The Effect of Executive Functioning Deficits on Task Completion of Fourth and Fifth Grade StudentsThe National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) ) defines executive functioning as a set of mental processes that help connect past experience with present action. It can be used to organize, plan, strategize, pay attention to and remember details, as well as manage time and space. (NCLD, 2013) In today's school, all students face internal and external distractions. There are advantages to increasing the use of technology in the classroom, namely more interactive learning on a Smartboard, and disadvantages, namely that students are easily distracted by tablets. Every student also faces internal distractions. Some students lack the ability to inhibit responses and call out in class to interrupt their peers, and other students wander off for periods of time when they are not listening to the teacher and are unaware that they are lost their concentration. For students who tend to get easily distracted, it is very difficult to concentrate on their work and complete their assignments on time. As Dawson and Guare noted in Smart but Scattered, it can be incredibly frustrating for parents to believe that their child is smart and capable of doing better in school if they would just concentrate, not forget their homework and have the stamina to complete long-term tasks. Parents don't always realize that what their child is missing are soft skills. The child may want and have the potential to do what is required, but may not know how. Researchers who study child development and the brain have found that most intelligent but scattered children simply lack certain mental habits called executive skills. (Dawson and Guare, 2009)The researcher possesses......middle of article....../planning, task initiation, flexibility, transition, problem solving, sustained attention, emotional control, and oriented perseverance towards a goal. Why learn These skills? These are skills that all children can benefit from by learning and practicing. We sometimes use games, artwork, music and books as well as discussions to practice these skills. When does the Study Skills/Early Risers Club meet? Study Skills Early Risers will meet once a week for 30 minutes from 8:05 a.m. to 8:35 a.m. Room 101. The Study Skills/Early Risers club is time limited and will meet for 8 sessions. The group will begin the month of October and continue through the second week of January, right after the holidays.** The group will meet every Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. Please sign the attached permission form and return it as soon as possible. possible to your child's teacher. Sincerely,