How an ADHD Coach Supports Executive Functioning

The OT Toolbox has a blog that I learn a lot from, and this week’s post highlights the role of what we call the brain’s “executive functions” and how an ADHD coach helps clients learn to support their executive functioning.

An ADHD coach views “things like staying on task, doing what you say you will do, meeting deadlines, and essentially functioning” through the executive functioning lens as “difficult; we can look at these tasks and see that there are cognitive skills that are needed to accomplish each task.”

When you break it down, executive functions refer to the skills of the brain which allow us to manage ourselves…to get things done. These skills include areas like planning, prioritization, working memory, attention, focus, task completion, etc.

However, executive function also refers to the processing of information in our brain and using that information. As a result we see areas such as managing our emotions, behavioral response, managing distractions, self-fixing to recognize when we are off track so wo can recover and accomplish a task at hand [I call this “self-monitoring”].

It’s important to understand that “tips and tricks” are typically not helpful without first exploring the nature of the difficulty for that individual, because each of us is different in our thinking as well as our abilities. With a coach, an exploration of the client’s experience will uncover the true nature of the problem, and often the solution becomes clear in that moment.

You can read the OT Toolbox on the web at https://www.theottoolbox.com//executive-function-coaching/

Welcome to ADHD Life Support,
the blog of Susan McGinnis of ADHD Impact Coaching,
where I share resources, ideas, and information with my community: www.adhdimpactcoaching.com