Executive Functioning Assessment

What is executive functioning?

How well a person can reach goals and solve problems usually plays a big role in their success at places like school, work or study. 

Think about an upcoming deadline you have, something like finishing a project at work or preparing for a big meeting. As well as the external (e.g., logistical) side of things, you have to be aware of and keep on top of a lot of things inside yourself in order to get there:

  • Behaviours - not saying ‘yes!’ to going out for a long lunch when you said be preparing, being aware when you’ve spent too long on one part and haven’t gotten to the others, …

  • Emotions - moving flexibly between different things that come up (kids need a lift to netball, changing presentation content at the last minute after suggestions from your boss), being nervous enough to stay motivated but not so nervous that you can’t work, …

  • Thoughts - making a plan to get started and sticking to it, getting everything you need in one place and keeping it there, remembering what you are working on now and next, …

People who find executive functioning easy can do all of these things and more. Executive functioning is the use of mental processes to regulate what we are doing, feeling and thinking so that we are working towards what’s important - either to ourselves, or to the people around us (e.g., boss, teacher, etc.). 

People aren’t born with these skills but everyone has the brain-based ability to develop them. But based on the brain they have and their early experiences, one person might find developing these skills harder or easier than another. 

What does the assessment involve?

While it can be useful on its own, exploring executive functioning usually comes as part of a bigger assessment. This is because executive functioning can be impacted by lots of different factors, including:

  • Anxiety and depression

  • Difficulties with sleep

  • Exposure to big life events that have a lasting impact (i.e., Trauma)

  • ADHDer and autistic brains

  • Learning difficulties

  • Biological / physical factors like chronic pain or brain injuries 

Once we understand the role these and other factors play in a young person’s life, assessing executive functioning gives us a chance to see where a young person’s behaviour, emotion and cognitive regulation skills are compared to their peers. This helps us to identify and put support in place for those areas that are still under development or hard for the young person to make use of on their own. 

Different researchers and theorists think about and categorise executive function skills in different ways. As a result, there are lots of different tools for capturing executive functioning.. At the Social Learning Studio, we use the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function 2nd Edition (BRIEF-2). 

The BRIEF-2 is a questionnaire that helps us understand how often behaviours related to problems with using executive function skills are seen in young people aged 5 to 18 years. Different versions of the questionnaire can be completed by a parent, teacher and - if they’re over the age of 11 years - the young person themselves.

Although it depends on who is rating the behaviour, the BRIEF-2 tells us how well a young person is doing with these executive function skills:

  • Inhibit: The young person’s ability to resist impulses and stop his behaviour

  • Self-monitor: The young person’s awareness of the impact his behaviour has on others and on his capacity to meet outcomes and goals

  • Shift/Flexibility:  The young person’s ability to move freely from one situation, activity, or aspect of a problem

  • Emotional Control: The young person’s ability to change or regulate his emotion response 

  • Initiate: The young person’s ability to begin a task or activity and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem-solving strategies.

  • Working Memory: The young person’s ability to take in and hold information in his mind, and use it to generate goals, plans or steps to achieve goals

  • Plan/Organise: The young person’s ability to manage current and future-oriented task demands

  • Task-Monitor: The young person’s ability to monitor his progress, checking in on his work or actions to evaluate if goals have been or will be reached.

  • Organisation of Materials: The young person’s ability to organise, keep track of, or clean up his belongings. 

What will - and won’t - the assessment tell us?

What this assessment will tell us:

  • A value for how difficult executive functioning is for your young person based on how often you see the associated behaviours.
    This isn’t about ranking your young person on how ‘normal’ their skills are compared to others. It’s more about saying that if, for example, most Grade 5 students show a certain level of executive functioning, people like teachers start to expect that. Although we can’t change those expectations, we can use scores produced by tools like the BRIEF-2 to help us see which specific areas of executive functioning are in need of support.

  • Suggestions for supporting the areas of executive functioning your young person finds difficult to do on their own - at home and at school. 
    These strategies might be general (i.e., coaching the young person by modelling the skill yourself and using self-talk) or specific to the area of executive functioning needing external support.

What this assessment won’t tell us:

‘Why’ a young person is having trouble with executive functioning
On its own, completing the BRIEF-2 only tells us if there are executive functioning difficulties. Answering the larger ‘why’ question takes a more in-depth assessment.

The one size fits all approach to “fixing” executive functioning
In general, supporting executive functioning is about scaffolding the individual skill(s) a young person has trouble with. For example, providing external support like timers for someone who has trouble switching between activities. These scaffolds might not be needed after a while but its just as likely that they will continue to play a role. The aim of assessing executive functioning is to find the scaffold that fits the needs, interests and preferences of the person using it.

How much will it cost?

As mentioned above, executive functioning is usually one small part of a larger assessment process or referral question. 

The specific cost of a full assessment depends on exactly what needs to happen in each specific assessment. For example, the following play a role in how much an assessment costs:

  • The time it takes to complete the ‘typical’ activities and tasks
    E.g., most cognitive assessments with young people take place over a 2-hour session but issues – positive and negative – can come up that mean it takes longer.

  • Additional testing or tools that need to be used, following the results of earlier assessment

  • How complex the information provided is to pull together and report on.

As noted on our fees page, we will provide an individual fee schedule for each assessment. The costs outlined here are determined by:

  • The clinician’s hourly rate

  • The cost of the certified assessment form/s ($5-25 each) (including the BRIEF-2)

  • The time required to

    • administer the assessment/s

    • score the assessment/s

    • evaluate the results

    • produce a report

    • meet with the client/parents and/or teacher to discuss the results and recommendations.

Following the initial intake sessions, your clinician will give you an idea of of the total cost