Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Supporting Development of Executive Function

Based solely on amateur reading - I understand EF as "things governed by the prefrontal cortex that relate to executing the functions of life in a constructive way." This covers everything from impulse control, to organizing tasks, to managing emotions, to remembering that eating and sleeping are useful and not a "total waste of time" as DS7 puts it.

Impulse control/managing emotions is where DS7 struggles. As I said above though - seems to be improving lately. Fingers crossed!

Experts - is that what EF is?

Sue

I'm no expert but here is something I found when I was trying to conceptualize my son's issues:

http://files.campus.edublogs.org/bl.../List-of-Executive-Functions-169lmt8.pdf

List of Executive Functions
Response Inhibition—The capacity to think before you act, to resist the urge to say or do something to allow the time to evaluate a situation and the impact of the what is said or done.

Emotional control—The ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior.

Task initiation—The ability to begin a task or activity and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem solving strategies.

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

Goal-directed persistence—The capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests.

Metacognition—The ability to observe how you problem solve. It includes self-monitoring and self-evaluative skills.

Self-Monitoring—Recognizing what is going on inside your own mind, body, environment, and relationships.

Self-evaluative skills—The capacity to evaluate how well you did and to make good decisions about how to proceed.

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.

Sustained attention—The capacity to keep paying attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom.

Planning/prioritization—The ability to manage future oriented tasks.

Time management—The ability to estimate how much time you have, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines.

Flexibility—The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions.

Shifting—The ability to move freely from one situation, activity, or aspect of a problem to another, in reaction to internal or external cues.

This is helpful. I can see a number of things my son has/had difficulty with. From Emotional Control, Task Initiation, Organization of information, he has low Working Memory, and Sustained Attention problems due to boredom.

This seems like a huge and complex list. If we go back to the OP's question there is probably not one thing to be done to help develop EF as it covers a large number of skills. I'm not sure teaching a child to keep their toys organized will necessary help them learn emotional control for example.

Boy, what an interesting list! I see things that are huge STRENGTHS for my DD and others that are major issues for her. I guess what I might glean from that is that whatever her issue it is, EF is not the primary thing affected.

As far as my DS goes, he seems pretty typical for most of it except that this one:

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

is not so great on the "materials" part. He's also not so great on Task Initiation when it comes to homework, but IDK if I can say much there because it's boring as heck and he's 7.

"I'm not sure teaching a child to keep their toys organized will necessary help them learn emotional control for example."

Exactly. As I've learned about the development of EF, and how it is based in the development of the brain, I've come to realize why my son struggles so. We are asking him, in so many ways, to see before his eyes are even open.

Fascinating topic.

DD and I took an executive function skills class and we reviewed this whole list. My takeaway is that some items are strengths and some are weaknesses -- for everyone.

DD for example, has always been excellent at the metacognition, self-monitoring / evaluating types of skills (to an almost problematic degree). Her emotional control is crap though, something she gets from me.

I was really disorganized until college, now I organize things for a living (I'm a PM). But my emotional control is still one of my biggest challenges.

Working memory is an EF skill and yet it's also highly correlated with IQ. DD has a super high working memory, but has a terrible time with flexibility.

I think the caution is to be careful of treating EF skills like one thing.

There are books that help you, or your child, figure out their EF strengths and weaknesses and then give you ideas on how to gain better skills in your weaker areas. One of these is Smart but Scattered. The other popular book title is escaping me at this time!

I found them quite helpful in understanding what EF are and aren't and what my own strengths and weaknesses are, and my child's. It really is very interesting when you get into it. At least I think so

PM=Program Manager? Tangent: how did you get into this career?

Ivy,

What was the class and where was it offered?

Would you mind sharing the details, please?

I have always thought of EF as being an innate skill. DD wakes herself up, checks the weather, picks out her clothes, makes her breakfast (cereal, toaster waffles etc) by herself and has done so since kindergarten. She is completely responsible for her homework and studying for tests (i don't even glance at them). If she needs extra help studying for a test she will let us know. She has never had behavior issues (very minor and only at home), keeps her room clean by herself and has been this way as long as I can remember. I am sure she gets it from her dad but it is interesting to watch. I certainly can't think of anything that I have done that would have improved her EF.