Dr. Adel Najdowski writes new book on Practical Interventions for Teaching Executive Functioning Skills

With more than two decades of experience working with autistic children using Applied Behavior Analysis, Dr. Adel Najdowski has written a new book for educators, practitioners and parents seeking to develop greater executive functioning skills in their students, clients and loved ones. Flexible and Focused: Teaching Executive Function Skills to Individuals with Autism and Attention Disorders is a how-to manual offering multiple real-life strategies designed to be simple and easy to use in everyday situations.

With lessons, data sheets, worksheets, and other practical tools, the book has sections on teaching self-awareness, inhibition and impulse control, self-management, attention, organization, problem solving, time management, planning, working memory, emotional self-regulation, and more. The manual also provides an overview of what constitutes executive functioning and detailed explanations of how techniques based on ABA principles can be applied to executive skill development.

"This book is the first to provide an ABA-based curriculum specifically tailored for individuals with autism that covers the full-range of executive functioning skills and was purposefully written in everyday language in order to empower individuals of all backgrounds to be able to jump in and start using the procedures right away," said Dr. Najdowski.

Dr. Najdowski brings significant expertise to the book and its subject. Between 2005 and 2010, she supervised the creation and development of the Skills® system, an online curriculum for children diagnosed with autism. In 2014, she co-authored Evidence-Based Treatment for Children with Autism: The CARD Model. With over 40 publications in professional journals, contributions to scientific research papers, popular media interviews and articles, Dr. Najdowski has also served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavior Analysis in Practice, as well as a guest editor for Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Committed to teaching higher-order skills to children with autism as well as assessment and curriculum design, she has spoken on ways treatment providers can help children with autism develop skills in perspective-taking, practice more empathy, and build deeper, more meaningful interpersonal relationships with others.

Currently, she serves as the program director for the Masters in Science in Behavior Psychology at Pepperdine's Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP). Recently introduced at GSEP, the program combines rigorous theoretical study with practical experience working directly with clients through behavioral intervention. As a leader at Pepperdine and within the fields of autism research and treatment, Dr. Najdowski provides a new book that promises to be an important resource for those who work with this growing population of learners.

For more information and to order the book:

https://www.elsevier.com/books/flexible-and-focused/najdowski/978-0-12-809833-2