Books & Materials
Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension (2nd edition)
This pioneering book is now in a revised and expanded second edition featuring the latest neuroscientific knowledge and instructional strategies. Kelly B. Cartwright provides a teacher-friendly explanation of executive skills—such as planning, organization, cognitive flexibility, and impulse control—and their role in reading comprehension. Detailed examples illustrate how each skill is deployed by strong comprehenders and ways to tailor instruction for students who are struggling. The companion website features reproducible planning and assessment forms from the book as well as supplemental card sorts to teach and assess cognitive flexibility, all ready to download and print in a convenient 8½“ x 11” size.
Graphophonological-Semantic Cognitive Flexibility (GSF)
Sometimes students have difficulty bridging word recognition and meaning, and they focus inflexibly on word recognition without seeming to pay attention to what a text means (Cartwright et al., 2017; Yuill & Oakhill, 1991). This is one way that executive skills develop within reading as readers learn to exert control over their reading processes in reading-specific ways (Cartwright & Palian, 2024).
GSF contributes to reading comprehension in children and adults, across languages (Cartwright, 2002, 2007, 2026; Cartwright et al., 2010; 2017a, 2017b, 2020a, 2020b; Colé et al., 2014; Escobar & Rosas Díaz, 2023; Escobar et al., 2024; Søndergaard Knudsen et al., 2018; Guajardo & Cartwright, 2016; Varghese & Shanbal, 2025, 2026).
You can measure this ability in your students, and you can teach it, resulting in improved reading fluency (Cartwright, 2026; Cartwright et al., 2019) and reading comprehension (Cartwright, 2002, 2026; Cartwright et al., 2017, 2020). Assess and teach flexibility in thinking about words' sounds and meanings with these materials. Learn more about bridging processes in this article and this research brief.