Executive Function and ADHD
Table of Contents
Executive function deficits and attention deficits are characterized by similar behaviors and are linked. The core issues that plague people with ADD and ADHD are inattention, distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Deficits in executive function affect a person’s ability to regulate their thinking and behavior. Researchers have found 6 executive function domains of the brain that are impacted by attention deficits.
What is Executive Function?
Executive function is the mental process that governs how people choose what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why to do it. Multiple executive functions make up the brain’s management system. Please follow this link to a short YouTube video that provides a great overview of what executive function is.
Executive Function Examples
- Paying attention
- Remembering
- Making choices
- Self-regulation
- Engage in social interactions
- Managing time and space
- Organizing
- Planning
- Reasoning
Executive Functions of the Brain Impaired by ADHD
Organizing, Prioritizing, and Activating Tasks
While ADD and ADHD are characterized by hyperactivity, people with attention deficits often struggle with procrastination. They are aware of the tasks at hand (homework, chores, etc.) but struggle to initiate them, often until they are put under pressure to complete them. Children with ADD also tend to miscalculate the amount of time it takes to complete tasks or projects. For example, they might create a to-do list of completing homework, cleaning their room, and putting up the dishes to be completed in 1 hour. They struggle to understand realistic time constraints and are therefore set up for failure on their to-do list.
Focusing, Sustaining, and Shifting Attention
The most effective use of this executive function is to pick the most important stimulus, focus on it, and drown out the other competing stimuli. Children with ADD and ADHD find it much more difficult to turn off the noise in their head and in their environment. While most people can identify with being easily distracted or taking a while to focus when working, they are eventually able to maintain focus. For children that struggle with attention, this issue creates real problems in their everyday life such as not being able to absorb new learnings at school, or carry on a conversation with friends.
Regulating Alertness, Sustaining Effort, and Processing Speed
Children with ADD or ADHD often struggle to stay alert when they are required to sit still. Their brains require constant feedback for them to stay engaged in an activity. Their processing speed is also impaired, meaning it takes them longer to absorb information in a meaningful way. Many times, students with attention and executive function deficits have the appropriate skills in place to perform a task but struggle to access those skills.
Managing Emotion
It is common for children with ADD and ADHD to express a low threshold for frustration. The feeling can be overwhelming and cause them to act out in negative ways. It is difficult for them to manage their emotions due to their inability to self-regulate. Self-regulation is required for children to know when to react and how to react.
Monitoring and Self-Regulation
This domain refers to the ability to consider when to act and when not to act. For example, a child should wait for parental guidance when swimming rather than jumping into the water impulsively. Children must be able to stop themselves from acting spontaneously and practice restraint when needed. Social situations tend to be especially challenging for children with attention deficits. It requires a person to assess themselves, and the emotions of others and then take appropriate action.
Utilizing Working Memory and Accessing Recall
Working memory is the ability to hold information in your mind while thinking about it. It allows a person to keep the current situation in the mind long enough to decide how to react. Children with attention deficits struggle with their working memory. Information is constantly slipping through their mind instead of staying in focus so they may process it. One example of working memory and accessing recall would be reading. A person must recall and hold the sounds of each letter as you decode and then put them together to read the whole word. Another common example could be word-finding difficulty. Children with attention deficits often have trouble recalling what word or name they are trying to say.
Executive Function and Academics
Children are using all of these executive functions in an integrated way when they are learning. Executive function allows children to maintain focus, set goals, develop study habits, regulate emotions, manage their time, and engage in social interaction. When children have attention deficits, it can be linked to executive function deficits, both of which affect learning.
If your child struggles with any of the executive functions listed above, try working with them on strategies they can use to improve. For instance, if they struggle with organization, you could help them create a manageable to-do list with specific timeframes that each line item should be done. If they struggle with managing their emotions, you can teach them breathing techniques to help them calm down.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to helping students with attention deficits or executive function deficits. Try different strategies that cater to your child’s needs and check in with them on what is working best. What strategies have worked best with your learner? Let us know in the comments or via our connect page!