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Executive Function Deficits
▪ The term “executive function” is used to describe a set of cognitive processes that help students connect past experiences with present actions. Students use executive function when they perform such activities as planning, organizing, strategizing, and paying attention to and remembering details. Executive function also enables students to manage their emotions and monitor their thoughts in order to work more efficiently and effectively (Guare & Dawson, 2004).
According to Brown (2006, p. 39), there are six clusters of cognitive functions that are affected by executive functions:
1. Activation: organizing, prioritizing, and activating to work
2. Focus: focusing, sustaining, and shifting attention to tasks
3. Effort: regulating alertness, sustaining alertness, and achieving
appropriate speed in execution
4. Emotion: managing frustration and regulating emotions
5. Memory: utilizing working memory and accessing recall
6. Action: monitoring and self-regulating behaviour.
Students with executive function deficits have difficulty with planning, organizing, and managing time and space. They also show weakness with working memory, which is an important tool in guiding one’s actions. Problems with executive function may become evident when a student is:
✦ planning a project;
✦ comprehending how much time a project will take to complete;
✦ telling a story (orally or in writing);
✦ attempting to communicate details in an organized, sequential manner;
✦ applying mental strategies involved in memorizing and retrieving information from memory;
✦ initiating activities or tasks;
✦ generating ideas independently;
✦ retaining information while doing something with it.
Understanding Student Behaviour
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