What Are Executive Function Skills?
These skills are the mental functions we need to use to "execute" our daily lives and tasks. The term comes from neuroscience descriptions of the following skills:
-
Planning/Organizing
-
Self-Control/ Emotional Regulation
-
Time Management
-
Initiating Tasks
-
Perseverance
-
Flexibilty
-
Attention
-
Working Memory
-
Metacognition (awareness about your thinking, thoughts, and learning)
Typically those with any learning challenges or difficulties, like ADHD, can be developmentally 3-5 years behind those without these conditions...but coaching can help close that gap!
Dr. Adele Diamond reviewed 179 studies completed on executive function skills and found the following:
​
-
"EF is more important for school readiness than are IQ and entry level reading or math." (Blair & Razza 2007, Morrison et al. 2010)
​
-
"EF's predict both math and reading competence throughout the school years." (Borella et al. 2010, Duncan et al. 2007, Gathercole et al. 2004)
John Hattie, Australian professor and researcher, spent 25 years studying 256 different influences related to academic success outcomes and found the following:
​
-
The top strategy for positive impact on a student was "Teacher Estimates and Achievement." This is the level of sensitivity a teacher has to adjust learning for a student in order to support their goals.
​
-
The most negative factor (with an effect size of over 2 full school years of learning loss was.... ADHD.