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Executive Function Impacts All Aspects of Life
Many children (and adults) with above-average intelligence experience executive function deficits. They can be gifted in many ways, but can’t organize a backpack, forget appointments, struggle to finish projects on time, and fall apart under pressure.
Executive function deficits can have surprising and often misunderstood consequences, particularly because they affect how someone thinks and acts more than what they notice in themselves. The gaps that arise are also subtle and frequently challenging to observe properly as a parent, teacher, or peer.
Executive function is the ability to plan, set goals, and self-regulate. It develops during adolescence (12 to 18), although it does not fully mature until the mid-20s as the prefrontal cortex reaches full development.
Most children with executive function deficits have processing delays that make taking in the world around them exhausting. People talk at 50 mph, but they process at 400 mph. This makes listening an effort, leaving little time to digest and think through what is being heard.
In most cases, these processing delays undermine deep understanding, which impacts the ability to plan meaningfully.
Surprising Consequences
Here are some unexpected or less obvious effects of executive function deficits.
#1. Relationship Struggles
There are a couple of sources of social difficulties related to executive function deficits:
- Emotional self-regulation difficulties
- Forgetfulness and disorganization can make friendships chaotic
Emotional regulation is an essential aspect of executive function. When instructions, conversations, and life situations take real concentration and effort to follow, the risk of misunderstanding is high, leading to frustration and overreaction.
Learning to go with the flow and understand a situation before reacting is a learned skill. Children with executive function deficits can take longer than most to learn not to overreact to minor frustrations and to calm down quickly after conflicts.
Impulse control, emotional regulation, and attention can strain friendships, family bonds, and romantic relationships. Parents or peers may interpret forgetfulness or inaction as careless or selfish when it’s a processing issue.
Disorganization can also impact how others perceive a child with executive function deficits. Habits like showing up for a game with the wrong shirt, forgetting to meet up, and/or being late can test friendships. Similarly, a tendency to be messy can annoy roommates in the college years and later.
#2. Smart but “Inconsistent” Performance
Inconsistency across skill sets is a classic tell of a learning issue, including an executive function deficit. If your child is intelligent and articulate but fails to complete simple tasks or follow through on plans, there is cause for concern.
A classic example is the habit of being late or missing assignments for no apparent reason. Your child may understand the material well but fail to hand in assignments because they forget, underestimate the time needed, or get stuck at the start.
Consequently, kids with executive function deficits may need constant prompting from parents or teachers to remember materials, pack bags, or follow schedules.This inconsistency can sometimes be interpreted as laziness or a lack of diligence, but executive dysfunction is often a better explanation.
#3. Disappointing Grades Despite Making an Effort
A pattern of working hard on assignments but still missing deadlines, forgetting steps, or producing incomplete work is related to inconsistency. This underperformance stems from overlooking assignment instructions and/or an inability to convert those assignment details into a plan of action.
Disappointing test results, despite being prepared, can come down to test-taking skills, letting your child down. There’s a need to review a test to start, plan out how you will tackle it, and then follow through on that plan. Executive function deficits get in the way of test results that fairly reflect your child’s capabilities.
Your child makes these mistakes in assignments and exams with full awareness after the fact, but could not execute them at the time. This can be a source of frustration that can often lead to low self-esteem.
#4. “Time Blindness” and Missed Deadlines
A poor internal sense of time can lead to chronic lateness, procrastination, or cramming. This is not because of apathy or a lack of respect for the deadlines or the time of others involved. It’s just that children with executive function deficits perceive time differently.
Procrastination and decision paralysis are common. Due to weak working memory and planning skills, they may become overwhelmed by choices, even simple ones like picking clothes or deciding what to eat.
Multi-step tasks are challenging for a child with an executive function deficit. Writing essays, solving word problems, or doing science projects can be overwhelming because they require planning, organizing, and sequencing.
Even minor tasks feel daunting if they involve several steps. This often appears as avoidance or procrastination, but it’s rooted in poor task initiation and planning. The outcome is that household chores go unfinished, and assignments end up being crammed to be finished on time.
#5. Mental Fatigue After Simple Tasks
The mental effort required to process, start, and sustain focus on tasks can be exhausting, more so than the task itself.
Some of this fatigue relates to pressures at school, particularly test anxiety or the effort required to complete tests on time. Even with strong knowledge, students may run out of time, misread directions, or forget to check their work due to poor time management or impulse control.
Another source of exhaustion is the effort it takes a child with executive function deficits to shift attention between tasks or resume work after a distraction. These switches, part of school life, can take longer and lead to lost productivity. This can be a stop-start problem: your child starts a household chore but gets distracted midway and never finishes.
A growing list of incomplete tasks can lead to a sense of being overloaded, which is exhausting.
#6. Messy Spaces Despite Wanting to Be Organized
Most teenagers are not known for their tidiness because executive function is a developing skill in the teenage years.
However, children with executive dysfunction find it a challenge to put in a sustained organizing or cleaning effort, even when they deeply desire a neat space.
Apart from the constantly messy backpacks, lockers, and rooms, the result is lost books or papers, missed deadlines, or an appearance of carelessness, even though you know your child is trying.
#7. Increased Risk of Anxiety and Depression
The cumulative effects—missed goals, social friction, test anxiety, and disorganization—can erode confidence and lead to mental health struggles. The constant need to rely on adults for help is also internally frustrating and erodes self-esteem.
Managing money can also be challenging without inhibition, control, or planning. Impulse buys, unpaid bills, or unopened mail may pile up, adding up to a feeling of being overwhelmed or just not getting it done the way your child knows she can.
Similarly, emotional dysregulation and impulsivity may cause inappropriate comments, poor conflict resolution, or difficulty accepting feedback from teachers, parents, or peers, leading to frustration.
Executive Function Can Be Improved
Executive function is a higher-level thinking skill that will only fully develop once a solid cognitive foundation is established. If your child struggles with learning early on, executive function in later years is at risk. For example:
- If a child can’t focus, planning will be a challenge.
- We think in language, so if they don’t process language well, self-talk – the key to self-regulation – will be delayed.
The key is building a cognitive foundation, mastering the so-called learning MAPS – working Memory, Attention, Processing and Sequencing. If these skills are not automatic, thinking while listening and thinking while reading are crowded out.
If this is your child and your concern is an executive function deficit, Gemm Learning can help. Our online intervention starts with learning MAPS, then builds thinking-while-listening and thinking-while-reading skills. Read more about our executive function programs here.
A Virtuous Learning Loop
In the teenage years, executive function and cognitive skills develop in a loop, feeding off each other.
As the brain recognizes the value of planning and organization, particularly in the 12-18 age range, executive function skills develop.
As the brain becomes more organized, time spent on learning activities is better used and is more productive. This efficiency helps deepen cognitive learning connections, makes learning even more efficient, working towards metacognition – thinking about learning while you read/listen – which develops in the later years of high school.
It’s a virtuous loop that requires both sides to function correctly. This process can stall if cognitive skills glitches or executive function deficits develop. As executive functions grow, they support and enhance other learning. For example:
- Planning helps with math problem-solving.
- Emotional regulation supports social skills and reading comprehension.
- Working memory boosts vocabulary learning.
Our Solution
Executive function is complex to teach. There are too many scenarios and situations to teach through rote learning.
The better approach is to focus on improving the mechanics of executive function, which can be exercised and improved. Specifically, our Fast ForWord program for executive function works on:
- Impediments to learning growth – cognitive and reading skills
- Working memory is required for critical thinking
- Attention, specifically learning to manage impulses
- Cognitive flexibility – being able to think clearly and creatively in the moment
Gemm Learning provides Fast ForWord software at home with remote oversight. Call 877.914.4366 to find out of your child is a candidate for one of our programs.
