Translating
executive
functioning
About
EFToolkit
Translating EF so that your curious kid (and you - my curious adult friend) can understand and use it.
Fact: EF develops beginning at birth.
Also Fact: we do not need to wait until the teen years to begin to build and scaffold EF.
Congrats on finding us. We begin - now.
Kid / Human first
Connection over Compliance
We believe kids come as “full humans,” meaning -
Know thy brain
My lived experience / identities [former + current] include: neurodivergent, parent, partner, BIPOC, speech therapist, public educator, unschooler.
What are some of yours - if you feel safe to share?
Does it matter? Yes. Do we need to be the same? No. Do we all add to the conversation - so much yes.
[and body]
We strategize because EF = life
How? We co-create as peers - a low demand, easeful safe container - to play + experiment with:
Executive Function
We can experiment with EF skill concepts - while also holding the duality that we are not deficit-minded, nor are we broken.
We are whole as we are.
Nervous System Regulation
Regulation, first. Rest - first. There is no shame in resourcing, counting our spoons, inventorying demands - and also noticing what’s happening in our systems. Our wellness depends on it.
Our innate creativity
We are amongst peers. You know your context best. I know mine. We share lived experience - as we feel safe to do so. We ping-pong ideas - infodump, explore artistically - whatever comes up. So that you can hold the complexity of you and yours and that which is everyday life.
How
we do this work
Asynchronous
low-demand
safe
creative
container
Value 1
Accessibility -
you share what you feel safe doing so - what would make this more accessible for you?
[and taking it a step further - even, joyful, glimmery?]
Value 2
Experimental -
recognizing how different this looks - it’s not coaching. it’s a container. to explore. what comes up. believing in innate creativity and wisdom. and you knowing your context best. but belief also- in the power of coming together.
Value 3
Flexibility -
don’t believe here in one-size-fits-all- for kids or adults. belief in resourcing the adults in the situation- so that we can hold the incredible and oft- beautiful complexities that are our lives. some of the similarities. some of the differences. and build better.
Why
asynchronous?
Why not?
Plus 1
Async collaboration allows us to honor each other’s life seasons, changing capacities and spoons.
Let’s be real.
How often have you bought a thing and couldn’t show up the way you wanted to?
Not here.
Plus 2
It doesn’t matter what time zones we are in.
If your schedule changes.
It matters that we give space to different ways + paces of processing information.
If you like to learn + simmer + return again -
this is the way to do it.
Plus 3
Async allows for flexibility -
just like the kind we desire for our nervous systems!
You decide when this container inspires + when it stops serving you. Can pause anytime - no judgment.
The best creativity and growth do not come all at once or under pressure.