https://www.easel.ly/infographic/qhoqm2

Brad is a 13-year-old 7th grader. He is full of energy and enjoys the attention of adults and peers. Brad is responsible and well liked at home and in his neighborhood. In contrast to home, Brad avoids most class work, teases less popular classmates, calls out, uses profanity, and throws objects during class.  In writing, Brad’s sentence structure and paragraphs are chaotic and unconventional. Brad’s assessments indicate that reading and math is in the low average range when tested in modified testing, but in the Far Below Basic range when tested in the standardized state tests.

What are the 11 core Executive Function Skills?

• Response Inhibition: The capacity to think before you act.
• 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.
• Emotional control: The ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior.
• Sustained attention: The capacity to keep paying attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom.
• Task initiation: The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion.
• Planning and prioritizing: The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important.
• Organization: the ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.
• Time management: The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and ho w to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important.
• 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.
• Flexibility: The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions.
• Metacognition: The ability to stand back and take a bird’s-eye view of yourself in a situation, to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluative skills.

Brad’s difficulties include:

• Acts before thinking
• Little control over his emotions
• Does not sustain attention
• Does not start tasks or maintain focus to complete tasks
• Disorganized ideas as demonstrated in written expression
• Does not persist over time or follow through

Brad lacks Executive Function in the areas of response inhibition, emotional control, sustained attention, planning and prioritizing, organization, and goal-directed persistence. Brad isn’t lagging in all Executive Function areas. He has average or above average abilities in flexibility and metacognition.

Brad knows he is violating the norms in the school and admits privately that he feels bad about himself for failing so often.

Reflection Questions:

• What is the typical response to behaviors like Brad’s in your community?
• What kind of supports are usually provided for students like Brad?
• If Brad was assessed, what do you think might be his diagnosis?
• What kind of prognosis do you believe Brad has for his future?
• Is Brad at risk for any future life problems?
• If you were Brad’s teacher or counselor, how might you help him?
• How might you help Brad’s parents?
• How might a better understanding of Executive Function help Brad and his support system?

Reference: Dawson, Peg, and Richard Guare. “Chapter 1: How Did Such a Smart Kid End Up So Scattered? p. 13, 16-17.” Smart but Scattered: the Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential, Guilford Press, 2009.