Neurodevelopmental Constructs Flashcards
Neurodevelopmental Constructs
Every student has a mix of strengths and weaknesses. These can be recognized through eight neurodevelopmental constructs:
Attention
Higher-order cognition
Language
Memory
Neuromotor functions
Social cognition
Spatial ordering
Temporal-sequential ordering
*Strengths in one can partially or at times even fully compensate for weaknesses in another.
*Teaching accommodations should correspond to a particular construct
1) Attention
A measure of one’s ability to attend. It is a system of controls that can help students with such tasks as working consistently each day, focusing on the important details when reading, and preparing what to say.
Grouped into three parts: mental energy, processing, and production control
Mental energy: alertness, energy, self-regulation
Processing control: focus, satisfaction control, saliency of information (visual and auditory input happens here)
Production control (output): previewing (helps students consider more than one response prior to answering), pacing (rate at which students complete tasks), self-monitoring (students’ awareness of how they are doing while completing a task)
Attention as the “Gatekeeper”
Attention influences almost everything a student processes and attempts to do
Cannot be thought of in isolation
Mental energy controls, processing controls, and production controls interact
Vital to a student’s academic, social, and emotional performance – how so?
Schools Attuned describes the Attention controls as:
“So fundamental in what students and adults say and do that they demand very cautious scrutiny by educators and parents. The ongoing cultivation of these Functions should be a major goal of education.”
Attention controls can be improved when the student:
1) understands the difficulty (through demystification and self-awareness instruction)
2) learns strategies to compensate for weaknesses
3) uses the strategies
Increasing Mental Energy
Keep lessons interesting
Move around
Change intonation
Allow fidgets
Lay out plan for chunks of time so students can self-regulate
Manage multi-tasking
Allow for resets
Tell stories
Break pattern of instruction
Assisting in Processing Controls
Saliency training (help students determine what is important)
Make information relevant
Give choices
Provide notes
Provide visuals
Have students paraphrase
Boosting Production Controls
Preview information
Define/discuss strategies
Prepare for social situations
Work on pacing/not rushing
2) Higher-Order Cognition
The ability to think flexibly. Involves:
Concept formation (Concept acquisition)
Brainstorming
Evaluative thinking
Systematic decision making (requires problem solving reasoning, logical thinking, mental representation)
Rule usage
Higher-Order Cognition
Concept acquisition
Concept Acquisition (Concept Formation)
Concepts can serve as mental categories
Ex: Painting and music fit under the concept of arts
Concepts become more complex as schooling progresses and pre-existing concepts are necessary to understand new concepts
Students with concrete understandings of language struggle to grasp abstract concepts
Ex: conservatism, liberalism
Higher-Order Cognition
Brainstorming
Brainstorming
Activated when student must:
Derive a topic for a report
Think about how to plan and execute a project
Deal with open-ended academic and non-academic challenges
Generate original ideas
Students who struggle:
Prefer to be told exactly what to do
Would rather comply than innovate
Struggle to choose topic, speculate, develop arguments, think freely and independently
Have trouble confronting a blank page and filling it with ideas
Higher-Order Cognition
Evaluative Thinking
Evaluative Thinking (Critical Thinking)
Successful evaluative thinkers
Evaluate issues, products, people (including themselves) objectively
Compare and contrast values and views with an author
Can think and talk about qualities of a person
Assemble criteria to make judgments
Weak evaluative thinkers
Have difficulty analyzing issues and ideas
Struggle to develop arguments
Perform poorly in subjects that often demand critical reading and analytical abilities
What subjects come to mind?
Higher-Order Cognition
Systematic Decision Making
Systematic Decision Making (Problem solving, reasoning, mental representation)
Crucial for every content area in school
Students with strength in this area are good at:
Previewing or estimating answers
Thinking about multiple alternative techniques to solve a problem
Selecting the best technique
Monitoring what they are doing as they work
Students with weaknesses in this area:
Rigid, unsystematic, impulsive
Mismatch time allocation to task
Fail to consider alternative strategic approaches
Encounter significant problems in coursework that requires flexible thinking and strategy use
Higher-Order Cognition
Rule Usage
Rule Usage
Students with strengths
Recognize regularity and irregularity
Develop own rules based on consistent judgments or observations they have made (adding –ed to simple past tense verbs)
Create schemata and categories as well as “If….then…” rules, which facilitates learning process
May notice that every time one confronts the name of a city it is capitalized and determine this rule before being taught it
Can understand and apply rules and find them logical
Some students experience frustration when rule application is demanded
Rules of grammar, math, language are difficult for these students to understand and apply
3) Language
Includes the ability to receive and understand information (receptive language), as well as the ability to communicate one’s own thoughts and ideas (expressive language). Being able to articulate and understand language is paramount to school success and it is a central ability across all subjects.
Receptive
Phonological processing
Morphology, semantics, syntax
Language processing
Expressive: Involves the ability to generate language output both orally and in written form and to make needs and wants known and understood by others
4) Memory
The ability to record, retain/store and then retrieve learned information, facts and skills. Memory is grouped into three areas: short-term, active-working, and long-term.
Short-term
Thirty seconds to several days
Active-Working
Briefly holds information while working with it
Long-term
A few days to many years
Why is memory crucial for academic success?
Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch) - 1
Comprised of the: Central Executive, Visuospatial Sketchpad, Phonological Loop and Episodic Buffer
Central Executive - controls attention
Oversees process; drives the whole system by allocating information
Directs attention to priority (ex: drivers focus on road and not radio)
The Visuospatial Sketchpad
Where the brain processes visual and spatial information
Find objects and see part-whole relationships – remember object’s appearance when drawing it or reading a map
Strained when overworked (patting head and rubbing stomach)
The Phonological Loop
Where we process auditory and language information – repeat information until it is stored; reading a book
Same part of brain processes language and sound, making it difficult to divide attention in order to process both at once
Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch) - 2
The Episodic Buffer
“Backup store” in charge of the integration of information to create unified memory
“Binding” phonological short-term memory with long term language knowledge
Knowing to use multiplication when figuring out a tip at a restaurant
Working Memory Test
Let’s test our working memories!
N-back task
What strategies did you use?
We used a visual task, but much more difficult for most when auditory.
Teach visualization; take nothing for granted. So much of what comes naturally to some does NOT for students with S/L disorders.
Enhancing Memory and Limiting Memory Demands
Provide notes in advance of lessons
Regularly check for understanding / have students paraphrase information
Keep lists of procedures and routines (keep posted in same place)
Directions should be provided in a manageable manner
Small steps
One at a time
Chunk information
Adjust speaking speed to meet processing speed
Provide extra time
Be concrete
Enhancing Memory and Limiting Memory Demands (continued)
Provide visual supports
Appeal to emotions - makes it more meaningful and supports processing
Share stories
Use repetition
Tap into many modalities
Use mnemonics
Teach visualization and verbalization
5) Neuromotor Functions
Involve the controlling of the motions and muscles of the body. Include gross motor (large movements), fine motor (small movements), and graphomotor (the motions involved in handwriting).
Gross motor functions: Include everything from body position, outer spatial processing, gross motor memory required to walk, eat or dance.
Fine motor functions: Include more detailed coordination such as fine motor procedural memory required to do tasks including buttoning a coat, tying shoes or knitting.
Graphomotor functions: Involve the ability to pre-visualize a task (draw from memory), remember how to write (or type) letters, produce legible output, and receive feedback so the brain knows how hard to press on a pencil.
6) Social Cognition
An understanding of the mechanics and components of successful social interactions with children, peers, parents, teachers, and others. Social cognition is vital to student success.
Involves several components
Verbal Pragmatics: Being able to both communicate and interpret the feelings of another by both the words they use, their body language and the tone of their voice. It involves a person’s skill with selecting appropriate topics, maintaining discussions, code switching appropriate use of humor, and using the “right” words or language in the “right” environment.
Focus is on words
Social Cognition
Social Behaviors
Continued:
Social Behaviors: Include being able to process information about relationships with and between others, how to initiate interaction, how to feel welcomed into a group, understanding the timing or staging of relationships, understanding the social environment or the “feel” of a room and how to resolve conflict.
Focus is on behaviors
Political Acumen: Involves being able to understand things like social dominance, social order, when it’s appropriate (or not) to challenge authority, and other social skills regarding what is or is not socially acceptable given the totality of the environment
7) Spatial Ordering
Involves an understanding of spatial organization, such as shapes, as well as configurations and placements of objects in space, such as the proper path to take to a particular destination using a map.
Spatial Awareness: Understanding where the body is in space and time and its relationship to other objects (personal space).
Spatial Perception: Understanding the motion, depth, distance, movement, and other aspects of an object in motion or at rest, which aids in catching a ball or kicking it at the right time.
Spatial Memory: Remembering where objects are in space, including trying to find a library book, remembering car keys, or where the homework is placed.
Spatial Ordering
Spatial Output: Allows people to place things in an order, such as designing a poster to communicate ideas, or putting things in their logical place.
Material Management: Knowing where resources are located, such as pens, pencils, etc. and placing them in retrievable places. Difficulty in this area plagues individuals with ADHD.
Higher-Order Spatial Thinking (synthesizes previously discussed spatial skills): The ability to mentally visualize strategies; work through complex sequences of steps required to play the piano, move the furniture to the right place in the home, or parallel park with ease.
