Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder or “Executive Function”?
Teens at risk for teen age drug abuse often fall into experimenting with drugs as a means of dealing with their extreme frustrations at school. Poor academic performance or an inability to keep up with classmates can be cause for humiliation and fear of rejection. Very often these are bright teens whose parents are bewildered that their grades do not reflect that.
Immediately a parent tests for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and dyslexia and other conditions. But researchers are now looking at other possible reasons for poor school performance. No, not another disorder, but it points to the possibility that the “powers that be” in academia are demanding more from children and teens than their brain development allows for.
Relevant Tags:academic demands, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, behavioral disorder, executive function, learning disability, poor academic performance, teens at risk“Ellie has a problem with working memory, a term used to describe the ability to retain information from the top of a page to the bottom. Working memory comes under the umbrella of executive function, a thinking skill that refers to the tasks executives tend to excel at, such as prioritizing, organizing, and mentally shifting information around. It’s a skill that develops progressively, starting in the elementary years and continuing into adulthood.
If you’ve never heard of executive function, brace yourself. It’s bursting onto the educational scene.
…educators and psychologists say increased academic demands in the last five years or so are straining students’ developmental abilities to remember facts and organize thoughts. What may look like a learning disability or a behavioral disorder may be neurological wiring that needs to mature. Some children grow into it or manage to get by. Others, such as Ellie Honan, just can’t keep pace with the academic demands despite the internal struggle.”
