Linking Focus Skills to Success in College and Careers

What is Focus?

Focus skills are the essential skills that students need to master to learn and progress academically. They are the building blocks of learning! Focus is an Executive Function ability composed of three separate but closely related skills: task initiation, sustained attention, and task persistence. Focus involves knowing what to pay attention to in different situations, learning how to get started on tasks, and understanding how to sustain attention and effort on the task at hand. Focus helps students start on something and maintain their attention and effort through its completion. Focus is essential for staying on track to successfully complete academic tasks, show up for family commitments, contribute to a work environment, and activate a plan to achieve personal goals.

In our ever-changing, fast-paced world with persistent distractions, Focus skills are required to manage and juggle our multifaceted lives. Students need to be able to use Focus when reading in order to pick out the main ideas and fully comprehend the parts of a story. Focus is also important when working in a science lab in order to maintain safety. Students need to Focus when taking notes and outlining ideas for a written assignment. Executive Function skills such as Focus are skills that can be learned through practice, and these skills are necessary for success for all of our students in all classrooms and learning environments.

During their ExQ Benchmark Assessment of nine areas of Executive Function, ExQ evaluated students’ Focus which showed that 26% of students had Focus as their weakest area of Executive Function, meaning they had significant struggles with attention and concentration. At the end of year-long training with ExQ curriculum (20 lessons), their Focus scores improved from a baseline score of 40% to 73%, a 33% gain.

Also, their ExQ Benchmark Assessment evaluated students’ Working Memory which showed that that 33% of students had Working Memory as their weakest area of Executive Function. At the end of year-long training with ExQ curriculum (20 lessons), in May 2024, their Working Memory scores improved from a baseline score of 38% to 81%, a 43% gain.

ExQ’s training lessons created personalized strategies that aided students in identifying what to Focus on, how best to sustain attention, and how to skillfully ignore distractions to stay the course and achieve goals.

Earlier this year, ExQ talked with Kristin Grebel, a first-year high school teacher. She described how ExQ helps students stay Focused, self-regulate, and work both independently and as a team. She also shared that the most common challenges students face, both in her classroom and beyond, are self-motivation and Focus. However, when her class conducts an ExQ day, she notices that the ExQ personalized games help students become more engaged and willing to work through tough problems. By integrating ExQ into her teaching, Ms. Grebel is fostering a classroom environment where students not only feel more confident in their academic abilities, but also develop essential Executive Function skills like Focus that benefit them beyond the classroom.

 

There is a strong link between Focus and literacy, as attention is a key factor in reading and developing literacy skills. Teaching students Executive Function skills can help with teaching students to read. The key ways Focus is linked to literacy include:

• Reading helps develop Focus: Reading requires concentration on a single topic, which can help students improve their Focus even after they’re done reading. ExQ helps students Focus to improve deeper learning and a love for reading.
• Focus is a key to literacy success: ExQ helps students learn how to Focus on specific information, ignore distractions, and sustain their Focus in order to become successful readers.
• Attention issues can impact reading: Attention deficits can prevent students from acquiring early reading skills, which can lead to reading difficulties later on. ExQ’s personalized learning explicitly introduces novelty and ambiguity by promoting students Executive Function through highly tailored metacognitive and self-monitoring practices. These are essential ingredients for effectively “managing” learning that facilitates greater literacy outcomes.
• Different types of attention: There are different types of attention, including sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, and divided attention. ExQ helps build students’ Focus, capacity to sustain mental effort, self-knowledge, and strategically prepares them for deep work by bridging the gap between “knowing what to do” and “accomplishing what matters.”

With ExQ, teachers help students Focus by asking open-ended questions, encouraging discussion, and providing instructional re-focus. Learn more about the important links between literacy and Executive Function to help your students Focus on learning: https://exqinfiniteknowhow.com/ef-literacy/.

A significant link exists between Focus and mental health for students, where poor mental health, like anxiety or depression, can significantly impair a student’s ability to concentrate and Focus, impacting their academic performance by making it difficult to learn, retain information, and complete tasks effectively. Conversely, good mental health supports better Focus and Executive Function in the classroom.

Key points about this important connection between Executive Function skills and mental health include:

• Impact of mental health issues: When students experience mental health challenges like depression or anxiety, they often struggle with decreased Focus, difficulty paying attention, and problems with memory recall, hindering their ability to study and learn effectively. With ExQ, students learn practical tips for learning how to Focus and ways to re-engage when emotions are high and situations are challenging.
• Brain function and stress: Mental stress can negatively impact the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for Executive Function skills like concentration and decision-making, making it harder to Focus when under significant mental strain. Teaching students Executive Function skills with ExQ helps them regulate their emotions and respond adaptively to different situations. Developing self-awareness and daily Executive Function exercises with ExQ may lead to practices that result in improved mental health.
• Academic performance: Poor Focus due to mental health issues can lead to lower grades, missed assignments, and overall decreased academic performance. With ExQ, students learn proactive metacognitive abilities, such as self-awareness and the ability to care for the future-self. These skills involve reflecting on one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and making adjustments as needed.
• Importance of mental health support: Access to mental health services, including therapy and counseling, can help students manage their mental health challenges, improving their Focus and concentration levels, leading to better academic outcomes. Preparing our kids to have the strong mental health strategies and stamina to withstand a crisis is the best way to help avoid mental illness. But these skills require daily practice and commitment. Learning coping methods to use when things get tough is not easy. But, the investment in time and attention with our students is well worth the effort. Mentally strong kids are prepared for the challenges of the world.

Teaching our students Executive Function skills with ExQ is one of the most important and proactive ways we can help them build mental health and resiliency! Learn more about ways to support your students with ExQ to build resilient learners who are prepared with the skills they need to be mentally healthy: https://exqinfiniteknowhow.com/mental-health/

 

ExQ helps learners focus far beyond the college application process. The question isn’t can a smart student get into college, but rather will he or she thrive using their full potential, and manage college life independently? Exercising independence in college requires far more proficiency in Executive Function than is needed to get through high school, where close to 40-50 hours of a student’s time is accounted for in school, and an additional 15-20 hours are dictated by after school activities including sports, theater/arts, volunteering, and even work.

Since students live with their parents, the parents are often the ones who observe, coordinate, or even supervise to make sure that the remaining time is utilized for important and relevant tasks. Such careful guidance, regulation, or supervision is absent in college. The college student now has to take on the role of parent, coach, teacher, and mentor all at the same time as he or she navigates the vast amount of unstructured time.

Students who have proficient skills in the area of Executive Function transition seamlessly and switch between work and play, or play and work, easily and readily without losing a beat; achieving goals and meeting deadlines creates no pressure or imbalance. ExQ offers students critical skills-training, centered around staying Focused on goals, and learning to switch between tasks with greater ease.

ExQ’s patented technology provides students the opportunity to train their brain to assess errors, gain more knowledge of self, and capture that learning by designing strategies for personal progress. Achieving goals and managing time is more than using a timer, or keeping a calendar. The art of imposing deadlines, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, and meeting self-set goals requires tremendous Executive Function skills. The key ingredients for effective Executive Function are self-directed attention and mindfulness, task assessment, Focus, creating order and sequence in the middle of chaos, flexibly changing one’s approach, and keeping an open mind even when things are hard. Download the ExQ College and Career Readiness PDF to learn more about teaching Executive Function to ensure your students have the skills to succeed in the future.