This Doesn't Feel Right

When does Executive Function Develop? 

Executive function emerges during preschool and develops in correlation with frontal lobe development from childhood to approximately age 25. A baby's brain grows and develops by overproducing neurons, synapses, or connections. These are then pruned back around the age of three. This process of cutting back weak branches and allowing others to flourish repeats itself after the pre-puberty growth in the frontal cortex around age 11 for girls and 12 in boys. There is quite a significant change in the growing frontal lobe,during adolescence. Again, after this growth, a pruning back occurs and there is a loss of 1% of gray matter per year during the teenage years. What is actually happening is that the brain is consolidating learning and wrapping white matter (myelin) around connections to stabilize and strengthen them. It is usually called the "use it or lose it" years when hard-wiring occurs. (Dr. Jay Giedd)

When we look at the adolescent years, we see a time full of overwhelm, high emotion, poor self monitoring, inflexibility and impulsive decision making which results is risk taking behaviors. For those with learning disabilities, executive  function dysfunction, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ADD it is significantly more difficult because their frontal lobe is already compromised.

Executive Functioning Deficits are often the underlying cause of , or associated with, a broad range of learning, behavioral and emotional disabilities. It can run in families.Early intervention with executive functioning problems can help a person compensate for these weaknesses. Executive Dysfunction is seen in the following diagnoses:

• ADD/ADHD

• Anxiety Disorder

• Autism (50% have symptoms of ADHD, 30% have acomorbid diagnosis of ADHD)

• Bipolar Disorder

• Concussions

• Conduct Disorder

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Learning Disabilities

• Major Depression

• Mental Illnesses

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Social Phobia

• Traumatic Brain Injuries

 Because executive dysfunction is associated with so many disabilities it is important to interview the parents extensively about their child to get a sense of whether or not the executive function issues are being properly addressed. Too often only one or two areas of executive function are identified and addressed when there are a number of other areas that need attention. For instance, frequently children with EF disorder do not know how to approach a problem. It can be a relatively simple math problem or a major project at school. Starting is the issue. How do you decide where to start? What can I use as cues? How long is this going to take? How do I chunk this down into doable tasks?

Frequently, the EF dysfunction is not particularly noticeable until a child transitions to middle or high school when expectations for independent work  suddenly increase. Sharing the narrative as you deal with a problem and supporting the student by cuing them to know what to do-Do NOT cue to do 

• "Have you ever done anything like this before?"
• "How are you going to decide what to do first?"
• "How are you going to know what is most important?"

This gives guidance without giving answers. You are working on creating that internal narrative that helps the student to navigate through the problem. If its a math assignment, let the student do half with no prompts then use a different color or otherwise designate what was done with prompts. If the teacher does not know what the student can do independently it is difficult to know what has to be taught again.

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AUTHORS

Marie Lewis is an author, consultant, and national speaker on best practices in education advocacy. She is a parent of 3 children and a Disability Case Manager, Board Certified Education Advocate, and Behavior Specialist Consultant. She has assisted in the development of thousands of IEPs nationally and consults on developing appropriately individualized IEPs that are outcome-based vs legally sufficient. She brings a great depth of expertise, practical experience, and compassion to her work as well as expert insight, vision, and systemic thinking. She is passionate and funny and she always inspires and informs.

MJ Gore has an MEd in counseling and a degree in elementary education and natural sciences. She worked as a life-skills and learning support teacher She has been honored with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. She is the Director and on the faculty at the National Special Education Advocacy Institute. Her passion is social justice, especially in the area of education. She is a Board Certified Education Advocate who teaches professional advocates, educators, and clinicians the best practices in education advocacy.