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FSST: HYPE’s Commitment to Executive Functioning Skill Development |
Skills such as prioritizing tasks, time management, memorizing information, stamina, and organization are key to a student’s ability to effectively and actively engage and manage their learning.
HYPE supports the teaching of executive functioning skills, through the use of a structured, manualized intervention called FSST (Focused Skill and Strategy Training. HYPE develops these compensatory strategies through coaching, instruction, and practice, both in-session and at home. The HYPE cognitive training component focuses on developing skills in four domains:
Prospective Memory (i.e., remembering to remember)
Attention and Focus
Learning and Memory
Problem Solving and Cognitive Flexibility
Skills taught within FSST cover skill needs in both educational and employment environments. Young people, especially students, need executive functioning skills to manage competing demands and sustain successful involvement in important, real-life like managing time, planning for completing assignments on time, clarifying assignments, preparing for exams or meetings, responding to feedback, managing distractions, and negotiating with employers or professors.
FSST is easy to use, great for practitioners who want a structured method for teaching essential skills, and effective. In an early study of FSST, students with mental health conditions reported a reduction in academic difficulties and indicated a potential increase in self-efficacy and cognitive strategy use (Mullen, et.al., 2017).
The young adult experience of FSST is extremely positive. Students enjoy learning concrete strategies that can help them get organized and keep up motivation to complete their work, get to classes, and study in improved ways. One current student learning FSST hypes the strategies she’s learning on her TikTok channel, hoping to share that there is hope for people struggling in college.