What is Executive Functioning?

You may hear teachers or parents state that a student has an "executive functioning deficit," often not realizing that executive functioning is not a single skill.  Executive functioning consists of several skills, including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility/shifting and the utilization of these skills may overlap depending on the task that a person has to engage in.  Details and effective interventions are discussed below.

Inhibitory Control

Inhibitory control is required for readiness to learn.  It is the ability to resist impulsive thoughts or actions.  It is an important skill when focusing on what is being taught, what people are saying to you during a conversation, what you say to others, engaging in appropriate behavior, and accepting delayed gratification.  Challenges with inhibitory control can result in:

• Inattention

• Impulsivity

• Failing to listen when others are talking

• Forgetting to use a "social filter" when talking to others.  

• Distractibility

• Organizational and planning challenges 

• Lack of follow-through on plans.

• Tardiness  

Working Memory

Working memory is necessary for the process of learning.  It is ability to hear or see information and mentally organize it (typically by comparing it to previously learned information) so that it can be stored in long-term memory and retrieved/utilized at a later time.  This is an important skill when learning new information as well as remember what needs to be done.  Working memory challenges can result in:

• Difficulty following multiple step directions.

• Forgetfulness.

• Difficulty seeing the links between previously learned information and new concepts.

• Disorganization

• Difficulty tracking due dates.

• Forgetting to bring necessary materials to/from school.

• Difficulty creating a plan for how to accomplish tasks.  

Cognitive Flexibility/Shifting

Cognitive flexibility/Shifting is necessary for the implementation of what has been learned.  It is the ability to think outside the box and generate alternative strategies.  This is an important skill that is used when applying previously learned knowledge to novel problems as well as when working collaboratively with others who may have different ideas or opinions than you do.  Those with cognitive flexibility/shifting challenges may have difficulty with:

• • • • • Being viewed as "rigid" because they do not like to deviate from familiar tasks or routines.

        • Taking other people's opinions into account during conversations.

        • Transitions from one activity to the next.

        • Deviating from a routine.

        • Working cooperatively on group projects.

        • Considering alternative solutions to a task.  

        • Perspective-taking.

These three executive functioning skills help us to organize what we have to do, inhibit impulsive responses, consider the perspectives of different people, and process information into long-term memory.  

Combination of Deficits 

People with disabilities such as ADHD or Autism often have deficits in one or more of the above areas, the combination of which may result in symptoms such as:

• Not being able to organize materials (inhibitory control/working memory)

• Difficulty with impulsive behaviors and social interactions (inhibitory control/cognitive flexibility/shifting)

• Difficulty comparing new information with old information (working memory/cognitive flexibility/shifting)

• Implementing a plan of action (all three executive functions). 

• Developing solutions to novel problems (all three executive functions). 

• Transitioning between tasks (all three executive functions).  

What Are Effective Executive Functioning Interventions?

Interventions will need to be targeted toward the specific executive functioning skill(s) that are impacted as the specific manifestation of the symptoms.  

Children with inhibitory control deficits often are inattentive and therefore have poor organizational skills, resulting in missed assignments or misunderstanding (or not paying attention to) directions.  As early as elementary school, these students may benefit from:

• Increasing self-awareness of when they are becoming off-task by having them keep a log of when they find themselves "drifting."

• Being explicitly taught and held accountable to specific organizational systems, such as using Google Calendar to track assignments and test dates and/or using binders with dividers to sort work/subjects.  

• Being taught how to actively engage with information being presented, such as taking notes, highlighting important aspects of text, or summarizing what has been said.  

• Utilizing a token economy to reinforce appropriate behaviors.  

Children with working memory deficits may benefit from supports that decrease the "memory jam," also referred to as "cognitive overload," that occurs when they are having difficulty applying what has been previously learned to help them to understand/categorize new information.  Such supports may include:

• Increasing academic vocabulary so that they can be more fluid when learning new information.

• Explicitly comparing previously learned information or experiences to the new information.

• Having the student actively engage with the material by completing projects or applying the new information to a real-world problem.  

• Providing examples of fully worked out multi-step math problems and gradually working backwards by reducing the number of completed steps for the student until the student is completing the problem independently.  This allows the student to understand how each step leads to the next step.  

Children with cognitive flexibility/shifting deficits may benefit from supports that encourage "thinking outside the box."  Such supports may include:

• Providing positive reinforcers when the student performs tasks in a different way than they are used to.  

• Teaching them to use graphic organizers to visually compare/contrast concepts.

• Targeting perspective-taking skills when working with others.  This is particularly important for students with autism.  

Avoid Over-Supporting

Because children with executive functioning weaknesses often exhibit performance performance deficits, many adults feel as though they must do the executive functioning for the child by providing them with constant reminders, keeping track of due dates for them, hovering over them during homework to make sure that they stay on-task, monitoring their social interactions, or implementing 504 or IEP accommodations that take the responsibility of time management off of the student completely.    

While providing extensive supports, reminders, and prompts helps the child to avoid failure in the short-term, in the long-term it is preventing the child's executive functioning skills from developing.  Like any type of skill, executive functioning skills must be practiced, utilized, and habitualized in order to be implemented independently.  While supports are appropriate when teaching the student the skills, these supports should be faded as soon as possible so that the child can grow and, if necessary, fail at things in order to learn from the natural consequences that occur.  Adults must remind themselves that it is better for children to go through this process when the consequences are low stakes rather than having to suddenly learn how to arrive on time at a job, meet deadlines for a company, or avoid saying something inappropriate to a boss.  The key to effective supports is the eventual fading of those supports.