Transcript (en)

So here are the things that my theory tells you to do to help people with executive deficits. This is what I told you this morning. This is the take-home cash value of shifting your framework from an attention disorder to an executive disorder. And the theory tells you all six things you've got to do. Step one, you have to make mental information physical. You must externalize the information because working memory is shut. That means we have to use cues, signs, charts, reminders, do lists. I've got to put stuff in your visual field to remind you of what needs to be done right here, right now. Make it external again. The next thing I have to do is make time physical, real, through clocks, timers, counters, watchminders. Anything I can enlist that is going to put time outside of you so that you can see it passing and judge your performance relative to it, because you have no clock. We've got to put one in your visual field. I going to have to take lengthy assignments because they involve spans of time and get rid of time Make them small quotas little baby steps over the bridge in time A little bit of work done frequently over time and we'll get you there. But you will not do book reports and science projects and other things on your own. You can't. Those involve delays and you can't handle delays. So the best way to solve the problem is get rid of the delay and bring it back into the now through little steps. Break all long-term projects into baby steps, do a baby step a day, you get there. But if you don't do that, they're not doing it. You have to make motivation external. They can't create internal motivation. They are dependent on the environment for their motivation. You must put the consequences in the now or they will not work for you. This is what video games do and what homework does not, which is why they can play video games for hours and not do their homework for more than a few minutes. Video games provide external continuous reinforcement. Homework does nothing. Video games do not need internal motivation, whereas homework does So you got to create motivation You going to start to have to make a deal with your kids What in it for them What are you putting in it for them What are you creating What the reward What the points What the token What the sex the drugs and the money Whatever it is, you're going to have to negotiate a deal. There has to be a consequence or it isn't going to get done. You have to make problem solving manual. Remember, they cannot do mental manipulations like other people. This is why they can't do digit span backward, but it has nothing to do with digit span. They can't hold things in mind and move them around as well as other people. So don't make them do it. Put it in their hands. If they have a math problem to solve, give them marbles, a number line, and a backus, a calculator. Let them do the problem manually, or at least assist the mental problem solving with manual pieces to it. It's the principle that matters, people. You can come up with lots of ideas here. And then finally, and this is the most important, the executive system has a limited fuel tank and you can spend it out real quick. Every time you use an executive function and you use it continuously you empty the tank And if you get to the bottom of the tank in the next situation you will have no self This is the ADHD child after school gone. And you want to do homework? You're out of your mind. So you've got to refuel that tank, and that tank has a very limited capacity. So how do we refuel the tank? Interesting, there are lots of things we have discovered to boost the tank. The use of rewards and positive emotions, the use of self-statements of effectiveness. I can do this. I know I can do this. This is the locker room pep talk before the game helps to boost motivation. In addition to that, you need to take 10-minute breaks very often, indeed more often. You need to break tasks down into smaller units and take frequent breaks. And during those breaks, a little relaxation and meditation helps to refuel the tank. Stop using the executive system for a few minutes and give it a chance to restore its fuel tank. This is why we talk about the 10 and 3 rule with ADHD children. 10 minutes of work, 3 minute break. 10 and 3, 10 and 3. But you can't do more than 10. You're starting to empty the tank. Give them a chance to refuel the tank.