5 Reasons to Get Your Students Unstuck and On Target!

Strengthening students’ executive function skills is one of the most important things teachers can do to help students succeed in an era that requires flexibility, emotional regulation, persistence, and strong organizational skills. Developed to strengthen executive function skills in school settings, the proven Unstuck and On Target! curriculum can help.

Unstuck is an innovative program that’s been gaining lots of traction in schools since the first version came out in 2011. Through catchy scripts, visuals, role-plays, and positive reinforcement, the small-group Unstuck lessons keep students engaged as they learn important skills. Lessons and scripts build on each other, and students get lots of opportunities to practice and generalize their new skills to school, home, and community settings.

As we get ready to release the newest version of Unstuck (this one for teens and young adults ages 14-22), here are five great reasons your school or district should invest in this bestselling curriculum.

Unstuck dismantles obstacles to long-term success.

Problems with flexibility and goal-directed behavior can be a major obstacle to success in school and in life. Unstuck directly addresses executive functioning at school, so kids can be more flexible, well-regulated problem-solvers in the classroom and beyond. With Unstuck, your school can:

• Improve executive functioning skills such as cognitive flexibility, organization, and planning abilities, so that students can more easily shift from topic to topic and task to task, and consider new ideas or another person’s point of view.
• Address executive functioning problems, including trouble with transitioning and completing multiple-step tasks. Providing intervention for these common issues will allow teachers to spend more time focusing on teaching and less time on managing behavior.

There’s no doubt about it: Unstuck really works.

The authors tested Unstuck in Title I elementary schools with racially, ethnically, and language diverse families and compared it to an empowering behavior management program (Contingency Behavior Management, or CBM). They found that:

• Students and parents liked Unstuck more than CBM.
• Unstuck worked well for students on the autism spectrum and for students with ADHD in improving classroom behaviors (social reciprocity, transitioning, rule abidance, participation, getting unstuck, and being less negative). These improvements were maintained one year later!
• Unstuck and CBM worked well for everyone, no matter how old they were, what race they were, the family’s income, or what language was spoken in the home. Also, any educational team member, regardless of their discipline or expertise, can lead the groups.

In interviews, students spoke highly about the changes Unstuck has helped them implement. One student cited the benefits of “being able to have multiple plans because if I don’t have multiple plans I get stuck. If I have multiple plans I can get a little of what I want, rather than not at all. In most situations that’s better.” Another student said this after learning the Unstuck approaches: “When I get really mad at a teacher or friend, I try to think about is it really necessary to get mad. I try to stay calm and be flexible and cope with what is going on.”

Busy teachers love how easy and flexible it is.

The Unstuck developers have worked hard to make this curriculum as flexible and easy to implement as possible. Unstuck and On Target!:

• Can be implemented in a variety of settings—in class, pull-out groups, or a lunch bunch. The frequency (one time a week, multiple times a week) is up to each teacher.
• Can be used with any class, by any teacher.Each lesson comes with clear and explicit instructions, materials lists, and helpful tips for teachers.
• Uses items you likely have in your classroom already (glue, scissors, etc.). Very few of the lessons require additional materials outside of what’s included in the manual.
• Gives you simple classroom and home practice guides to make each lesson easy to implement.
• Includes visual supports and posters to help students grasp abstract concepts.

The benefits are well worth the initial time investment.

“Stressed” and “overwhelmed” doesn’t even begin to cover what many teachers are feeling these days. Most teachers can’t imagine adding something else to their school day, unless it’s proven to help students and the benefits are really worth it.

The Unstuck developers point to the solid research base behind their intervention and its proven impact on students: “If we dedicate the time to teaching Unstuck, not only will our students learn valuable life skills that will positively impact their academics and social interactions, we will gain back a good portion of the time that was being dedicated to redirecting and managing behavior throughout the school day.”

The impact of Unstuck will also continue far beyond the brief lessons: “The power will come from not only the explicit lesson instruction, but also how you use the language and concepts to support instruction and interactions across the school day.” 

Unstuck gets parents more involved in strengthening their child’s skills.

Unstuck also makes it easy to keep the home-school connection strong. Every lesson has a “home extension” that summarizes what the student learned and gives ideas for how the parents can use the ideas at home. Parents love these handouts! They give families concrete ideas for how to use the strategies their children are learning in the Unstuck sessions, which leads to more positive interactions with their children—and better outcomes for the kids.

LEARN MORE about Unstuck and On Target!

• GET A FREE SAMPLE LESSON
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• WATCH THE WEBINAR
  Get more details about Unstuck in this webinar presented by co-developers Lynn Cannon, M.Ed., Social Learning Specialist; and Lauren Kenworthy, Ph.D., Pediatric Neuropsychologist.
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