Executive Functioning skills cannot be developed in isolation from the child’s environment. It is therefore necessary to build executive functioning into children’s everyday activity and learning. As with all learning, it is mastered with ease in a fun, playful situation and Six Bricks used as a manipulative to bridge new concepts from concrete to abstract is the perfect solution.

IMPUSE or INHIBITORY CONTROL

Inhibitory control expectations are built into Six Bricks activities in a playful manner that supports the development of the skill. Children are often expected to wait while they listen to instructions before they touch the bricks. When working in pairs or as a group, they learn to pause before they act, as they have to consider their peers and the feelings of the group members. 

EMOTIONAL REGULATION

When participating in Six Bricks activities, children learn to persist even though they may be struggling. They learn to deal with the emotions linked to not achieving the set goal immediately – no person likes these feelings, but we have to learn how to deal with them in a socially acceptable manner. Working in pairs and groups with their six bricks teaches empathy and understanding towards peers and how to deal with the emotions that run alongside interactions. Children will also learn to celebrate personal progress and achievement during the Six Bricks activities and to be happy for those that have won or made progress

FLEXIBLE THINKING

This is the ability to think about things in a new or different way. It helps us deal with uncertainty, solve problems, adjust to changes, and incorporate new information into our plans and ideas. When completing Six Brick activities, children are encouraged to change their plan as they work if the initial plan has not worked as effectively as it could have and that when faced with problem solving there is more than one way to achieve a suitable solution.

WORKING MEMORY

We need to rely on incoming information as well as the information stored in working memory in order to complete basic, everyday activities. If we have weak working memory skills, it’s difficult to juggle both at the same time. It is extremely challenging to follow multi-step instructions as we have trouble keeping in mind what comes next while they’re doing what comes now. A child may not be able to mentally “go back” to recall a sentence that has been dictated because they are desperately trying to recall the spelling of a word within the sentence. The wonderful news is that developing working memory is imbedded in most Six Bricks Activities. 

SELF MONITORING

SELF MONITORING also forms part of emotional intelligence. Children may not achieve success with the first attempt at a Six Bricks activity – this activity can be revisited and they will be proud of improving their own skills

PLANNING, PRIORITISING AND TASK INITIATION

Six Bricks activities help a child to learn to plan for the expected outcome.

•     They will have specific targets and goals to achieve – with Six Bricks, these are attainable as they love the resource & they can see their progress!!!

•     They will become aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses – using strengths to benefit the situation and working on weaknesses in a less stressful environment

•     We can have a brilliant plan, with all the steps in place, but if we don’t take the first step to get us started, the planning and prioritising is worth very little.

•     Pen to paper can be daunting for children so introducing concepts with Six Bricks builds the bridge needed to continue the journey to the written activity

ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS

The focus on a 'What went well?' discussion after an activity focuses children on possibilities to explore in the future to organise themselves better.  When they verbalise the thinking that they used to complete an activity, they are vocalising the organisation of their thinking, they quickly realise what went wrong without having to be told so

Executive Functioning skills cannot be developed in isolation from the child’s environment. It is therefore necessary to build executive functioning into children’s everyday activity and learning. As with all learning, it is mastered with ease in a fun, playful situation and Six Bricks used as a manipulative to bridge new concepts from concrete to abstract is the perfect solution.

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