborah Plummer, Illustrated by Jane Serrurier, $27.95

Having the ability to focus, relax and concentrate is key to enabling children and young people to achieve emotional well-being, and is also important for a child's development of skills and abilities.

This book uses a model of 'mindfulness play' to help children to achieve well-being, which encourages children to build awareness of their inner and outer worlds. Part One covers the theoretical and practical background, setting out how to facilitate play using the mindfulness play model, including consideration of the emotional environment. Part Two includes a wealth of games and activities, from 'Body focus' and 'Fidget flop' to 'Musical drawings' and 'Pass a smile'. The activities are suitable for use with groups and individual children aged 5–12, and can be adapted for children with specific attention and concentration difficulties, such as ADHD, and for older children.

This is an ideal resource for teachers, counsellors, social workers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, youth workers, parents, and carers.

The Frazzle Family Finds a Way. Ann Bonwill & Steven Gammell, $19.95

Every member of the Frazzle family is disastrously forgetful. Mr. Frazzle forgets his trousers, Wags the dog can't find his bone, and Annie and Ben bring fishing poles and towels to school instead of their homework. Not even Aunt Rosemary with her organizational tips can help. But one day Annie has an idea that combines rhyme, recall, and song into a melodic way to remember in this warmhearted tribute to compensating for weaknesses.

Handbook of Executive Functioning. Sam Goldstein  & Jack Naglieri, $349.00 (due August 2013)

Planning. Attention. Memory. Self-regulation. These and other core cognitive and behavioral operations of daily life comprise what we know as executive functioning (EF). But despite all we know, the concept has engendered multiple, often conflicting definitions and its components are sometimes loosely defined and poorly understood. THE HANDBOOK OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING cuts through the confusion, analyzing both the whole and its parts in comprehensive, practical detail for scholar and clinician alike. Background chapters examine influential models of EF, tour the brain geography of the executive system, and pose salient developmental questions. A section on practical implications relates early deficits in executive functioning to ADD and other disorders in children, and considers autism and later-life dementias from an EF standpoint. Further chapters weigh the merits of widely used instruments for assessing executive functioning and review interventions for its enhancement, with special emphasis on children and adolescents.

Handbook of Self-Regulation, 2nd Edition: Research, Theory, and Applications. Edited by Roy Baumeister & Kathleen Vohs, $53.50

This authoritative handbook comprehensively examines the conscious and non-conscious processes by which people regulate their thoughts, emotions, attention, behavior, and impulses. Individual differences in self-regulatory capacities are explored, as are developmental pathways. The volume reviews how self-regulation shapes, and is shaped by, social relationships. Failures of self-regulation are also addressed, in chapters on addictions, overeating, compulsive spending, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Wherever possible, contributors identify implications of the research for helping people enhance their self-regulatory capacities and pursue desired goals.

Helping Students Take Control of Everyday Executive Functions: the Attention Fix. Paula Moraine, $29.95

This book presents an innovative model for strengthening and developing executive function in any student, including those with attention, memory, organization, planning, inhibition, initiative, and flexibility difficulties. It provides guidance on how to support each student's evolving executive function, and how to encourage those who are ready to develop self-advocacy and become more responsible for the development of his or her own executive function skills.

The author advocates a student-centered approach in which educators explore eight key 'ingredients' with the student: relationships; strengths and weaknesses; self-advocacy and responsibility; review and preview; motivation and incentive; synthesis and analysis; rhythm and routine; and practice and repetition. She provides step-by-step explanations of how the educator and student can then explore and use these 'ingredients' in different ways and in different combinations to successfully address particular areas of difficulty. Original and effective, the approach outlined in this book will be of interest to teachers and other professionals involved in supporting executive function in students of all ages.

Inclusive Programming for High School Students with Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Sheila Wagner, $27.50

This comprehensive guide will help you give your child or student the best possible high school experience. You will learn how to help students navigate the social minefields of friendships and dating, while fostering the executive functioning skills they will need as adults.

Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD, LD, Asperger’s, Tourette’s, Bipolar and More! Martin Kutscher, $22.95

Kids in the Syndrome Mix is a concise, current, all-in-one guide to the whole range of often co-existing neurobehavioral disorders in children, from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder, to autistic spectrum disorders, nonverbal learning disabilities, sensory integration problems, and executive dysfunction. The author's sympathetic yet upbeat approach and skillful explanations of the inner world of children in the syndrome mix make this an invaluable companion for parents, teachers, professionals, and anyone else who needs fast and to-the-point advice on children with special needs.

Late, Lost, and Unprepared: a Parents' Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning. Joyce Cooper-Kahn & Laurie Dietzel, $22.95

Executive functions are the cognitive skills that help us manage our lives and be successful. Children with weak executive skills, despite their best intentions, often do their homework but forget to turn it in, wait until the last minute to start a project, lose things, or have a room that looks like a dump! The good news is that parents can do a lot to support and train their children to manage these frustrating and stressful weaknesses.

New Developments in Autism: the Future is Today. Edited by Juan Martos Pérez, et al, $59.95

This international collection provides a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge research on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) by well-known experts in the field, stressing the importance of early diagnosis and a good working relationship between parents and professionals. The contributors cover a wide range of aspects of ASDs, from early assessment techniques, neurodevelopment and brain function to language development, executive function and genetic research. They explore how individuals with ASDs think and give evidence-based guidance on how to handle difficulties with social interaction and language development using appropriate interventions. New Developments in Autism will be of great interest to professionals, researchers, therapists, parents and people with ASDs.

No Mind Left Behind: Understanding and Fostering Executive Control—The Eight Essential Brain Skills Every Child Needs to Thrive. Adam Cox, $17.50

No Mind Left Behind is a program for helping children master the eight essential cognitive skills that are critical for success in life in work:

• Taking initiative • Screening out distractions • Organizing • Thinking flexibly

• Planning • Regulating emotions • Self-monitoring • Using memory effectively

Using case studies and anecdotes, Dr. Cox presents a comprehensive and practical plan for parents. The book addresses special-needs children as well as neurotypical children, and includes practical suggestions for parents and educators.

Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom. Lynn Meltzer, $38.95

Accessible and practical, this book helps teachers incorporate executive function processes—such as planning, organizing, prioritizing, and self-checking—into the classroom curriculum. Chapters provide effective strategies for optimizing what K-12 students learn by improving how they learn. Featuring numerous whole-class ideas and suggestions, the book also shows how to differentiate instruction for students with learning or attention difficulties.

Smart but Scattered: the Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential. Peg Dawson & Richard Guare, $19.95

Scientists who study child development have recently found that kids who are "smart but scattered" lack or lag behind in crucial executive skills — the core, brain-based habits of mind required to execute tasks like getting organized, staying focused, and controlling emotions. Drawing on this revolutionary discovery, school psychologist Peg Dawson and neuropsychologist Richard Guare have developed an innovative program that parents and teachers can use to strengthen kids' abilities to plan ahead, be efficient, follow through, and get things done. Smart but Scattered provides ways to assess children's strengths and weaknesses and offers guidance on day-to-day issues like following instructions in the classroom, doing homework, completing chores, reducing performance anxiety, and staying cool under pressure. Small steps add up to big improvements, enabling these kids to build the skills they need to live up to their full potential. More than 40 reproducibles are included.

Smart but Scattered Teens: the Executive Skills Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential. Richard Guare, Peg Dawson & Colin Guare, $18.50

If you're the parent of a "smart but scattered" teen, trying to help him or her grow into a self-sufficient, responsible adult may feel like a never-ending battle. Now you have an alternative to micromanaging, cajoling, or ineffective punishments. This positive guide provides a science-based program for promoting teens' independence by building their executive skills—the fundamental brain-based abilities needed to get organized, stay focused, and control impulses and emotions. Executive skills experts Drs. Richard Guare and Peg Dawson are joined by Colin Guare, a young adult who has successfully faced these issues himself. Learn step-by-step strategies to help your teen live up to his or her potential now and in the future—while making your relationship stronger.

Social Interaction and the Development of Executive Function. Charlie Lewis & Jeremy Carpendale, Editors, $32.00

This volume focuses on the role of social interactions in the development of executive function, and offers a new and exciting alternative to many contemporary cognitive approaches. Executive function consists of higher cognitive skills involved in the control of thought, action, and emotion. Relatively little is known about the processes that promote its development. The volume is aimed at a broad range of child and adolescent developmental researchers and practitioners interested in how parental scaffolding, family background, as well as educational and cultural processes are linked to the development of children's self-control and social understanding.

Study Strategies PLUS: Building Your Study Skills and Executive Functioning for School Success. Sandi Sirowitz, Leslie Davis & Harvey Parker, $20.95

Helps students improve executive functioning skills such as organizing, managing time, planning, focusing, and remembering. These skills are extremely important for success in school and in the workplace. Students will also find valuable strategies to improve reading comprehension, note taking, and reduce stress.

Teaching Teens with ADD, ADHD & Executive Function Deficits: a Quick Reference Guide for Teachers and Parents, 2nd Edition. Chris Zeigler Dendy, $29.95

An expert on attention deficit disorders issues offers a guide to educating teens with ADD and ADHD. Includes over 80 summaries of new information on research, teaching strategies, education law, executive functioning, social skills, and medication.

Tigers, Too: Executive Functions/Speed of Processing/Memory. Marilyn Dornbush & Sheryl Pruitt, $68.95

From the authors of Teaching the Tiger comes this practical, detailed and insightful look at executive functions, speed of processing and memory and the impact these have on the academic, behavioral and social functioning of students with ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and OCD.

TIGERS, TOO Checklists for Classroom Objectives and Interventions. Marilyn Dornbush & Sheryl Pruitt, $22.95

These checklists were developed to help teachers and parents set goals, identify appropriate intervention strategies and create an effective educational program for the student who is experiencing difficulties in the classroom and at home. The book includes material on arousal and speed of processing; attention, inhibition and activity levels; executive function; memory; study skills; testing; and social competence.

Train Your Brain for Success: a Teenager's Guide to Executive Functions. Randy Kulman, $19.95

TRAIN YOUR BRAIN FOR SUCCESS provides adolescents with practical, user-friendly strategies to improve their organizational, planning, memory, and time-management skills. This easy-to-read guide should help teenagers and their parents to work on skills that are critical for success in school and life in general.

12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action: Developing Executive Functions of the Human Brain. Renate Caine, Geoffrey Caine, Carol McClintic & Karl Klimek, $58.95

This guidebook builds the bridge from brain research to classroom practice. Ideal for teachers and school leaders, this indispensable volume provides an accessible framework based on how the brain learns, and shows how to use that knowledge to help both teachers and students reach higher performance levels.

Unstuck & On Target! Lynn Cannon, Lauren Kenworthy, Katie Alexander, Monica Adler Werner & Laura Anthony, $48.95

An executive function curriculum to improve flexibility for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Work Your Strengths: a Scientific Process to Identify Your Skills and Match Them to the Best Career for You. Chuck Martin, Richard Guare & Peg Dawson, $24.95

Your brain is hardwired with a unique combination of 12 different executive skills—the cognitive strengths that determine how well you will perform in a particular role. Your strongest and weakest executive skills can make the difference between big-time career success and years of disappointment and failure.

Work Your Strengths helps you avoid “trial-and-error” career moves by matching your strengths to the jobs that call on those skills specifically. Not ready for a move yet? Work Your Strengths can also make a world of difference in the job you’re in now. It can help you not only focus on the projects best suited for you but also recognize skills in others and assign tasks accordingly.