Executive Function Skills

[Adapted from: Executive Dysfunction at Home and at School, Smart but Scattered (Dec. 2020),

by Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP, PESI Inc. Workshop]

Foundational Skills

• Response Inhibition/Impulse Control

• Working Memory

• Emotional Control/Regulation

• Flexibility

• Sustained Attention

• Task Initiation

Advanced Skills

• Planning/Prioritizing

• Organization

• Time Management

• Goal-Directed

Persistence

• Metacognition

Executive Function Skill Definitions: Executive skills refer to the cognitive processes/cognitive functions required to plan and organize activities, including task initiation and follow through, working memory, sustained attention, performance monitoring, inhibition of impulses, and goal-directed persistence. Located primarily in the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain just behind the forehead), these are skills that begin to develop in some form soon after birth, but neuroscientists are now realizing that it takes about 25 years for these skills to fully mature. And for youths with executive function disorders, these skills tend to develop even more slowly.

With executive skill development, progress is measured in years and not months. While it is likely that with executive skill coaching that time frame can be shortened a bit, at a minimum it will take a marking period or two to see growth—and longer for that growth to solidify (Dawson, P. & Guare, R. (2012). Coaching students with executive skills deficits. New York: The Guilford Press).

• Response Inhibition/Impulse Control: The capacity to think before you act –this ability to resist the urge to say or do something allows us the time to evaluate a situation and how our behavior might impact it. The ability to “STOP and THINK” ahead to the consequences of comments and actions.• Working Memory: The ability to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks.

It incorporates the ability to draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or to project into the future; the ability to pull in prior learned information, skills, and knowledge to do the task at hand/current task.

• Emotional Control/Emotional Regulation: The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior; frustration tolerance, ability to manage frustration, disappointment, & anxiety.

• Flexibility: The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions, and the ability to adapt/change one’s behaviors and one’s initial plan to match the needs/demands of the situation.

• Sustained Attention: The capacity to maintain attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom.

• Task Initiation: The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion.

• Planning/Problem-Solving/Prioritization: The ability to create a roadmap that identifies the steps to reach a goal or to complete a task, as well as the ability to generate alternate solutions, rather than just one solution. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important, and the ability to distinguish non- essential information from essential information. It is additionally the ability to understand main central ideas and to summarize/understand essential information, while leaving out or ignoring non-essential information.

• Organization: The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.

• Time Management: The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important.

Being able to prioritize (distinguish essential from non-essential information, distinguish what is important and not important to focus upon) assists with time management and completing tasks efficiently, instead of spending time unnecessarily on irrelevant, peripheral, and tangential details.

• Metacognition: The ability to stand back and take a birdseye view of oneself in a situation—to observe how you problem solve and how you are acting/behaving, as well as to think about one’s own thoughts, feelings, motives/motivations, and behavior. It includes self-awareness, self‐monitoring, self‐evaluation, self-reflection (e.g., “How am I doing? or How did I do?, How am I coming across to others? How am I affecting others? Did I problem-solve that effectively?How could I have handled that more effectively? How could I have problem-solved that more effectively? How did I cope with that? How can I cope more effectively?”).

• Goal‐directed persistence: The capacity/ability to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, not be put off or distracted by competing/other interests, and to delay gratification. Requires the individual to:

• Generate and hold a mental representation of the goal in mind (working memory).

• Formulate a plan and set of rules to follow (self‐directed speech/inner speech).

• Inhibit and regulate negative affect (i.e., emotional regulation of disappointment and frustration) associated with the self‐deprivation need to complete the goal (giving up of doing preferred interests/activities to complete the goal).

• Initiate self‐motivated or positive drive states (motivation, enthusiasm, excitement) in support of the plan (affect/emotional regulation)

• Think about and/or try out multiple novel approaches to achieve the goal (various ways to reach the goal), before selecting an approach to achieve the goal (planning, problem solving, and flexibility)

Cited References:

• Barkley, Russell, A. (2012). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Guilford Press, NY, NY

• Barkley, Russell, A. (2013). ADHD: Executive Functioning, Life Course, and Outcomes Management. Premier Education Solutions.

• Barkley, Russell, A. (2013). Taking Charge of ADHD, Third Edition: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents. Guilford Press, NY, NY.

• Dawson, P. & Guare, R. (2018). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. 3rd Edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

• Dawson, P. & Guare, R. (2012). Coaching students with executive skills deficits. New York: The Guilford Press.

• Dawson, P. & Guare, R. (2009). Smart but scattered: The revolutionary ”executive skills" approach to helping kids reach their potential. New York: The Guilford Press.

• Guare, R., Dawson, P., & Guare, C. (2012). Smart but scattered teens. New York: The Guilford Press