Pills don’t teach Skills, Executive Function

Hey everybody, what’s up? “Pills don’t teach skills” is a saying that a lot of professionals in the education world use. For parents, teachers, and anybody else interested in executive function, that’s what I’m going to talk about in this video: why it’s an important term and what the intention behind it really is.

I want to give you some background so that you can make useful sense out of this phrase: “pills don’t teach skills.”

Hey, what’s up? My name is Seth Perler. I’m an executive function coach, and I help struggling students navigate this thing called education so that they can have a great future.

So, when professionals say “pills don’t teach skills,” what does it mean?

First of all, if a student, your child, or some of the students you’re working with are using medication of some sort, hopefully the benefits of the medication outweigh the side effects. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of kids for whom medication was life-changing from the very first day they started taking it.

I’ve also seen kids who don’t use medication at all and are still able to make incredible strides. And then I’ve seen kids on medication where it simply isn’t working. The child doesn’t feel like themselves, they don’t like it, they become turned off to medication altogether, or the side effects seem worse than the benefits.

There’s also something called titration, where students should be monitored by a doctor to make sure everything is working properly. Unfortunately, I don’t think that always happens.

So anyhow, after those things are addressed — when it feels like the benefits outweigh the side effects, there’s proper titration, and the medication is genuinely helping the student — then the student is in a good place to build skills.

Meanwhile, I’ll interrupt myself to say this: I used to be anti-medication. I’m no longer anti-medication. I definitely think there’s a lot of over-medication, under-medication, and mis-medication, but when the right medication is found, I’ve seen it be absolutely life-changing.

I’m not anti-medication. It just doesn’t make sense to look at it that way. It’s all about the student’s quality of life. My ultimate question is: does this benefit this human being’s life?

So I put aside the argument of whether I’m “anti-med” or “pro-med.” It’s not either-or. It’s about whether it’s right and whether it benefits the person’s life.

If the child — and I don’t care if they’re in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college — is on medication and the medication is helping, then they are in a good place to build skills.

The medication itself is not teaching executive function skills.

We have to remember that executive function takes place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain — the part of the brain that helps us get things done, initiate tasks, stop procrastinating, get started, follow through, turn things in, complete work, organize, use calendars and planners, and know how to study.

These are very, very complex skills.

Something that happens, which I think a lot of people don’t realize, is that kids with naturally strong executive function have often been practicing these skills intentionally for many years.

For example, let’s say they’re in second grade and the teacher says, “Hey guys, here’s how to organize this.” Then in third grade: “Here’s how to use calendars and planning systems.”

For kids who struggle with executive function, a lot of that information goes in one ear and out the other. It doesn’t sink in. It doesn’t land. It doesn’t soak in.

But for years, other kids have been building those skills little by little.

Imagine an investment: if you put a dollar a day or a hundred dollars a month into an account over many years, you’ll eventually see massive growth. But these kids who struggle with executive function haven’t been putting pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters into the “piggy bank” of building these skills.

So now that the medication is helping, they’re finally in a good place to start learning them.

The reason this is so important is because there’s a big misconception that medication will fix everything. I don’t think most people expect it to fix everything, but they are often baffled when they see some progress that’s inconsistent or choppy.

And the problem is that nobody is giving the student direct instruction on how to build executive function skills.

Your child — whether you’re a parent or a teacher working with students — needs direct instruction. They need compassionate, empathetic, and persistent support from somebody who can teach them how to implement the skills they are now better able to access.

In my work as a coach, I talk about something called “Frankenstudy.”

Unfortunately, we recently lost the guitarist Eddie Van Halen. His guitar was called the “Frankenstrat” because he built it from different customized pieces.

In terms of “Frankenstudy,” I think of it this way: we need to customize, personalize, and tailor systems for kids based on who they are — their preferences, styles, strengths, and challenges.

We need to help them build systems that actually work for them.

Too often, we just say, “Get a three-ring binder,” or “Use a calendar,” without giving any instruction around it. To me, that’s insane, especially in 2020. It makes no sense that we expect people to pick up these skills through osmosis.

I think people assume kids naturally learn these skills because they watch students with strong executive function and think they’re simply trying harder, caring more, more motivated, or more disciplined.

But that’s not it.

Kids who struggle haven’t been building these skills consistently over the years. There’s a real skill deficit, and those skills need to be taught.

So: pills don’t teach skills.

If you’re a parent or teacher trying to support a child with executive function challenges, and they’ve recently started medication, you still have to intentionally teach them these skills. You have to instruct them patiently, compassionately, empathetically, and persistently over time.

It doesn’t just happen automatically.

It’s not simply a matter of choice.

They need time to develop these skills, and you have to stay persistent. It’s not overnight. You can’t just teach them something once and expect them to have mastered it. You can’t say, “I know you can do it — I’ve seen you do it before.”

They need time for the skills to really gel.

My name is Seth Perler. I’m an executive function coach. If you like my work, give me a thumbs up here on YouTube. Leave a comment below: what do you think about “pills don’t teach skills”? What wisdom can you share with people? What questions do you have?

Ask them in the comments below, subscribe on YouTube, and visit my website, SethPerler.com. I have a lot of free resources for parents and teachers there. My life’s work and my heart are all over that site.

Go check it out and share it with people. I really appreciate it if you share my work, especially if you get something valuable out of what I’m doing.

Be well, have a great day, and we’ll see you soon.