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This newsletter will require longer than our usual 7 minutes reading time but still less than 10 minutes of investment! 

Hi there!

Welcome to Oli’s world! Whether driven by curiosity or by need, we’re excited that you have joined our growing community of parents and carers who value a more inclusive future for their children. We know that parenting is the world’s most rewarding job, but, let’s face it, also the most challenging one at times. That’s where we come in.

We are here to help the many parents and caregivers who struggle to cope with a child’s diverse behavioural traits. Many children struggle socially and emotionally, limiting them in life, simply because they think in a different way to their neurotypical peers. However, their diverse thinking can in fact become a superpower as they grow up. Oli help understands these children, so we are able to significantly improve family time by facilitating more harmonious interactions between parents and their children.

We are building the tools to empower parents to create a transformative impact on their children’s lives, helping them to thrive with diverse minds. In the meantime, with our newsletters, our aim is to provide you with access to expert information and knowledge to help make sense of young diverse minds, as well as practical advice to do things differently, helping you evolve your own behavioural patterns.

Our third newsletter is about why it takes a CEO to complete a boring piece of primary school homework!

Executive functioning skills such as logical sequencing, short- and long-term planning, problem solving, assessing risk, understanding cause and effect, self-regulation (emotions, speech, behaviours etc.) and managing frustration are managed in the brain and are hugely important when it comes to how we function in the world. In this third newsletter we want you to take away a few important points:

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the CEO of our brains and our lives, responsible for executive functioning.

It develops slowly, with a growth spurt in the teenage years and continuing until about age 25, explaining why we take risks when we’re younger that we wouldn’t dare take now as adults.

Barkley breaks executive functioning into seven key skill areas: self-awareness, inhibition, non-verbal working memory, verbal working memory, emotional self-regulation, self-motivation, and planning and problem-solving.

Conditions like ADHD affect PFC connections so diagnosed children will typically have difficulty with many, most, or all of these key executive functioning skills.

For example, a child with ADHD may find it challenging to stay focused on a long homework assignment but can be aided with appropriate strategies and support.

Our ‘how to focus’ guide will help most parents who dread getting their kids to complete a boring homework assignment!

The prefrontal cortex is the CEO of our brain and is in charge of executive functioning but it takes a huge amount of time to develop. 

Just like a company has someone who is ultimately in charge of and responsible for all of the goings on in the business, your brain has a part of it that is fundamentally in charge as well. It’s called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and it’s in charge of something called Executive Functioning. We mentioned this brain part a couple of months ago in the newsletter about brain development (you can catch up on our monthly newsletters following us on instagram @oli_help via our link in bio). The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain directly behind the forehead, and it’s the part of our brain that essentially makes us human and separates us from other mammals. It’s the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of our brains and our lives. The PFC is generally responsible for making sure that we act in ways that are appropriate in civilised society. It explains why we don’t all act like jerks all the time!

The problem with this, however, is that it takes a *very* long time to develop. As babies, it’s the last part of our brain to develop, literally taking years. As you may know, babies’ brains develop rapidly in the first few years of life and then growth slowly tapers off around five years of age. Surprisingly, though, the growth isn’t over yet. There is actually another massive growth spurt in the PFC in the teenage years, and it doesn’t stop growing and developing until we are about 25 years old! This lag in growth until adolescence/early adulthood explains why we take risks and make decisions as teenagers that we would NEVER even attempt as adults! We don’t know about you, but there are some things we did at 17 that make us crimson with embarrassment when looking back now as fully grown adults.  For those of us with teenagers at home, it also helps to explain some of the unfathomable decisions they make sometimes… in these seemingly adult bodies, making choices and decisions like little kids! Well, we have the delayed growth of the PFC to thank for that! They literally do not have the brain capacity.

ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions are associated with weaker executive functioning.

There are also certain conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that are associated with differences in the connections of the PFC. It’s believed that people with ADHD and ASD have PFC’s that are wired differently than those of neurotypical people. This difference in wiring makes the brain perform differently and often results in less well regulated executive functioning. What does that mean? Dr Russell Barkley, one of the foremost  authorities on ADHD, explains that variations in ADHD symptoms are attributable to differences in executive functioning. If you boil it down, all symptoms of ADHD are essentially an inability to regulate oneself in various areas of life (e.g., social situations, managing intense emotions, and maintaining focussed attention).  Barkley and his team break this down into seven main areas:

1. Self-awareness
Simply put, this is about the ability to observe and evaluate one’s behaviour. It includes things like: being aware of how you’re acting and how you sound, how other people see you, and being aware of your impact on them.

2. Behavioural inhibition
This can also be called self-restraint or is sometimes referred to as impulse control. Kids who have trouble with this tend to interrupt other people, blurt out answers when it’s not appropriate, or have trouble sitting still in their chair when they’re expected to (like at the dinner table or in class). Kids who have trouble with this might also have difficulty controlling their urges when they’re really angry or frustrated so may end up engaging in  aggressive behaviours like hitting or breaking things.

3. Non-verbal working memory
This refers to the ability to hold things in your mind while you go through your day. Essentially, visual imagery — how well you can picture things mentally. Children who have difficulty in this area might find it tough to do mental maths, for example, because it’s hard for them to hold the numbers and operations in their mind even for a short period of time.

4. Verbal working memory
Sometimes this is also called self-speech, or internal speech. Most people think of this as their “inner monologue.”  This skill is important in being able to follow instructions that are given verbally, especially multi-step instructions.  So, if someone has trouble in this area, it means that they might forget what was asked of them even before they leave the room or begin an assignment.  Or they might remember the final step but not the first step, because they can’t hold the verbal information in their head well.  
 

5. Emotional self-regulation
Children who have trouble in this area often have intense emotional experiences and wildly fluctuating moods.  It’s the ability to take the previous four executive functions and use them to regulate your own emotional state. This means learning to use words, images, and your own self-awareness to process and alter how you feel about things as well as how you respond to those feelings.

6. Self-motivation
Like us adults, children need to be able to motivate themselves to do things like homework, cleaning their room, and chores around the house.  But kids who have trouble with self-motivation have an extra hard time motivating themselves in general, and especially when there is no immediate reward. 

7. Planning and problem solving
This skill refers to how we plan solutions to our problems by ‘playing with’ or manipulating information in our minds in order to find solutions.  For children, it can be anything from remembering to take their sports clothes to school for PE to planning out when they’re going to do each piece of homework during the week.

Children with ADHD will typically be an average of 3 years behind their peers when it comes to executive functioning development

Children with ADHD will typically have difficulty with many, most, or all of these key skills. Depending on the type of the challenges faced, ADHD is typically classified into one of three subtypes: Inattentive type ADHD, Hyperactive/Impulsive type ADHD, and for the really lucky kids and their parents, Combination type ADHD! It’s not that kids with ADHD can’t do these things, it’s just that they typically need more external support in order to move successfully through life. The strategies we recommend are grounded in science and evidence-based research. Our strategies directly  target differences in executive functioning skills when it comes to children with ADHD.  Homework is a classic example of a task that can be exceptionally challenging for kids with ADHD - it requires all seven of the above skills ALL AT ONCE! No wonder it can be such a frustration not only for the kids themselves but also for us parents and caregivers as we watch them struggle (and maybe prod, cajole, and tear our hair out - or is that just us?).  Where is that CEO when you need one?!

How to focus a child on an activity they’re not excited about

So here’s our 5 step guide to fast track the CEO in your child and get them to focus:

1. Make sure your child expects the activity, if not give them sufficient warning. Timing matters too! Building a regular routine removes the extra strain of deciding if and when to do an activity. 

2. Before starting an activity that requires attention and focus, get moving! Physical activity can help set your child up for success - a few jumps, skipping the rope or a sprint are some ideas!

3. Break the activity down into smaller steps or time blocks for your child so they can see it through to the end. Visual aids such as checklists, planners, and timers will help keep progress visible.

4. Make sure you schedule breaks throughout and stick to the plan when it comes to actually taking them. Short planned breaks (eg 5’) will help your child reach completion, and skipping them might lengthen the pain!

5. Remember you are there to help: model one example, do another together, and aim for autonomy only later (sometimes much, much later!). Don’t forget to acknowledge the challenge and praise the effort.

We have plenty more practical advice to share but we know this newsletter was longer and more dense than usual, so make sure you follow us on instagram and stay tuned! 

If you enjoyed our newsletter, let us know and invite a friend to subscribe.

Have a question? Have some feedback? Want to share what’s on your mind? Contact us directly on info@olihelp.com as we’d love to hear from you.
 

Love,

The Oli help team

Our newsletters are written with the contribution of the clinicians in our team and backed by evidence-based research. We are not a substitute for clinical or medical advice, we’re here to help you make sense of kids’ diverse minds and help you evolve your own behavioural patterns.