This article comes to us thanks to the July/August 2007 edition of Autism/Asperger’s Digest magazine. It is reprinted here with their permission. You may want to get pencil and paper ready (there is a copious amount of information here for all parents and teachers), and I’m sure you’ll find helpful tips for helping your child. The discussion is specifically about homework, but her guidance can be applied to many life skills all children have to learn.

Our daily lives are made up of an endless stream of thoughts,
decisions, actions and reactions to the people and environment
in which we live. The internal and external actions fit together, sometimes seamlessly sometimes not,largely dependent upon a set of invisible yet highly important skills we call Executive Functioning (EF). These skills, which involve planning, organizing, sequencing, prioritizing, shifting attention, and time management can be well-developed in some people(think traffic controllers, wedding planners, business CEOs, etc.) and less developed in others. They are vital in all parts of life, from making coffee to running a profitable business. The skills develop naturally, without specific, formal training, and we all have them to some degree – or at least, we all assume we all have them. Continue reading →