About Janet’s Books
Based in Hamilton, New Zealand. Janet Stowell is the author of two books about executive functions. Janet Stowell Publishing is Jan’s self-publishing company founded in November 2018 as a way to market and sell her first book.
‘Executive functions’, is an umbrella term for a set of cognitive skills and processes that enable people to make decisions, solve problems and manage their own thinking and behaviour, in order to achieve future goals. The three core executive functions are response inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility; the higher order executive functions are task initiation, planning/prioritising, organisation, time management and goal setting. The tools in the toolkits give children (and adults) strategies that they can fall back on to help them to: stop and think, resist temptation, not act impulsively, switch the way they think, remember things, be organised, be good managers of time, be able to plan, set goals, start tasks, focus and persist. It is important that we encourage effort and hard work in order to assist children to strengthen their executive functions.
The Executive Functions Toolkit for Classroom Teachers
by Janet Stowell
Published 9 November 2018
ISBN: 978-0-473-43866-1
This is a research-based peer-reviewed handbook that informs teachers how to teach children to strengthen their executive functions. Executive functioning was a term that Janet had come across during her work as an RTLB. In 2016, she wrote a toolkit about executive functions, based on extensive reading and thoroughly researched literature reviews, for teachers to trial as part of her master’s professional inquiry research paper. The toolkit aimed to raise awareness, inform understanding, and suggest practical ways of teaching students how to improve their executive functioning skills. The evaluation of this toolkit was the focus of her study. Having been a keen writer for many years, Janet decided to amend and add to the toolkit using feedback from interviews with her research triallists. Subsequently, over the following two years, all of her spare time was devoted to producing ‘The Executive Functions Toolkit for Classroom Teachers’. This book gives teachers background information about executive functions, definitions of specific executive functions, strategies to improve specific executive functions, ideas for classroom teaching, assessment and a variety of templates. There is a table specifically linking the key competencies with executive functions and a description of the executive functions needed when mastering the ‘3 R’s’.
Growing Self-regulating Kids: The Executive Functions Toolkit for Parents
by Janet Stowell
Published 26 February 2022
ISBN: 978-0-473-61113-2
This book is an informative, interactive, easy-to-use handbook for parents who are interested in helping their children learn to manage themselves and their own lives successfully by controlling their thoughts and actions – eventually becoming self-regulating. The eight executive functions described in this book help people of any age learn to stop and think; think flexibly; have a good working memory; be organised; have good time management skills; set goals, make plans and prioritise things; and start tasks such as chores. Children who have executive function difficulties are sometimes incorrectly perceived as being lazy, stupid, unmotivated and/or disorganised, and they can feel frustrated and disappointed with themselves. In fact, these children may just have a slower rate of developing executive function skills than their siblings, peers and friends. Executive function skills are learned through explicit teaching and modelling, combined with extensive practice. Children with specific needs such as ASD, ADHD and dyslexia benefit from, and enjoy, the hands-on strategies and activities that this toolkit provides.
