When transitioning into independent life, managing what feels like the millions of little things to do in your life can be harder than anticipated, especially as a young adult. Whether it be attempting to plan and organize your schedule, set goals for yourself, initiate and complete tasks, strengthen your working memory, or even emotionally regulate in stressful situations, it can prove difficult to do so on your own. All these daily things listed above and more are what are known as Executive Functioning skills. These skills are learned as we grow older and become more independent in our daily lives, but for those with life challenges such as ADHD, Autism, “Asperger’s,” Learning Disabilities, etc., the natural development of these skills may be harder to achieve.

In college, young adults are expected to be able to function on their own. Ensuring that they complete their assignments on time, eat nutritious foods, regulate their behavior, shift between tasks, stay organized, and work towards their goals is important to succeeding in college. Without these skills, young adults can fall behind in not only college but life. Executive functioning skills exceed far past college and into the work environment, and family life. Without them, people can struggle even getting a job in the first place. This can make young adults then feel as if they lack motivation, and with this, they can begin to start neglecting the things that they need to do to succeed independently. According to another source, “Students who struggle with executive functioning issues are more likely to procrastinate assignments, focus too much on the details of an assignment without understanding the greater themes, and struggle to carve out time to focus on assignments.” (Jpurneyhome, 2021). This can quickly prove detrimental to students since in college, they are not given much time to complete tasks all while having multiple other ones to focus on since professors do not care if you have other classes. A client once provided an anecdote about their struggle with not having executive functioning skills in college by saying how they would forget to do things such as turn in their assignments and complete the million little projects they started for themselves, which would cause the organization of their desk and room to get out of hand. All these factors adding up would then cause them to become irritable and stressed out, causing them to lash out at their friends, peers and family members because as life became harder and harder to keep up with, it became harder for them to emotionally regulate themselves.

After acknowledging these issues, the client was able to assess that their executive functioning skills were not where they needed them to be in their stage of life, which can be the case for many young adults with life challenges. According to a large study, “as many as 80% of (young adults with social/perceptional difficulties) also have associated executive functioning challenges.” (Willough, 2022). Understanding that you are not the only person struggling with underdeveloped executive functioning skills is an important step to bettering your life as an independent young adult, and when learning these skills, the College Life Skills Program is the best place to gain them.

CollegeLSP professionally coaches those who are college bound, in college, and even those after college in developing skills such as executive functioning to succeed in life. Our team of Doctoral and Master level professionals uses our individualized, proprietary, evidence-based approaches developed with the real-life experience of thousands of students over three decades to aid young adults in their journey to independence. So,  if your child is struggling with executive functioning skills, College Life Skills Program is more than qualified to help.

Dr. Eric J. Nach, Ph.D., M.Ed., A.S.D.C., is a Developmental and Behavioral Specialist who specializes in Autism, ADHD and related disorders. Dr. Nach is the founder of the College Life Skills Program where he and his team of professional’s help develop the Emotional Maturity, Executive Functioning, Life Skill and Social Abilities of college students and those high school students preparing for college. The CollegeLSP is a subsidiary program of the Support For Students Growth Center, located in Boca Raton, FL and providing services nationwide.

Journey_Home_Young_Adult. (2021, June 30). Executive functioning issues affect study skills in college students. Journey Home Young Adult. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://journeyhomeyoungadult.com/blog/executive-functioning-issues-affect-study-skills-in-college-students/

Willoughby, B. (2022, June 23). Executive functioning explained. The Asperger / Autism Network (AANE). Retrieved July 3, 2022, from https://www.aane.org/executive-functioning-explained/