Executive function skills

I finished reading Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents by Dawson and Guare. This book is a dry and slow read. While the authors are knowledgeable, their style does not lend itself to easy reading. The beginning of the book gives a good overview that could be skimmed if someone has some background. The good parts are chapters 4-8 and the Appendix. The authors detail a number of specific strategies to use and have a variety of forms to assist with diagnosis, instruction and monitoring. It is long enough that photocopying is unrealistic.  

 

While there is a wide range of behaviors exhibited within the individual disability categories, common executive function weaknesses found in autism spectrum disabilities (ASD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are indicated on the chart below.

 

	ASD	TBI	ADHD/ ADD
Response inhibition		x	x
Working memory	x	x	x
Emotional control
Sustained attention			x
Task initiation	x	x	x
Planning/ prioritization		x	x
Organization			x
Time management			x
Goal directed persistence
Flexibility	x	x
metacognition	x	x

Of note is the idea that many students with learning disabilities have issues with executive function skills. Since these skills are developmental in nature, a range of abilities will be present across any group of people. With the prevalence of these weaknesses, it is important that general education teachers take the lead in establishing routines and teaching skills to address the needs of their classes. When students struggle, it is important to consider these "soft" skills as a possible source. Teaching, on-going coaching, reinforcing and generalizing are all important to developing executive function abilities.

The authors have also written Smart But Scattered which targets parents more than professionals.