Excuses, excuses, excuses.
As a parent, one mother feels like she has heard it all. Her son who has gone off to college has not told her how he had fallen behind in many of his classes because of his poor time management, organizational, and working memory, and overall underdeveloped executive functioning skills. Instead of trying to implement helpful techniques into his daily life, her young adult just uses them as an excuse as to why he is not doing well. He says that since he has life challenges, such as ADHD, a reading disability and anxiety, he simply cannot keep up, and now he wants to drop out because of it. This then causes his mother to become upset and stressed out by this since she feels that if he drops out, he will simply just keep using excuses and having the same habits when at home and get stuck. Instead of going out to get a job, he would say that he doesn’t have the time, will, or skills to do so, which makes her worry, rightfully so, about his future.
When her son was in high school, he was used to her micromanaging his life. She would clean up after him, ensure he was completing tasks, doing his homework, and making enough time for socializing and keeping his life organized. Now, since he is at college and doing things independently, the mother has found that her young adult has not developed the proper executive functioning skills to be successful on his own, and when she tries to push him, he just uses excuses to try and come back home.
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 to get a job or graduate. 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 a 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). It is also important to note that it is not uncommon for young adults with learning and life challenges to struggle with independent life in college. A study explains how “as many as 80% of (young adults with social/perceptional difficulties) also have associated executive functioning challenges.” (Willough, 2022). However, it is important to be able to recognize that and help young adults develop executive functioning skills since without them, preventing them from dropping out, not being able to develop a career and move on after college can be exceedingly more difficult.
At the College Life Skills Program, we professionally coach 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 CLSP 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/
