What Is Executive Function Disorder?

Executive Function skills impact both spoken and written language.  These skills are the control center which allow us to analyze a task, plan for it, organize the steps and then execute the task successfully. While these skills are critical to academic success, they also play a key role in social conversations, which require the ability to maintain and update information as the conversation progresses, inhibit distracting stimuli to stay on topic and formulate relevant ideas to respond appropriately to conversational partners.

Children and adults with Executive Function Disorder have a pattern of chronic difficulties in executing daily tasks. Generally the problems center around analyzing, planning, organizing, scheduling, and completing tasks on deadline. Individuals with EFD misplace papers, reports and other school or work-related materials. Keeping track of personal items or organizing the bedroom or desk is a huge challenge. And no matter how good their intentions or how hard they try, they cannot succeed.

Executive dysfunction can occur with ADHD and other learning disorders or can be a stand-alone diagnosis. Around the time of puberty, the frontal part of the cortex of the brain matures, allowing individuals to perform higher-level tasks like those required in an executive position including analyzing, organizing, deciding and executing it, on deadline.

We all, at times, may fall short on these skills. A messy desk is not significant in itself. However, if these behaviors are impacting academic, social or job-related success then it might be time to seek help.

• Difficulty in shifting gears between tasks, especially when learning a new skill
• Inability to meet reasonable deadlines
• Rigid thinking and trouble examining issues from different perspectives
• Extraordinarily disorganized desk, room, backpack or car