The festivities have all passed and we’re well into the second part of January which means … drum roll please …. Blue Monday is behind us and Spring is somewhere up ahead in the not too distant future.  

Executive Function challenges are not part of the diagnostic criteria for autism but they are strongly correlated and often pose major roadblocks in everyday life.  

So what are Executive Function Skills?

I wish there was a simple answer but unfortunately we have little consensus on the subject. Researchers are still debating which skills should be included under this umbrella term.

I like to think of them as the “office manager of the brain”. They are the complex brain processes we use in the many day-to-day tasks that keep life on track.  

Dawson and Guare’s 2009^* model highlights key Executive Function skills which include the ability to:

• think flexibly and revise plans when there are obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes (Flexibility)
• hold inform
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