Executive function (EF) skills are skills needed to help perform or accomplish tasks of daily living. These abilities are controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain just behind the forehead. The frontal lobes are the last areas of the brain to fully develop. Executive function skills begin to develop in childhood and continue to mature into early adulthood.
Goal-directed persistence it is an executive function skill. It is the ability or drive to continue until the fulfillment of a goal and not be discouraged by other demands or conflicting interests. (Dawson, Peg, and Richard Guare. Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention. 2nd. The Guilford Press, 2010. Print.)
You may not realize that you’ve used goal-directed persistence many times. He used it when he was playing with toys (ie LEGO®), learning to make his bed, brushing his teeth, playing a sport, finishing a long-term project, etc. Remember when you were learning to tie your shoes? You wanted to tie your shoes by yourself. They were steps to learn. The steps had to be performed in a certain order. You willingly practiced over and over again. You persisted until that special day when it all came together and you tied your shoes by yourself!
Even after you were able to tie your own shoes for the first time, you would occasionally get frustrated if you didn’t always tie your shoes on the first try. Despite this frustration, he stuck with the task he completed. You can trust your memory and talk to yourself to get to the process of tying your shoes successfully.
When a teen struggles with goal-directed persistence, they find it difficult to:
- complete a task
- finish a task
- read a novel
- start a task
- stick with a task that is boring (for the teen)
- return to a task if interrupted (by themselves or others)
- delay gratification (i.e. save money for a certain period of time for something specific)
We can help our teens strengthen their executive function skills of goal-directed persistence by using the following strategy, TO PERSIST:
Goal the Gol
established steps to the goal
reward yourself as you complete the steps along the way
Calendar time to work on the steps towards the goal in the planner
Increase effort when a step is challenging
Search aid
your dad! Objective reached!
Repeat the process or move on to the next challenge that needs to be addressed and help the ADHD teen in your life TO PERSIST.