This text-based course is a transcript of the seminar; “Management of Executive Function Disorders in Adult Neurogenic Patient Populations” presented by Laura Murray, Ph.D., CCC-SLP.
Defining Executive Functions (EF)
>>Laura Murray: I will start by going over an example of one of the types of definitions of executive functioning you might see in the research literature. There is diversity in these definitions, but typically most of them will say something such as executive functions are our highest level of cognitive abilities and that they are involved with our ability to carry out goal-directed behavior. What there is good agreement about is that executive functioning, like other cognitive constructs, is multidimensional, meaning there is more than one process contributing to executive functioning. In the case of executive functions, there are several of these sub-processes that work together and are also involved in coordinating our other cognitive skills, such as basic attention or memory processes.
Executive functioning also includes what is also referred to as metacognitive skills; for example, your ability to think about your cognitive skills. You might know whether or not you are more of a visual learner or an auditory learner, and that would fall under one of your metacognitive abilities. The key to why there is so much research and clinical interest in executive functions is that they are essential to allowing us to be flexible in our daily environment. Given that they support flexibility that also means that they support our ability to live independently and carry out our daily activities.
Prominent EF Abilities
There are several of these sub-processes or key executive abilities that have been identified. These include our skills such as planning our daily activities, our ability to self-regulate and monitor our behavior, and within this, our skill at knowing what are our own strengths and our own limitations -- in other words, your awareness of your abilities.
Some types of awareness have been identified. Intellectual awareness refers to your ability to know that you might have certain strengths and weaknesses. You might be able to tell someone what you are good at and what you are not so good at. Emergent refers to when you are telling about your abilities online when they are happening -- so when you are completing a task, knowing whether or not you are doing well at that given task. Then anticipatory refers to your ability to tell when you might experience some behavioral or cognitive difficulties.
