Individuals with ASD often have a keen ability to focus, but directing that focus can be challenging. Attention:Īttention is closely tied to working memory, and again those on the spectrum can show great strengths in some areas and severe challenges in others. Working memory is the ability to remember specific short term memories needed to execute a function or daily task. They can seemingly remember every Jedi name, rank and serial number in all ten Star Wars movies, but have trouble remembering to eat, or what day it is, or what the order of the steps are when brushing teeth. Individuals on the spectrum notoriously have specific memory deficits and strengths. Depending on which of the executive functions the individual struggles with, that is where the problem solving chain will get broken. Problem solving uses almost all the other executive functions including reasoning, attention, planning, initiation, working memory, and monitoring. To problem solve, an individual must identify a problem and then formulate a strategy to solve the problem. Those on the spectrum can have difficulty formulating plans to get through their days and organize tasks into completable sections. Planning is the ability to forward-think and choose the necessary actions to reach a goal, decide the right order, assign each task to the proper cognitive resources, and establish a plan of action. Here is a list of our executive functions and their basic descriptions. They might be able to problem solve once they realize there is actually a problem, but are unable to verbalize it. For instance, an individual might have the ability to plan, but lack the initiation to follow through. It’s important to know that not all people with ASD have issues with all the aspects of executive function. What are the aspects of our executive function The executive in charge of their brain is not effective, and because of this, planning processes suffer. It’s a lot like that for children with autism spectrum disorders. Nothing seems to go right, things get misplaced, and general chaos seems to be the operational rule. (Executive function deficits) can be likened to an employee who works for a company where the supervisor is unorganized and inefficient. One of our contributors, Rebecca Moyes, described executive function this way: Nearly everything we do calls on areas of executive function. Why? Because executive function encompasses so many essential areas of daily living. If you have poor EF, people might mistake you for being disorganized, lazy, incompetent, sloppy, or just plain not very bright. Sometimes it looks like being a competent adult. In practice, executive function is a slippery concept. But what does that look like in real life?Ĭynthia Kim, in her blog Musings of an Aspie says: It includes planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, initiation of actions and monitoring of actions. The technical definition of executive function is: the cognitive processes that help us regulate, control and manage our thoughts and actions. They are socially engaged and are doing their best to communicate frequently, but they are unable to respond in a timely and organized way to the requests of parents and teachers, or to organize and initiate sophisticated play because they have considerable difficulty with executive function. Some sources say that up to 80% of those with autism suffer from executive function disorder, leading to difficulties managing time, completing tasks, and making what for many of us would be simple tasks – like cleaning our rooms – very complicated or seemingly impossible.įor some people with ASD, social and communication difficulties are not the primary issue. Executive function is a term that is widely used in autism circles to describe a broad array of skills that have to do with an individual’s cognitive function .
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