It is heartbreaking for a parent to see their child battle with anxiety. Parents want the best for their children, and they want them to grow up happy and emotionally resilient. But anxiety prevents children from enjoying things other children enjoy like making friends and attending school.
Parents and educators dealing with children (or adults) with ADHD are likely to have heard increasing references to the terms “executive functioning” (EF) and “self-regulation” over the past few years.
The most obvious difference for autism mama bears is that those seemingly insurmountable and often surreal scenarios that we all go through as humans occur with more intensity and frequency than one might expect from the family of an average Joe (pun fully intended).
Executive functions are skills necessary for children and adolescents to become successful adults (e.g., maintaining focus and sustaining attention, even when material is boring, creatively connecting ideas and facts while working through a problem, and “thinking outside the box”). Research shows that children with better executive functioning (e.g., children who are more persistent, less impulsive, and have better attention regulation) have better health, higher incomes, better jobs and have a
