<p>This article just made me cry. My s has a learning disability which one of the principal deficits was executive function deficits. I watch it as it impacts on his life more and more as he moves through the school system. Despite having an high IQ and some abilities that tested as high as top .5 % of the population he had a terrible time in college. I don’t know if he can even complete it. </p>
<p>[EF:</a> The School Skill That May Matter More Than IQ | Newsweek Voices - Wray Herbert | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/139885/page/1]EF:”>http://www.newsweek.com/id/139885/page/1)</p>
<p>Fascinating article, munchkin! It made me want to read more specifics about this curriculum they have developed and whether it is possible to improve the EF of older children or even adults.</p>
<p>I see this at work in our family. When my kids were young, a friend was earning her psychology degree and needed some kids on whom to perform IQ testing, so she tested my kids. S1’s IQ tested at about the 60th percentile and S2’s at about the 90th. They were probably about 7 and 4 years old at the time. </p>
<p>Well, based on my observations, S1’s EF is extraordinarily high and S2’s is extraordinarily low. S1 is at a state u and is on track to graduate magna cum laude. S2 has been making B’s (and an occasional C) in his dual-credit classes at the cc. So from what I can see, EF is absolutely a bigger predictor of success than IQ.</p>
<p>Although, to be fair, S2 is a creative person and will be majoring in film production. Maybe all that randomness and distractibility is part of the creative process. So, I should not say that he won’t be successful in life, but I do think he’s going to have difficulty being successful in college classwork.</p>
<p>How does this differ from a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD?</p>
<p>Reminds me of unschooling at some level of practice. The philosophy is different but the idea has some level of: let kids be kids. Perhaps this is why girls are beating boys in academics.</p>
<p>From what I know ADD/ADHDers have executive function issues, but the reasons behind the behavior is different. </p>
<p>I wonder if the executive function issues for them can be addressed by medication ? </p>
<p>Also curious if boys have more executive function issues than girls ? When s was younger people, including his teachers said he will improve as he matures. He never did of course.</p>
<p>
This really ties in with the motivation thread that is also running right now! As a home schooler, I am familiar with unschooling. We did not practice it, but we did try to incorporate a similar concept: delight-directed learning.</p>
<p>Delight-directed learning does not mean that you let the kids do whatever they want, but that you find their interests and build their education around that. S2 hates science classes but he liked Civil Air Patrol and did very well on the Aerospace modules he was required to do. He did enough work to easily be equivalent to 1/2 credit of science if not more. As his interest in filmmaking grew, he learned such a wide variety of things that I couldn’t even lump them all together. He learned about art, sound technology, lighting, editing, legal considerations, screenwriting, negotiating contracts and permissions, and lots about people skills. He even learned about planning (not one of his strengths) as he prepared all he would need for a shoot.</p>
<p>His B average at the community college does not reflect his level of intelligence or even his true education. When he was in the midst of planning for a film, he was all the way involved in it. Somehow, that “delight” seemed to focus his executive functions.</p>