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Executive Functioning

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Executive Function Assessment

What Is Executive Function?

Executive Function is an umbrella term that refers to a set of mental skills that help us manage time, pay attention, plan and organize, remember important details, control impulses, and shift between tasks smoothly. These skills are like the brain’s “management system,” allowing us to set goals and take the steps needed to achieve them. For individuals with ADHD—whether children, teens, or adults—executive function challenges are common and can affect daily life in school, work, relationships, and home responsibilities.

In children and teens, weak executive function may show up as trouble starting homework, forgetting assignments, losing things frequently, or struggling to follow multi-step instructions. They might appear disorganized or easily overwhelmed by tasks that require planning or self-control. In adults, executive function issues can lead to chronic lateness, missed deadlines, difficulty prioritizing, and problems maintaining focus in meetings or conversations. These challenges aren’t due to laziness or lack of intelligence—they’re rooted in how the ADHD brain processes and regulates information. With the right strategies, support, and often a combination of behavioral tools and treatment, individuals with ADHD can strengthen their executive functioning and thrive across all stages of life.

Dr. Russell Barkley, a noted authority on ADHD, reported that 89-98 percent of children with ADHD have deficits in executive skills.

Dr. Barkley believes that evaluating and understanding a person’s executive function, breaking it down across several domains, is a better predictor of real-world functioning than merely reporting they have a deficit.

Executive Function can be broken down into six different clusters:

Executive Function can be broken down into six different clusters:

1. Activation: Organizing, Prioritizing and Getting Started on Tasks (getting started; paying attention; organizing time, projects, materials, and possessions, finishing work)

2. Focus: Focusing, Maintaining and Shifting Attention (changing activities, stopping existing activity, stopping and thinking before acting or speaking)

3. Effort: Regulating Alertness, Sustaining Effort, Processing Speed (complex problem solving).

4. Emotion: Managing Frustrations and Regulating Emotions (ability to tolerate frustration; thinking before acting or speaking)

5. Memory: Using Working Memory and Accessing Recall (holding facts in mind while manipulating information; accessing facts stored in long-term memory.)

6. Action: Monitoring and Self-Regulating Action (self-monitoring and prompting, using “self-talk” to control one’s behavior and direct future actions)

Why Include an Assessment of Executive Functioning?

Including an assessment of executive function in an ADHD evaluation provides a more complete picture of how ADHD is impacting daily life. Since executive function challenges are at the core of ADHD, understanding strengths and weaknesses in areas like planning, memory, emotional regulation, and task management can help guide more effective, personalized support strategies. It also helps differentiate ADHD from other issues that may look similar but require different approaches.

In addition, once identifying areas in which the individual is impaired, it allows for more specific recommendations for accommodations and support to be made with the hope of helping the individual to be more successful.