Executive Functioning – Get Yourself Sorted!
Executive functioning is typically referred to as a group of skills that people use to manage the everyday functions of life. These skills are usually referred too as ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ skills.
People who have difficulty with these skills are considered to have Executive Functioning Deficits or in more complex cases, ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Thomas E. Brown was at the forefront of research in Executive Functioning and defined it by 6 core areas. These being:
- Attention – organising, prioritising and activating to work
- Focus – focusing, sustaining and shifting attention to task
- Effort – regulating, alertness, sustaining effort and processing speed
- Emotion – managing frustration and modulating emotions
- Memory – utilising working memory and accessing recall
- Action – monitoring and self-regulating action
These types of deficits can show up with children and teens in the following ways:
- Sibling and friendship conflicts
- Difficulty reading other people
- Being easily upset and frustrated
- Overuse of computer gaming and technology
- Homework difficulties
- Difficulty with household chores
- Lack of family respect
- Easily influenced by peer pressure
- Poor performance on easily completed tasks
- Failure to complete tasks with deadlines
- Forgetting
The aim of Executive Functioning counselling is to increase strengths and boost weaknesses. Children and teens impacted by ADHD can be developmentally delayed by up to three years in some of these executive functioning areas. It is therefore critical to identify which are causing the most difficulty in everyday functioning and to develop strategies to ‘close the gaps’.
For Adults
We work with adults to improve these skills through diagnostic questionnaires and through behavioural activation and solution-focused counselling. At times, we may encourage your partner or children to be involved in the process if you have enlisted their support so they can encourage you frequently throughout the process.
For Children and Teens
Children and Teenagers can also benefit from problem-solving skills and behavioural and emotional counselling. However, we also work closely with their parents to develop family units’ skills in collaborative problem-solving. This encourages parents and the child to work on sharing with ideas and creating a plan that works for everyone. We believe working this way creates stronger family relationships.
For Schools
Parents need to be advocates for their children when they have Executive Functioning Deficits. We find a lot of parents don’t have the confidence to discuss these issues with the school and don’t know “where to start”. We can work with you to develop ideas on what may assist your child to develop these areas at school (as well as at home) and in some cases, we can attend a meeting at the school with you.
Summary
Developing Executive Functioning Capabilities with our clients is an ‘active’ process and involves trying new things and completing homework in between sessions. We will do our best to ensure that new challenges are small steps that will help you reach a level of functioning that is assisting you to perform better in life, work and school.