ADHD Experts Podcast 599- Parent-Child Executive Function Training: Help Yourself, Help Your Child
Mar 31, 2026
Tamar Kahana, Psy.D., clinical psychologist who developed the POWERS executive function curriculum. She discusses shifting parenting mindsets, modeling executive function skills, and the POWERS framework. Short, practical strategies include Ask, Don't Tell, Pause Praise Progress, and using flexibility and routines to help children build self-management.
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Develop Your Skills Before Expecting Yours
- Give the gift to get the gift: develop skills you weren't given so you can model and teach them to your child.
- Kahana urges parents to regulate, listen, and apologize to model skills like flexibility and repair.
Treat Knowing As Different From Doing
- Distinguish knowledge from skill and expect practice; don't assume knowing equals ability.
- Kahana compares a few tennis lessons (knowledge) to actual playing skill to explain repeated practice is required.
Activate Kids With Ask Don't Tell
- Use Ask Don't Tell to activate a child's executive function instead of doing tasks for them.
- Kahana's clinic example: asking 'What are you forgetting?' triggered a 10-year-old to retrieve his coat and water bottle himself.