Executive function and ADD/ADHD - what’s the correlation?

Executive function and behavioral conditions - what do they have in common?

So what is executive function exactly?

The activity of the brain that develops the ability to manage organization, priority-setting, time management, and decision making; It is a cluster of high-order capacities, which includes elective attention, behavioral planning and response inhibition, and the manipulation of information in problem-solving tasks.

Is it just me or does this definition sound a lot like 21st Century skills to you, too? Children learn to demonstrate executive function mostly through stimulating play environments in the early years. However, the play environments today are often times filled with a bunch of battery powered toys working for the child and distractions by constant television. Go back and read the definition of executive function again… now ask yourself, is my child’s environment contributing to growth in his executive functioning abilities or is it hindering him from developing these important skills?

Children develop executive function through learning to be organized, using a routine, purposeful scenarios for problem solving and higher order thinking and by observing good role models. Students with higher executive function abilities are rewarded more attention than their counterparts lacking these abilities upon entering school. Students with lower executive function are often times labeled with a behavioral disorder such as ADD/ADHD or a learning disability.

It is true people with Asperger Syndrome, Learning Disabilities and ADD/ADHD frequently have difficulty with executive functioning. Many kids with ADD/ADHD have trouble recognizing interpersonal boundaries and reading social cues such as body language and facial expressions, which can lead to rebuffs and even ostracism by other children. However, has the rise in the ADD/ADHD diagnosis rate had something to do with the environments children live in today? Environments that don’t support the development of healthy executive function skills.

Before we label our kids ADD/ADHD in the future maybe we should look into whether we have done enough as parents and early childhood educators to develop healthy executive function skills.

Red flags that infer more executive function training is needed are:

• poor sense of time and timing
• carelessness
• inconsistency
• difficulty waiting for an outcome
• low boiling point for frustration
• poor judgment

If after offering more executive functioning support and making changes to your home environment your child continues to show these signs, it is then that you may want to consult your pediatrician about the possibility of ADD/ADHD.

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