Executive Functioning

Executive Functioning includes skills that help us plan out our day, tasks, prioritize, organize and manage life. Executive Functioning is the cognitive ability to use a variety of different skills including our working memory, cognitive flexibility, problem-solving, reasoning skills, impulse control, understanding abstract concepts, self-regulation, and decision making. These skills can help us prioritize and stay on task when at work. It helps us to filter out thoughts and distractions to help us stay on task. It also helps us to transition from one task to the next. When at work we may need to organize our day and complete tasks in a timely manner. When we have proficient executive functioning skills time management, organization, prioritization and productivity are boosted. Executive functioning skills are taught or enhanced with helpful tools such as daytimers, visual schedules, reminders on our phones, and checklists. 

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder may have difficulty with problem-solving, self-regulation and working memory leading to difficulties with prioritizing and completing tasks at work. 

Our executive functioning course is broken into 3 parts:

• Supporting productivity
• Flexibility with work and other roles
• Managing deficits

Did you know…

• Executive functioning is the ability to manage and respond to multiple pieces of information in a coordinated fashion that allows you to function at your best
• Autistic individuals (also those with ADHD) tend to have difficulties with their executive functioning abilities
• Executive functioning difficulties are not a sign of low intelligence
• Executive function problems can make the completion of certain types of tasks more difficult