Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Suggestions to Improve Executive Function...

My almost 5 year old can't keep track of hers but my 9yr old hasn't lost it once, because she uses it for everything. When it's not for work it's for play.

Similarly my best friend tells me that her DH used to put his phone through the washer or loose it almost monthly and never answered it because it was never handy. Since getting an iPhone though he always has it and answers it, and has had it two years without washing it or loosing it. He uses it to photograph things he has to remember, for the calendar, as a timer, etc. If you get the right device perhaps it won't be lost? Or maybe not....

Is there a way to attach it to a belt? My kids have to wear a belt with school uniforms so that would work here.

Ah, ours gets handed to meant school drop off and given back to her at pick up. Not sure how I would manage it at school.

Oh I just meant they wear belts and if there was something that could hold an itouch on a belt.

You are very welcome! I am spending a lot of my free time this summer (I've got the kids at home and am watching some other kids a lot, many activities going on) researching, thinking, and it is great to have a place to post what I'm learning and thinking about, and get feedback on it!

Yes, I feel the same way -- things really fell apart this year in third grad for my son. And part of me wishes that the homework and classwork just hadn't been so demanding on my son and that way, he woudln't have had as many difficulties. Yet part of me is happy that he did -- it allowed us to see early on that executive function was a real issue rather than waiting to find this out when he hit middle school.

We are very luck though that the school he attends ( a public school magnet type program for GT kids) is pretty aware of the need to help kids develop EF skills. I'm not sure how well they can actually help kids like my son but at least they are aware that some kids just aren't as organized as others and from what I have heard of his teacher next year, she is flexible and will work with us to put some things in place for him next year.

I am a teacher and do a lot of tutoring on the side and I have worked with many chidlren who were diagnosed ADHD and my son just isn't like them. I guess it's because he isn't hyperactive at all, and no teacher he's ever had told me that he seemed inattentive or distractible during class. (Hmmm... well, they do all say that he likes to chatr a lot.) Even from preschool, he was able to sit and listen pay attention during story time, etc. He can be impulsive, but it's nowhere near as bad as it is with many of my clients. He does not have dificulty inhibiting his behavior, although that isn't a great strength either -- he seems about typical for a 9 year old boy.

So that's why I never thought to persue an ADHD diagnosis.

I do hear what you are saying about ADD/Inattentive, though. It's entirely possibly that's what he has.

The things that fit him to a T are:

- overly responsive
- poor ability to separate emotion from fact
- easily frustrated
- poor use of self talk
- trouble shifting gears (plan A to plan B)
--poor recall of the past
- poor sense of passage of time
- poor future planning (lack of follow through/perseverance)

Hmmm.. you know what? LOoking at the DSM list at the end of the article I linked to -- my son DOES have 6 or more of the symptoms listed for ADHD/inattentive, doesn't he? It's just not really impacted his ability to perform at school until he hit third grade.

This sounds great!! I think I'd like one for myself, first!

So thinking it all over, one thing that really stands out is that my son has an extremely poor sense of time.

What's already been helping tremendously has been the use of the Time Timer. That's a timer that shows a visual (like a pie chart) in red of exactly what percentage of an hour remains of your time. As the clock ticks away, the pie graph gets smaller. So if I set it for 45 minutes on the computer, he can glance up and see that there is only a little sliver of red left -- means time is almost up.

He's a very bright child, so you would think he knew how to tell time, and that 10 minutes left is just ten minutes left -- but when we used other timers, he was constantly surprised at how fast his time had gone by, Since I bought this time timer and have been using it, he has had a much easier time accepting that "time was UP" -- seems like less of a suprise or shock.

Other ideas for developing sense of time:

1. Whenever you do an activity that should take, say 10 to 15 minutes, set timer for 15 minutes and ask child to tell you when he thinks only 10 minutes have passed.

2. Ask child throughout the day to guess what time he thinks it is! Keep a running record -- what his guess was and what the actual time was.

3. Adult swim period at the pool lasts exactly 15 minutes. Ask child not to look at closk and to do some activity with you -- ask him to try to stop just before the 15 minute whistle blows.

4. Have him cloase eyes andtell me whan 1 minutes is up.

5. Guess how long it will take to do a certain activity (get dressed, toast toast, boil water; clean bedroom floor. Write down guess an dthen time how long it does take.

6. Guess how long it will take to finish a page or a unit in the workbook. Do the work and time it. Compare prediction.

7. In restaurant, guess how long time will be between ordering food and serving. Then time it.

8. Guess how long it will take to drive from point A to point B.

HoneyBadger - these are great ideas. When my dd was in preschool, her teacher suggested similar exercises to develop sense of time. One was to point out how long it takes to drive from point a to point b. I think I need to start doing this again as she is driving, working and always late because she just doesn't allow enough time......

We call my dh the "human clock", because he has such a good sense of time. Unfortunatly, he is also late all the time. His problem is that he always "forgets" the things he needs (brief case, phone, computer) and tries to do "one more thing", (check his e-mail, print something out, empty the dehumidifier.....whatever comes to mind). Also executive functioning issues.

They drive me crazy!! Any suggestions on how a mom with relatively good EF can deal with her smart but scattered family?

This is a great thread, thank you for sharing so many great tips!


This may be simplistic but the more research I do, the more I come to the conclusion that the professionals are just using different labels for describing essentially small variations of the same thing: ADD/ADHD/ASD/EFD/OCD/ODD/SPD/LD etc etc. Over the past 8 months since I started frequenting this site, I have read so many parent descriptions of their child's issues and thought "yep, that's my DD" but then the wide variety of diagnosis-es (SP?) received for practically identical issues leads me to wonder if we are all just talking about varying degrees of the same phenomenon.

Another non scientific random thought on all of this: maybe all of these issues are sort of part and parcel with being very gifted, sort of like how blind people develop heightened senses of hearing or smell. Maybe some kids developed heightened IQs at the expense of other functions but these strengths and weaknesses sort of balance each other out.

My DD could never keep track of phones, planners, homework, lunch money, etc but for some magical reason, we are going on year 3 or 4 with the same IPod Touch! I am guessing it has something to do with the fact that we never explored actually using it for something functional like a tracker or minder, it has been purely a source of entertainment for my DD and therefore it is a highly treasured item worthy of the extra effort required to keep up with it.

Now my DD is getting ready to go off to college, she knows she needs all kinds of help with planning, remembering deadlines and schedules etc, she has taken the initiative to figure out how this treasured toy/companion can also be her personal assistant. I am hopeful this will actually work since she is already used to keeping track of the thing.