Last week we started discuss Executive Function Disorder and how it can impact on our children’s behavior. Many times children have difficulties in the areas of Executive Function. We talked about how Executive Functions encompass the following areas, Inhibition, Working memory, Organization of Materials and Self-Monitoring.
We also discussed that Executive Function Disorder strongly relates to deficiencies in crucial emotional and physiological development, referred to as Executive Skills. Executive Skills encompass the following areas:Language Development, Language Processing, Emotional Regulation Skills, Cognitive Flexibility Skills and Social Skills. We covered the first Executive Skill, Language Development in our last post. Today we will discuss the Executive Skill of Language Processing:
Most of the thinking and communicating we humans do involves language. Language helps us reflect, self-regulate, set goals, and manage emotions. There are children who show delays in the area of language processing, which is crucial for developing emotional intelligence. This can lead to difficulties in the following areas:
a. Categorizing and expressing emotions: Many language-delayed children do not have the ability to categorize and express their emotions. They don’t have the vocabulary to tell you how they are feeling. They might not be able to say, “I am mad” when they are mad or “I am frustrated” when they are frustrated, due to their lack of vocabulary. Instead they say, “I hate you!” “You are the worst teacher!,” or “Shut up!”
b. Identifying and articulating needs: Some children cannot express what is bothering them, or what they need. They are not able to use words or even gestures to tell their parents, “I am tired,” or “I am hungry.” Instead they will lash out, throw a tantrum and get angry.
Children with limited communication skills may not understand that words are effective, at least in a conversational sense. Frequently young children with very limited expressive language skills are inclined to use physical means to obtain toys or turns from other children. Their prior experiences tell them “pulling and grabbing work better than my words do.” However, this is not an acceptable behavior in the eyes of their parents, teachers, nor does it win points with their friends.
c. Recalling previous experiences. Most of the thinking that we do in order to solve problems requires language. People also rely on past experiences to solve their present problems. That information is stored in our brain and we need language to access it. Language-challenged children experience difficulty accessing their previous experience to solve problems.
There is a lot of information here. We are working on getting our subscribers this series of posts in a report form. In the meantime stay tuned for our next post; we will talk about Emotion Regulation Skills.
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