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Cortica

Perspective

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022): Research and perspectives in educational neuroscience

Improving executive function and pro-social skills of adolescents placed under restraint in the context of specialized school support workshops

  • Sonia Brun
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26034/cortica.2022.1941
Submitted
March 16, 2022
Published
2022-03-21

Abstract

Executive functions (EF) develop very early in children's lives and continue into adulthood. Many data raise an increasingly established link between executive disturbances and academic difficulties, behavioral disorders and pro-social skills. These factors lead some young people into a situation of school and/or family disruption which results in forced placement in an attempt to stop them in their destructive spiral of behaviors that are dangerous to their development. Neuropsychology demonstrates that the genetic and epigenetic context plays a major role in brain construction and in the imprints that shape our reaction to stressful situations and the resulting automatic physiological and psychological responses. Accumulated stress loads weaken the body's natural responses to stress and the stress load becomes chronic and toxic to brain development. This burden is accentuated with a placement under constraint in a new context of life. This work is an attempt to develop tools to reduce the stress load and improve their executive functions and pro-social skills through lessons dealing with the personal and behavioral skills necessary to integrate a school / professional framework at the end of the placement. This learning aims to strengthen the brain network of young people by developing their skills to enable them to return to school or vocational training.

 

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