What are Executive Function Deficits?
Executive functioning deficits impair the brain’s ability to plan, initiate, focus, organize, and regulate behavior. For young adults, these cognitive challenges often become apparent during the transition into early adulthood, when external structures like rigid school schedules and parental oversight are removed. Below are examples of Executive Functioning so parents can better understand what the deficit it, and the impact it can have on their emerging adult.
Task Initiation (Procrastination & Paraylsis): If you find something complex, open-ended, or boring you have difficulty generating cognitive momentum to get a task started independently. The real-world impact is that you’re aware of what needs to be done, but experience overwhelming paralysis, which can lead to avoidance, panic, and lying.
Time Management & “Time Blindness:” This is the inability to accurately gauge the passage of time, like estimating how long a task will take, or being able to visually map out deadline. The real-world impact looks like someone chronically missing appointments and deadlines, underestimating time and showing up late consistently, and losing hours to passive activities like gaming or scrolling.
Working Memory & Information Retention: This is when there is a weakness in the brain’s short-term post-it note to hold, recall, and manipulate information while actively working through a multi-step task. The real-world impact is that they may forget steps or instructions halfway through completing the task, or they are frequently losing their keys, wallet, or phone, and they may struggle to follow verbal instructions or directions, especially if it’s a multi-step conversation.
Planning, Prioritization & Sequencing: This is when a young adult has difficulty breaking down goals into sequential micro-steps, or determining the difference between something that is urgent versus something that can wait. The real-world impact is that they may spend hour tweaking details on a resume while ignoring the main application deadline, or may become completely stuck when faced with seemingly basic adult logistics like scheduling a doctor’s appointment.
Emotional Regulation & Frustration Tolerance: This is when there is a reduced ability to manage or down-regulate intense emotional responses to frustration, unexpected changes, or stress. Basically if there is a plan and it changes in anyway then this feels like an undoing to the young adult. You may witness sudden emotional outbursts, shutting down, or withdrawing completely. This can also be due to some minor friction, rather than significant situations. Sometimes as subtle as receiving constructive feedback resulting in quitting a job altogether rather than learning from it.
Response Inhibition & Impulse Control: This is when there is an inability to pause and think before acting, filtering out environmental distractions, and resisting immediate gratification. The real-world impact looks like impulsive financial spending, interrupting others during conversations, making rash decisions without considering the longer term consequences, or abandoning work tasks the moment a distraction occurs. Remember when we used to make the joke: “Squirrel!” Yea, that’s this person.
Cognitive Flexibility & Adaptability: This is when a young adult is rigid in their thinking, has difficulty shifting attention, strategies, or expectations when the original plan fails or circumstances change unexpectedly. The real-world impact is that they become completely derailed when a routine changes, resisting alternative solutions to a problem they’re struggling with, and repeatedly using ineffective strategies despite experiencing negative natural consequences. If you’ve never read “Autobiography in Five Chapter” by Portia Nelson, definitely check it out. It speaks to the definition of insanity, doing the same thing expecting a different result.
Self-Monitoring & Metacognition: This is when there is weakness in “thinking about thinking” which basically means the ability to observe, evaluate, and adjust to one’s own performance, behaviors, and social impact in real time. Like, “stop and think for a minute.” The real-world impact is a young adult lacking awareness in general. Awareness of how long a project is taking, failing to notice when the person you’re speaking with is disengaging, or remaining oblivious to how personal habits affect roommates or family members.
Physical & Digital Organization: This looks like difficulty designing, implementing, and maintaining orderly systems for physical spaces, daily workflows, and digital environments. The real-world impact can mean a chronically messy bedroom, lost important documents, thousands of unread text messages or emails, unpaid bills, and inability to maintain a clean co-living environment.
Goal-Directed Persistence: This is when someone struggles to maintain effort, focus, and drive over extended periods towards a future goal when immediate rewards or external prompts are absent. The real-world impact looks like starting new projects, routines, or career paths with initial enthusiasm and momentum only to abandon them entirely as soon as the novelty fades, or if maintaining this track requires consistent, tedious effort.
If you read through all of this and find yourself saying something like “oh wow, I just thought my kid was lazy” it’s time to get them the proper support they need to be able to function in this world. We can’t ride them to clean their room, or give them a hard time when they meltdown because plans had to change. We need to be empathetic. We need to be educated.
For questions or comments contact Joanna.
