Executive Functions
This executive function helps you pay attention and ignore distractions.
sustained attention (focus)
This executive function helps you keep trying even when something doesn’t go your way.
Emotional control or flexibility
This is the name for the pictures or words that pop into your head when something happens.
This word means feeling proud and pleased about something you did well.
Accomplished
What is negative filtering or only seeing the negative?
This thinking trap is when you only notice the bad stuff and ignore the good.
This skill helps you stop yourself from blurting out or doing something right away.
Impulse control
When you notice you’re off track and fix it without help, you’re using this skill.
Self-monitoring
These are the body clues and emotions we feel inside, like happy, sad, or angry.
Feelings
This emotion is like a quiet kind of sadness when you miss something or someone.
Lonely
What is overgeneralizing?
You think, “I always mess up” just because one thing went wrong. What thinking trap is this?
When you use this skill, you remember what someone just said or what you need to do.
Working memory
You get a new Lego set and follow the steps in order. This executive function helps you do that.
Planning and prioritizing / organization
This is what we do because of how we think or feel—like running away, yelling, or giving a hug.
Behaviours
What does it mean if someone feels embarrassed?
feeling uncomfortable or shy because of something that happened or what others might think?
What is mind reading?
This trap is when you assume you know what someone else is thinking (and it's usually bad).
This executive function helps you start a task, even if it feels boring or hard.
Task initiation
Your friend asks to play a different game than the one you picked. You agree and have fun anyway. What executive function did you use?
Flexible thinking
True or False: The same thing can happen to two people, but they feel different because they had different thoughts.
True
What does it mean to feel frustrated?
feeling upset because something isn’t going the way you want and it’s hard to fix?
What is fortune telling?
You think something bad will happen even if there’s no real reason to believe it.
You’re told to clean your room. You decide to pick up toys first, then books, then clothes. You’re using this skill.
Planning and prioritizing/organizing
This is the “boss of the brain” that helps all the other executive functions work together.
Pre-frontal cortex
You think, “Nobody likes me,” so you feel sad and hide in your room. What caused you to feel sad and hide?
your thought
What does it mean if you feel jealous?
wanting what someone else has or feeling left out when others get something you don’t
What is should statements or all-or-nothing thinking?
You say things to yourself like “I should be better” or “I must always be perfect.” What trap is this?