Symptoms of “Executive Dysfunction”
These are the kinds of things that make living with or working with an ADHD child challenging.
- lack of foresight (unable to predict consequences for his/her behaviour)
- poor hindsight (“Johnny, how many times do I have to tell you to . . . )
- live for the minute (the future and past do not exist)
- poor organization (unable to “get it together” in A.M.)
- trouble returning to a task (“Johnny, you never complete anything”)
- poor sense of time (“Johnny, you can’t spend 1 hour on the first 2 questions”)
- time moves too slowly (“Are we almost there?”)
- poor self talk (“Johnny, what were you thinking)
- poor sense of self awareness (answer to above question – “I don’t have a clue”)
- poor internalization and generalization of rules (“Why do I have to tell you the same thing over and over”)
- poor reading of social clues (“Johnny, can’t you see that the other children think that’s weird”)
- inconsistent work and behaviour (“Johnny, if you could do it well yesterday, why is today so horrible”)
- trouble with transitions (“Johnny, why do you curse at me when I’m just calling you for dinner”)
- hyper focused at times (“When Johnny is on the computer, I can’t get him off”)
- poor frustration tolerance (“Johnny, it’s no big deal. Just get over it”)
- frequently overwhelmed (“Stop, stop, I can’t stand it”)
- angry (quickly and frequently)
- push away those trying to help
- over reacting (but it’s really over feeling)
- inflexible, explosive reactions
- thrill seeking behaviours
- trouble paying attention to others
- trouble making and keeping friends
- sense of failure to achieve goals