If you are neurodivergent and everyday tasks suddenly feel heavier, louder, and harder than they used to, you might be experiencing neurodivergent burnout rather than a lack of motivation or discipline. Neurodivergent burnout is a deep state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that happens when your nervous system has been working overtime for too … read more
Whether you’re a student taking a test or a young adult navigating independent living tasks like paying bills, grocery shopping, or applying for jobs, stress is an unavoidable part of day-to-day living. High-stress situations can make it incredibly hard for learners to express their needs, even when they desperately want support. For neurodivergent learners and … read more
Executive function and resilience are closely connected. When planning, starting, shifting, and regulating are supported, it becomes easier to recover from setbacks and try again. If a learner forgets assignments, melts down during homework, or freezes when directions feel unclear, that is not a character flaw. It often means they need more scaffolding for executive … read more
We’ve already written before about the benefits of journaling, especially for neurodivergent teens. Keeping a journal can help your teen or young adult organize thoughts, build mental discipline, and track progress over time. However, journaling may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It can be hard to stick with it, and some people may feel … read more
As a parent, educator, or family member of a neurodivergent teen, you’ve likely seen first hand the day-to-day ups and downs of navigating an unpredictable world. It’s hard enough to work your way through adolescence and young adulthood, without the added stressors of anxiety, impulsiveness, forgetfulness, and distractibility that can come along with forms of … read more
We all have our go-to playlist when we need to get work done, our favorite tunes that help us power through a task and stay focused. But did you ever stop and think about why music has the ability to improve our executive function and help us concentrate better? In this blog post, we’ll be … read more
Recently we came across some new statistics about executive functioning: 82% of people don’t have a time management system (Accuity Training, 2022) 25% of people “Just deal with whatever seems most important at the time” (Accuity Training, 2022) 1 in 8 people (12.5%) never feel under control at work (Accuity Training, 2022) Thousands of people … read more
Here at Life Skills Advocate, we often discuss with clients and families that there’s not just one answer to challenges with executive functioning. The area of our brain responsible for EF skills–the prefrontal cortex–manages all types of complex behavior, including decision-making, personality, and goal orientation. A lot is happening there, which means we can’t always … read more