Article 2: What is Executive Function Disorder?
W Eleni Siderias Associate Head of School The Gateway School
alter is entering his junior year of high school. He wants to apply to college next fall, and he knows an impressive transcript these next two semesters could really help expand his list of choices. In addition to his academic course load, he’s once again playing trumpet in the marching band and will be swimming for the varsity team this year. On any given day it’s a lot to manage, but he’s up to the challenge. In fact, Walter prides himself on being one of the most organized kids in his class. This was certainly not always the case. In elementary school, Walter was always described as a bright kid. He was also always described as forgetful. Whether it was a notebook left at home or a jacket left on the playground, barely a day went by without Walter losing track of some personal item. With an IQ well above average, he perfectly embodied the absentminded professor trope. Oftentimes, Walter’s forgetfulness was so acute that he could be in the middle of an assignment, become distracted by something a classmate said, and be completely unable to regain his focus on the lesson at hand. Other times, he would become so fixated on a minor detail he would lose track of the big picture and was often left to finish incomplete classwork at home. The problem was that by the time Walter got home, practicing his trumpet or a FaceTime call from his cousins would completely push his homework assignments out of mind, and they would go unfinished. By fifth grade, things really started to unravel. Walter’s desk was forever messy, his locker was a certified disaster area, and his backpack was essentially a black hole with papers shoved in at random moments of the day, never to be seen again. Homework didn’t get submitted, and Walter struggled to remain focused when transitioning
from class to class. When routines or plans changed, Walter could quickly become irritable, which was frequently causing conflict with his classmates. What was once laughed away as quirky and distracted was now presenting as symptomatic of something else: executive function disorder. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University describes executive function and selfregulation skills as “the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Just as an air traffic control system at a busy airport safely manages the arrivals and departures of many aircraft on multiple runways, the brain needs this skill set to filter distractions, prioritize tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses. Executive function and self-regulation skills depend on three types of brain function: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. These functions are highly interrelated, and the successful application of executive function skills requires them to operate in coordination with each other. Each type of executive function skill draws on elements of the others.” Working memory describes a person’s ability to process and use discrete amounts of information. It is part of our short-term memory system and is crucial to learning because it allows the brain to keep track of information until it needs to be used. Mental, or cognitive, flexibility describes a person’s ability to switch thinking between two or more topics, or to think about multiple things simultaneously. The capacity to switch back and forth between tasks and incorporate new instructions in the middle of a task is governed by a person’s mental flexibility. Self-control describes the individual’s ability to regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behavior. It allows for prioritizing and goal-setting and supports one’s ability to resist impulses and temptations.
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