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by Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan
On the De Facto Leaders podcast, host Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan helps pediatric therapists and educators become better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. With over 15 years of experience supporting school-age kids with diverse learning needs, Dr. Karen shares up-to-date evidence-based practices, her own experiences and guest interviews designed to help clinicians, teachers, and aspiring school leaders feel more confident in the way they serve their students and clients. She’ll cover a range of topics designed to help you support students' emotional and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood, including how to support language, literacy, executive functioning, and how to help IEP teams working together to support kids across the day. Whether you want to learn more effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be a more influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, Dr. Karen has you covered.
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- 2 days ago37 min
When ADHD Symptoms Aren’t Obvious: Racing Thoughts, Scaffolding, and Executive Functioning (with Shontaye Glover Jones)
When we think about ADHD, we often think about the symptoms we can see from the outside. But many of the challenges that come with ADHD are happening internally.Someone may be dealing with racing thoughts, difficulty filtering information, problems regulating attention, or trouble creating structure for themselves even when those challenges aren’t obvious to the people around them.That’s why in episode 271 of the De Facto Leaders podcast, I talk with Shontaye Glover Jones, pediatric speech-language pathologist and author, about what ADHD can feel like from the inside and how that impacts executive functioning and daily life.In this episode, we discuss:What internal hyperactivity and racing thoughts can look like when ADHD symptoms aren’t obvious externally.Why the effects of stimulant medication are often misunderstood, and how medication can help with filtering and focus rather than simply making someone “calmer.”Why medication works best when it’s paired with therapy, skill-building, and other interventions.Why transitions from highly structured environments to less structured settings can be especially difficult for people with ADHD and executive functioning challenges.The importance of learning how to put scaffolding and structure in place for yourself in unstructured environments.Shontaye’s book about an autistic Black boy preparing for a trip to the barbershop, and why everyday community experiences may require significant front-loading and preparation for someone with different sensory needsShontaye is a children's book author, pediatric SLP, content creator, conference programmer and professional speaker. In 2016, she founded her private practice Having Our Say, LLC to create a space where families and children would feel seen, valued, and be heard. Shontaye works with organizations and school districts around the country with a focus on literacy and creating equitable spaces for all students. Her debut picture book, "Liam's First Cut" (2020) is a story that centers family and neurodiversity as Liam, an autistic Black boy, prepares for his first trip to the barbershop. Her second book The Season of Yes! (2023) is a love letter to her favorite time of year, summer, and spending quality time with her mom during the season of endless opportunities for fun! As a late diagnosed autistic person with ADHD, Shontaye advocates for early identification and support for neurodivergent girls and women.Listen to our full conversation here.You can connect with Shontaye Glover Jones on her Instagram page @havingoursayOn her websites at: https://www.tayejones.com/www.cemonitor.comwww.havingoursay.orgIn this episode, I mentioned the Task Execution and Planning Protocol that helps clinicians and educators support students who present with demand avoidance and require constant prompting during functional or academic tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol at: drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecution
- 2 weeks ago17 min
Why Lowering School Expectations Makes Demand Avoidance Worse (And What To Do Instead)
Have you ever had a student spend 45 minutes avoiding an assignment that would have taken them five minutes to finish?They argue about why they shouldn’t have to do it, negotiate over how much they need to complete, ask to go to the bathroom, or decide they need a drink before they can get started.Meanwhile, you’re looking at the assignment thinking:If you would just DO IT, this would have been over half an hour ago.I had a student who did this exact thing during study hall.Writing assignments could turn into an entire period of avoidance. He would find every possible way to delay getting started, and when we did get him to write, an adult often had to sit beside him and prompt him through the process.From our perspective, his choices didn’t make sense. He was spending far more time and energy avoiding the assignment than it would have taken to complete it.We see the arguing, negotiating, shutting down, or escaping and call it defiance, work refusal, lack of motivation, or “demand avoidance.”Those labels describe the behavior we can see.They don’t explain why avoiding five minutes of discomfort feels preferable to spending five minutes getting it done.And that’s the question we need to answer before we decide how to intervene.If we misunderstand what’s driving the avoidance, we can choose interventions that feel good in the moment but reinforce the pattern we’re trying to change.That’s why students described as having pathological demand avoidance and work refusal at school can get worse when we continually lower expectations. Here’s why reducing demands may reinforce avoidance, and what students may need instead.When a student argues, negotiates, asks to leave, or refuses a difficult task, reducing the demand can feel like the supportive thing to do. But temporary relief doesn’t necessarily help that student build the skills needed to handle challenge independently.In episode 270 of De Facto Leaders, I explain why demand avoidance and work refusal can be signs that a student needs more support with executive functioning, not simply fewer expectations. You’ll see how planning, predicting, estimating time, visualizing an end goal, and talking yourself through discomfort all contribute to a student’s ability to persist with challenging work.We’ll also look at how excessive prompting and repeatedly removing difficult tasks can unintentionally make a student more dependent on adults, and what we need to build instead.In this episode, I mentioned the Task Execution and Planning Protocol that helps clinicians and educators support students who present with demand avoidance and require constant prompting during functional or academic tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecutionI also mentioned my free training, “How to Be Evidence-Based and Neurodiversity-Affirming By Support Executive Functioning”. You can register for that training here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadershipTo learn more about my YouTube channel called “Dr. Karen Executive Functioning Systems”, where you can learn how to build scalable executive functioning strategies you can use in your therapy sessions and classrooms. You can subscribe to the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@drkaren-efsystems Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance <a href="https:
- Oct 7, 20261h 9m
Using Math Play to Build Language and Executive Functioning (with Clarence Ames)
We tend to think about math, literacy, language, and executive functioning as separate areas of development.But the research shows they’re much more connected than we might think.Early math skills are associated with later academic outcomes, and developing those skills draws heavily on language, vocabulary, and executive functioning.And supporting early math doesn’t have to mean formal instruction.A lot of it happens through play, conversation, books, games, and everyday routines.That’s why in episode 269 of De Facto Leaders, I talk with Clarence Ames, an early childhood development researcher and curriculum designer specializing in early math and executive function, about what the research tells us about how young children develop math skills, and what adults can do to support them.Clarence Ames has worked in Education Research, Implementation, and Policy for 15 years. He has a Master of Science in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences from Utah State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from Central Washington University. He is passionate about helping people develop the skills they need to become independent and self-sufficient, and his life goal is to empower students and teachers to create a system of education in which the only limitations on breadth or depth of learning are one’s own desire, passion, and motivation. In this episode, we discuss:✅ What research shows about the relationship between early math, literacy, vocabulary, and executive functioning.✅ Why early math skills are associated with later academic and life outcomes.✅ How play, books, games, and everyday routines can build math concepts without formal instruction.✅What the research says about educational apps and screen-based learning, and why adult interaction makes a difference.✅How parents can support early math development even if they have their own math anxiety.In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecution In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.
- Sep 23, 202615 min
Five Executive Functioning Skills That Define Your Intervention Framework
People often say to me, “I get why executive functioning is important, but when are you going to tell me how to work on it”?I wish I could jump right to the lesson plans and “here’s what you do in a perfect hierarchy to work on these skills”. But brains don’t work that way.That’s why I start with the framework before the lesson plan. The macro before the micro. When you Google executive functioning, you often get a list of 8 or 9 skills, and a broad definition. This is important information, but it doesn’t tell you “the how”. It also doesn’t explain how you’d scaffold. That’s why when I help clinicians design executive functioning interventions, I start with five broad areas that start to make those abstract cognitive skills more tangible. In episode 268 of De Facto Leaders, I explain what those five skill areas are. I also explain why we can’t teach them in isolation, and why they have to be embedded into tasks students are already doing in their daily lives in order for intervention to be meaningful.In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecutionIn this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.
- Sep 9, 202620 min
Executive Functioning Defined, Beyond Just "Being Organized"
Many people think they’re working on executive functioning, but aren’t ACTUALLY working on executive functioning.If you have students who have access to planners, visuals, lists, and other organizing tools, but still seem unorganized, this may be the case for your students.Especially if you have students who flat out refuse to use organizers, or just forget to use them. Even though people with strong executive functioning skills present on the outside as people who are “organized”, this is just the external \presentation that happens as a result of the internal cognitive skills that enable them to appear like they have their act together. That’s why when we jump right to the obvious tools for students, we’re often leaving a huge gap, which is why students often don’t know how to utilize tools they have at their disposal.In episode 267 of De Facto Leaders, I elaborate on the definition of executive functioning, because this is the first step in determining how to help our students get to the point of “being organized” (plus many other things, which you’ll realize when you listen). In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecutionIn this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership
- Aug 26, 202624 min
Five External Signs of Executive Dysfunction That Show Up At School
“Demand avoidance”, poor generalization, prompt-dependence, and social skills challenges seem like isolated issues. But often they’re not. Many times they’re tied to executive functioning challenges. That’s why when I describe “executive dysfunction”, I cluster it into five broad areas:Attention, Learning Challenges, Behavioral Issues, Organization, and Social SkillsUsually, this is the point that the lightbulb goes on for a lot of clinicians and educators in the room as they realize executive functioning is the common sticking point behind many of their students’ challenges.When I support clinicians in designing executive functioning intervention frameworks, I start with explaining the external signs. Things like:✅ Refusing to do even the simplest of tasks, and putting more effort into avoiding the work than it would take to actually do it✅Behaviors that seem disproportionate to the situation, melt downs over things that barely phase their peers✅ Always appearing to be several steps behind✅ Not “reading the room” during functional tasks, and requiring tons of prompts✅ Lack of awareness of how they’re coming across to othersIn episode 266 of De Facto Leaders, I do a deep dive into these five external signs that tie back to executive functioning challenges. In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecutionIn this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership
- Aug 12, 202635 min
You don’t need “buy in” from teachers to get executive functioning support into classrooms.
Many school clinicians know executive functioning is important. They also know that their entire team should be supporting it across general and special education settings. But they don’t always know what exactly that looks like in practice…And if they do, they don’t know HOW they can change the practices of classroom teachers. There are a lot of unanswered questions. …How can I find time to think about changing teacher’s practices when I barely have time to manage my own workload? …What is my role if students don’t “qualify” for services on an IEP? …Doesn’t adding executive functioning to my plate open up a whole can of worms I’ll never be able to manage as a related service provider? …Even if I should be involved, how do I get teachers and administrators to “buy in?”In this episode, I share how I help school clinicians not just answer these questions, but actually get executive functioning support in place…Even if they’re not administrators…Without taking them away from their existing responsibilities or causing role confusion…And, even if they don’t have “buy in” from everyone on their team that they SHOULD be involved with executive functioning. As you listen, I invite you to consider that you MIGHT NOT need to get buy-in to start. The buy in comes with the process because it helps to “stack” the evidence you need to gain traction along the way. And…the reason that no one can give you a clear answer on how or what your role is because a clear framework doesn’t exist. People don’t give you an answer because most people don’t know HOW executive functioning support should look in schools. That’s an opportunity for YOU to define how that looks. Which you are one of the most qualified people in your building to do if you’re an SLP, social worker, psychologist, counselor, or other related service provider. And if you do it the right way, it can save you time and get better support for students in place at the same time. I share why that’s the case in episode 265 of De Facto Leaders. In this episode, I mentioned my free training where I share three mistakes professionals make when supporting executive functioning (that result in prompt-dependence and dysregulation). In this training, I cover the following:✅ Already working on executive functioning, and not seeing results? It could be because you're NOT truly working on executive functioning, even though you think you are. Learn how to make the subtle shifts that make all the difference.✅ Are severe behaviors preventing ANY true skill development? Learn the common mistakes school teams make (related to executive functioning) that create prompt-dependence and dysregulation, and what to do instead.✅ Are students struggling with peers, even though you're working on social skills? I'll share why "social skills groups" rarely result in good skill-transfer, and how to shift your service-deliver model to help students self-advocate and form relationships.✅ Not sure your team will buy-in to supporting executive functioning in classrooms? Learn the 3-part framework I teach SLPs, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and other interventionists that helps them implement building-wide executive functioning intervention, even with a huge caseload.You can sign up for this training here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadershipIn this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership
- Jul 29, 202623 min
Working on "regulation", but seeing students get more dysregulated? Here's why that's happening.
Many school teams AREN’T actually working on executive functioning when they think they are.As a result, they’re being more flexible and accommodating than ever, giving students a chance to process after behavioral escalations…Yet they’re seeing students continue to be dysregulated. In some cases, it’s getting worse. The same thing goes for helping kids stay organized and manage work. Kids refuse to use organizers and lists, forget to use them when it’s relevant, or require a ton of adult prompting when they actually ARE using them.In my free training, I share why these things happen. This free training, which I’ve recently updated, is called “How to Be Evidence-Based and Neurodiversity-Affirming With Executive Functioning Support”.In the training, I cover three common mistakes school teams make when implementing “executive functioning interventions”. In episode 264 of De Facto Leaders, I share two of those three mistakes. When you listen to this episode, you’ll discover:✅ Why students sometimes seem MORE dysregulated when asked to talk about melt downs or why they made a poor choice.✅ The relationship between executive dysfunction, anxiety, and time perception.✅ Why students aren’t more organized, even though you’ve giving them organizing tools like lists and plannersPlus, I share two case studies, including:✅ The student who was melting down during passing period, and why giving him more time to process his feelings was the last thing he needed (and how we supported him)✅ The student who could make himself throw up whenever we asked him to do a non-preferred task who became MORE distrustful of adults the more flexible we were.In this episode, I mentioned my free training where I share three mistakes professionals make when supporting executive functioning (that result in prompt-dependence and dysregulation). In this training, I cover the following:✅ Already working on executive functioning, and not seeing results? It could be because you're NOT truly working on executive functioning, even though you think you are. Learn how to make the subtle shifts that make all the difference.✅ Are severe behaviors preventing ANY true skill development? Learn the common mistakes school teams make (related to executive functioning) that create prompt-dependence and dysregulation, and what to do instead.✅ Are students struggling with peers, even though you're working on social skills? I'll share why "social skills groups" rarely result in good skill-transfer, and how to shift your service-deliver model to help students self-advocate and form relationships.✅ Not sure your team will buy-in to supporting executive functioning in classrooms? Learn the 3-part framework I teach SLPs, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and other interventionists that helps them implement building-wide executive functioning intervention, even with a huge caseload.You can sign up for this training here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadershipIn this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership
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About De Facto Leaders
On the De Facto Leaders podcast, host Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan helps pediatric therapists and educators become better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. With over 15 years of experience supporting school-age kids with diverse learning needs, Dr. Karen shares up-to-date evidence-based practices, her own experiences and guest interviews designed to help clinicians, teachers, and aspiring school leaders feel more confident in the way they serve their students and clients. She’ll cover a range of topics designed to help you support students' emotional and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood, including how to support language, literacy, executive functioning, and how to help IEP teams working together to support kids across the day. Whether you want to learn more effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be a more influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, Dr. Karen has you covered.
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