At the beginning of the year, many of us set goals for ourselves. Perhaps you set a goal to be healthier, travel more, or apply for that promotion at work. Lori talked last week about setting 2020 parenting goals and gave several concrete strategies to help you meet those goals. I’m sure you have a lot on your plate already, but I’m going to add one suggestion for the new year: make it a goal to read often with your child (no matter how old they are!). There are many wonderful reasons to read with your children, and this becomes especially important if they have a diagnosis of ADHD, autism, learning disorder or language challenges. In fact, research shows that reading with your child can help improve your child’s executive functions, as well as social skills, comprehension, vocabulary, and the list goes on.

In the interest of transparency, I need to share that for me personally, reading to my children (ages 3 and 5) sometimes feels like a chore at the end of a long day. My kids have a...

Over the past few months, we have been sharing about executive functions: what they are, why they are so important, and how we as parents can support children with ADHD, autism, learning disorders, and language challenges with these skills. One question we consistently hear from parents is, “How do I know what skills are appropriate for my child at a certain age?” This is a great question! Many times, parents fall to one end of the spectrum; either they expect too much from their child, or they assume that their child cannot do tasks independently, and end up “over-helping,” which can accidentally make children more dependent on their parents (oops, I know that is NOT your goal!).

To help you understand where your child should be in their development, we have put together some information about what you can expect at various ages. Before we start, it is SO important to understand that every child is different! Executive function skills develop differently in everyone, so keep in mind ...

Is it a struggle to get your children ready for school every day? Do you feel like a broken record as you repeat the same instruction approximately 328 times each morning, only to eventually yell at your child just to get their attention, and then have them look at you in surprise that you are so annoyed? Does a change in the routine cause a lot of stress for your kids? Do you notice your child’s emotions going from “zero to sixty” after a change in plans or minor disagreement? As we get closer to the end of another semester and the holiday season is in full swing, all of us are probably struggling with task persistence and managing our time. We are here to provide you with more information about executive function for your child with ADHD, autism, language disorder, or learning challenges to help make the days run a little bit smoother! 

A few weeks ago, we talked about five important facts every parent needs to understand about executive function.Today, I’m diving deeper into one...

How’s your week going? Let me guess...

You have everything running perfectly on schedule, right? You’ve gotten all the house projects done, laundry put away, finished everything at the office at least 48 hours before it was due, and baked three dozen sparkly cupcakes for the bake sale... AND your children got along without fighting, listened every time you asked them to do something, and sat quietly (without prompting) when you had to answer the phone. Whew, a truly perfect day. Or was it a little more complicated than that?

Regardless of what you accomplished today, let me reassure you that this parenting thing is a lot of work… for all of us! And when you really think about it, it’s amazing that as parents, we are able to balance so many different roles at one time. Seriously, how do we do it? Whether you realize it or not, you constantly use executive functions to help you get through your to-do list every day. This unique set of cognitive skills helps us every time we set a goal,...