Executive Function

Executive Function.  Two words that sound quite fancy and important.  They are important in our day-to-day lives.  Most of us take “executive function” for granted.  We have this function and don’t have to think about it.  

What is executive function?  
I would describe it this way:  Executive function includes the skills we use to plan, organize, and execute activities in everyday life.  

I have a son, S, who struggles with his executive function skills.  People who have ADD or ADHD often struggle with these skills.  My husband and I have learned how this struggle impacts our son. It impacts every facet of his life, every day of his life.  As he approaches adulthood, the impact on his life becomes more and more obvious and real.

S really thinks there isn’t an issue with the fact that he struggles to be anywhere on time or that he can’t find his things or it takes him a ridiculously long time to get ready to go anywhere or that he can’t plan what he needs to take with him when he walks out the door or…..

How do we help him?  
He can’t go through life constantly struggling to just get through day to day tasks.  Once again, my husband and I have turned to Google and searched. A lot of the information suggests modeling the necessary skills.  We have been modeling for years. 

What do we do?

I bought the book, Smart but Scattered Teens:  The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential.  We made it through the first part, "What Makes Your Teen Smart but Scattered", identifying executive function strengths and weaknesses.  Our whole family did it (we are a little nerdish like that).  It was quite interesting to see the results from that.

S’s Strengths to Weaknesses as scored by him and us:

Dad	S	Mom
Goal Directed Persistence	Goal Directed Persistence	Goal Directed Persistence
Flexibility	Flexibility	Emotional Control
Emotional Control	Task Initiation	Flexibility
Sustained attention	Sustained attention	Task Initiation
Task Initiation	Emotional Control	Response Inhibition
Response Inhibition	Working Memory	Working Memory
Working Memory	Response Inhibition	Sustained attention
Planning/Prioritizing	Organization	Metacognition
Metacognition	Time Management	Time Management
Time Management	Metacognition	Planning/Prioritizing
Organization	Planning/Prioritizing	Organization

[It is interesting to note that what S identified as his 3 weakest areas were also identified as his weak areas by me and my husband. He is very honest when assessing himself. It is also worth noting that he scored sustained attention as his fourth strongest area, and he has ADD.  There wasn't a lot of difference in scoring between strengths and weaknesses.]

What do we do with this information?  
My husband and I had the opportunity to start Part II of the book and read through Chapter 4, “Ten Principles for Improving Your Teen’s Executive Skills”.  It was interesting.  We took notes on a few of the principles. We look forward to reading Chapter 5, "Motivating Your Teen to Use Executive Skills". From there, we will work our way through the rest of the book.

We will see.  We really hope this helps.  We just want S to be successful, and he needs some of these skills to improve to help him be the best he can be.

You will find me on the couch with chocolate and this book.  I will keep you posted as to how things are going.