EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

Executive functioning can be understood as a governing factor over all the brain’s functions. The executive functions are mental processes that include planning, organizing, and strategizing, as well as focusing and sustaining attention and self-regulation of behavior, and are primarily activated in the frontal and prefrontal parts of the cortex. Aspects of executive functioning do not carry out any specific operations, but are intimately involved in planning, such as organizing and strategizing, and monitoring attention in different modalities.

Deficiencies in various executive functions are often observed among children, adolescents, and adults who exhibit behaviors consistent with a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and other disorders.  Not every child diagnosed with ADHD is equally impaired in each executive function.  Conversely, a child diagnosed with ADHD can exhibit varying levels of dysfunction in one or more executive functions.