What are Executive Functions (EF) and how can they be improved?
EF are part of the brain’s control center, in charge of initiating and managing all other cognitive functions. They help connect past experiences with present behavior and future planning. EF enable us to perform tasks such as planning, organization, decision making, problem solving, attention to detail, remembering, time management, spatial scanning, inhibition and self-control, and many more.
The pre-frontal cortex of the brain is where the EF activity of the brain takes place. This is where resources are allocated for the performance of various functions.
For example, when an adult and a child wake up in the morning, both must perform a series of tasks, one to get ready for work, the other for school. These tasks involve washing, grooming, getting dressed, eating, organizing the materials needed for work or school, making sure that items such as car keys and notebooks are not forgotten.
People who have difficulties with their EF skills have a difficult time deciding in which order to perform sequential tasks. As they struggle to determine what to do first, decision making ends up being a long process. Many people with EF deficiencies report that time is slipping away from them and they don’t manage to get things done.
A typical symptom of ADD/ADHD is disorganization. People suffering from ADD/ADHD cannot maintain long-term thinking with a future-oriented, goal-driven perspective. This results in difficulties in day-to-day functioning and in social interactions. Relatively simple tasks such as cooperation, patience, and impulse control, which are key to mutually respectful relationships, become very difficult. To put it simply – Executive Functions and ADD/ADHD are strongly related through impairments in frontal lobe functioning. To correct these problems, outside intervention is required, and a special environment that accepts and understands EF difficulties must be created.
At the CHADD conference held in November 2011 in Orlando, Florida, several speakers focused on executive functions, among them the well-known scholar, Russell A. Barkley. In his lecture, Prof. Barkley, who is known for his support for prescribing medication to ADHD patients, talked about the fact that medication does not help improve executive functions, and emphasized that medication should be combined with cognitive treatment of ADHD. Other speakers agreed with this position, and there appears to be a new and growing movement calling for ADHD treatment professionals to integrate cognitive treatment methods and not rely on medication alone.
How AttenGo improves EF
AttenGo is a comprehensive tool designed to correct the causes of EF deficiencies through cognitive training. Increasingly, therapists are coming to the realization that cognitive training helps develop parts of the brain that cannot be affected by therapies based on medication, emotion, and behavior.
The AttenGo promise:
When you use our training program for 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week, you will notice a significant reduction in ADHD symptoms and improvement in EF within 12 weeks