Executive Function Treatment
Executive functioning refers to a set of cognitive processes that enable individuals to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and manage multiple tasks successfully. It encompasses skills such as working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control, which are essential for goal-oriented behavior and decision-making. Effective executive functioning allows children and young adults to navigate daily challenges, organize their activities, and achieve academic and personal success.
Executive Function Coach
There is no nationally recognized accrediting body for executive function coaching. This means that certifications for executive function coaching and treatment may come from programs with varying standards and those that receive them may have a wide variety of backgrounds and levels of experience. One option for treatment for executive functioning is to see a speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, or neuropsychologist who specializes in executive functioning. These providers have educational training set by their national associations with additional training on cognition, assessment, and treatment.
Treatment
Evidence based treatment and coaching for executive functioning involves component and functional training. Component training focuses on identifying appropriate strategies and targeted practice on specific areas of executive functioning such as attention, sequencing, problem solving, and memory. Functional training involves applying these strategies and practice to real-life activities which involve a combination of many components of executive functioning. While both types of tasks are necessary for improving executive functioning abilities, following success with component training, session focus should be on functional training. This allows for skills to carryover outside of session activities. If sessions focus just on targeted practice of specific components, a person is likely to get better at that practice, but this is not as likely to generalize outside of sessions.
About the Author
Brynn Schor, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS (founder of Peninsula Specialty Speech Therapy, based in Menlo Park, California) specializes in assessment and treatment of cognitive communication deficits and executive function coaching for pediatric patients in the Bay Area and across California. Consultations provided worldwide.
