Hallmarks of Difficulty with Executive Functions

Executive functions consist of those capacities that enable a student to successfully engage in independent, purposive, self-motivated behavior.

Questions regarding how or whether a student goes about doing something will help explain this set of skills. These can differ drastically from overall cognitive functioning.

• Lowered self control.
• Emotional ups and downs.
• Flat affect.
• Heightened tendency to get irritable or excited.
• Impulsive.
• Erratic behavior.
• Carelessness.
• Rigidity.
• Difficulty making shifts in attention and behavior.
• Personal grooming and cleanliness deterioration.
• Impaired capacity to initiate activity.
• Decreased or absent motivation.
• Difficulty with planning and carrying out sequences that constitute goal-directed behavior.

Deficits in these skills are often mistaken for malingering, being lazy, spoiled, or psychiatrically disturbed.