• Educators could break the workload into smaller steps. Take multiple step directions or strategies and have the student focus on one step at a time. Provide checklists for the student and have them check off the steps as they go.

• Since it can take students with working memory deficits longer to remember new skills, simply provide opportunities for extra practice. This could be easily done at the beginning of each lesson. Call it a warm up. You could focus on a skill that was taught before, review it and check for understanding.

• Providing the students with something concrete to help them stay on task when giving verbal directions or teaching strategies. This could include pictures or visuals for schedules and written directions. It could also include graphic organizers, number lines, ten frames, and hundreds chart.

• Working memory requires focus, so reducing distractions in the classroom environment is key. This includes removing stimuli that may compete with the child's attention. Be mindful of what you put up on the walls for the students to look at. You could also find out if music helps these students or distracts students at silent work times. You could consider shutting the classroom door to close off the room from hallway noise, and make sure there is minimal classroom chatter during work time.

• The use of games can also help strengthen these skills. For example try, memory games, Go Fish or I have, Who has.

• Repeat often. Review information with students multiple times and provide opportunities for them to repeat tasks.

• As mentioned above, graphic organizers are great supports for students with deficits in working memory. KWL charts are great tools for activating a child's prior knowledge, while allowing them to focus on what they will learn and helping them understand how new and old information connects.

Educators should avoid punishing and disciplining these known disruptive behaviors. Instead, try these tips:

• For fidgety students put them at the end of a desk row and allow them to be mobile. That way, they can stand, kneel or sit on their knees and are out of the way of other students.

• Assign the fidgety student two workstations so they can get up and move their desk space when feeling restless. A change of scenery sometime does the trick.

• For the student who blurts in class, try using cues or hand motions to signal the quiet sign or a raised hand. When the child blurts out, without stopping your teaching or verbally acknowledging them, use the signals to show them how to get your attention appropriately.

• Add in movement break when transitioning from subject to subject, between activities or when coming back into the classroom before starting a lesson. Allowing the students to get up, stretch and move their bodies could improve their ability to focus.

• Educators need to help students learn how to think outside the box and change how they view a situation or task. This can be done by showing students multiple ways of solving a problem, Which will help students understand that if one way is not working, there is always another approach they can try. This will also help a struggling student find a strategy that works for them.

• Create a predictable schedule for your classroom and have it be consistent from day to day.

• Warn and prepare students when there is a change or transition coming. They will have an easier time adjusting.

• Encourage students to try new tasks, activities and give them positive feedback when they do.

• Give students a five to two minute warning before clean up times or transitions.

• Allow for extra time to transition.

• Provide a visual timer so students know when they need to be ready.

• During the different academic subjects encourage students to practice their creativity and thinking outside the box. For example,

-Math: encourage students to try a new strategy for solving a problem.

-Science: allow for open-ended investigations.

-Language-arts: when students finish writing a sentence encourage them to add one more detail or write one more sentence. -For younger students, read a wordless book with them and together verbally tell the story.

-Social studies: When discussing historical events, have students picture themselves in that situation and discuss ways they would solve a given problem.

Help develop your students' emotional vocabulary so they are better able to understand and articulate their feelings. Here are some ways you can do this:

• Choose read-alouds, centered around emotions so students can discuss and relate to the feelings the characters are experiencing in the story.

• Provide verbal feedback for the students when the are feeling big emotions, such as, "it sounds like you are feeling frustrated because...," or "it looks like you are upset that..." This will support students in labeling their feelings.

• Model and practice calm down strategies with students. That way, when a student is asked to calm down, they will know what that looks and feels like. Calm down strategies can be simple breathing and stretching exercises. Try these before transitions.

• Reduce a child's stress and support their emotional regulation by introducing mindfulness through yoga practices and meditation.

• When you can tell a student is feeling out of control, without saying anything, take deep breaths. This will encourage the student to calm down and might even convince them to join along with you. Deep breaths are a great way to reset.

• Teach the Zones of Regulation and use this vocabulary in the classroom.

Here is a link to a free handout:

zones of regulation PDF

• Build in opportunities within lessons or throughout the day to reflect. When you allow students to reflect you are giving them a chance to take ownership over their learning, which guides them in becoming independent. Have students reflect on what they have learned and how they are feeling by asking them questions like,

-"What surprised you in this lesson?"

-"How are you feeling this morning?"

-"Was that lesson hard?"

-"Do you need another example?"

• Model how to check in with yourself. Practice and teach with students how to ask themselves and reflect on how they are feeling, if their needs are being met, and how to self-advocate if they are not. This can be done through quick check-ins during or after lessons with a thumbs up or down on the level of difficulty. Ask students, "Was that easy for you?" "Was that hard?" "Do you need another example?"

• During a math lesson, when checking for understanding, ask students why they did a certain step when solving problem. For example, during word problems you could ask a student if they know whether they need to add or subtract. When the student answers, ask them how they knew that. This gets students to understand the reason and process of their work.

• Provide students with journals and have them complete weekly reflective journal prompts.

• For students who struggle with getting started on a task, start a timer for them before getting started. You can prepare them by saying, "once this timer goes off I should see you getting started on your work."

• Take away distractions. Help students have an organized and tidy workspace where they can easily find what they need to help them get started.

• Use the support and wean off strategy. For the student who struggles with getting started without you, provide the help right away without the student even asking for it. Model and show them how to get started by doing a couple questions with them and when you see they have the hang of it, say something like, "I see you are understanding, I am going to step away while you try one on your own, I will come back and check on you in a couple minutes." After you try this approach for a while do less and less with them until they can get started by themselves.

• Try brain breaks.

• Allow children to get a drink or use the bathroom before starting tasks.

• When you see a student finally getting started, praise them with positive feedback.

Gaining and keeping students' attention can go hand in hand with motivation. Students who tend to not pay attention are unmotivated because they believe they will fail, and often give up before they start to try. Here are some ways to support students' attention:

• Avoid threats and harmful punishments. Try a positive approach with positive encouragement and meaningful incentives.

• Assign preferred activities to follow un-preferred tasks when they finish.

• Chunk up the workload into small, manageable portions with breaks in between.

• Think ahead and prepare for ways to avoid the distractions that take students' attention. For example, if you know that a class is always getting reading for gym in the hallway when your class starts math, make sure the door is shut or plan for a brain break at that time.