Executive Functioning: How a Special Needs Rubric Can Help Students Succeed

If you’re a special needs teacher, you’ve probably seen the term executive functioning in a lot of reports – but did you know a special needs rubric can help plan, organize, and communicate student progress?

Before we get into the details of the special needs rubric, we should try to understand what executive functioning is.

What is Executive Functioning?

Executive functioning is a set of cognitive processes that help us plan, organize, and finish tasks. These skills are really important for doing well in school, making friends, and taking care of ourselves.

Some people have a harder time with executive functioning, especially those with special needs like ADHD, autism, or learning disabilities. That’s where an executive functioning rubric comes in – it’s a way to measure and improve these skills.

An executive functioning rubric is like a checklist that helps us see how well a student is doing with different skills.

The rubric usually has different categories like planning, organization, starting tasks, keeping track of progress, remembering things, controlling impulses, and being flexible. Each category gets a score from 1 to 4, with 4 being the best and 1 being the worst.

Note: We can also get fancy and use a percent scale (although we have rubrics for both percent and number levels). 

 

Special Needs Rubric: Executive Functioning

Let’s look at each category more closely.

Criteria #1 – Planning & Idea Construction

This is being able to break down big tasks into smaller steps and figure out how to finish them. Students who have unique needs in planning may struggle to break down large tasks into smaller steps, prioritize tasks, and create a timeline or schedule to complete them.

Criteria #2 – Organization

Being able to keep track of things and put them in order. Many students struggle to keep things organized but a student who has a delay in executive functioning would strongly benefit from a simple system of organization.

Criteria #3 – Working Memory

Remembering things means being able to hold onto information in our heads while we’re working on something. This may sound like an overlap with planning, but working memory is more closely associated with information retrieval. Students who express difficulty in this area will struggle to tell you what they just learned – especially if the environment around that had distractions.

Criteria #4 – Flexibility

Being flexible means being able to change our plans or way of thinking when things don’t go as expected. You’ll notice students who have difficulty with cognitive flexibility being stressed out when a routine change or a bell goes off at the wrong time.

Criteria #5 – Task Initiation

Starting tasks means being able to begin something without putting it off. It’s important to note that this is an independent initiation. While many students can begin a task when prompted, a student who has a delay in executive functioning will struggle to start the task even after explicit instruction is given.

So Now What?

Using an executive functioning rubric can be really helpful for people with special needs. A special needs rubric can help us figure out which skills students are good at and which ones they need more help with.

For example, if we’re not very good at planning, we can work with our teachers or parents to break down tasks into smaller steps and make a plan. If we have trouble remembering things, we can come up with strategies to help us remember important information.

There is no one-size-fits-all plan for something like this.

This special needs rubric is designed as a data tool. Teachers can use it to track and communicate student progress in a way that everyone can understand. 

Keen on using a special needs rubric? Try out our rubric builder today!