Executive Functioning: Addressing Behavior From A Skills Perpective ...
Whether we are talking ADD/ADHD or Autism or just being a teenager, Executive Functioning plays an important role in performing many of the tasks associated with academic success. When looking at behaviors that are often getting in the way of learning, many students on the Autism Spectrum or within the range of ADD/ADHD, highlight the Executive Functioning [EF] skills associated with these challenges. The following reference will support the discussion; moving from "task avoidance" and other inconvienences associated with EF to something more specific and in alignment with the issues at hand.
The following reference materials come from Silvia DuRuvo's "Strategies for Teaching Adolescents with ADHD ..." [Josley Bass Publishing]. And I thank Silvia for the opportunity to share this information with you!
The Effects of Executive Functioning: Considerations ...
ACTIVATION: Organizing, planning, prioritizing, and getting things started is a challenge.
FOCUS: Often struggling with staying the course on task due to distractability or other sensory annoyances. On the other hand, some students struggle with "hyper focus" and find it hard to leave one task for another.
EFFORT: Sometimes you notice these kids who seem to fall asleep or appear drowsy when not engaged in learning. These kids are driven by "interest based" learning and related activities.
EMOTION: They may fly off the handle on a moment's notice or demonstrate a low threshhold with frustration.
MEMORY: Working memory is one of the most impacted areas within an ADD/ADHD student's learning for these kids may struggle with multiple step processes. The gift of scanning the environment has a downside; some kids have limited depth of understanding due to an inability to hold on to various bits of information while accessing others.
ACTION: How often have we seen kids who seem to act impulsively without much forethought related to their behavior? These kids often struggle with slowing down their actions and move without a well established cause and effect relationship of the actions. This often plays out within the context of social situations even though many of these kids are highly social and care deeply about others and how they are perceived.
There are many assessments available within your district or local clinical psychologists that address EF.