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Key Takeaways
- Executive functioning is the set of cognitive skills that help you do many things including stay focused, organize things, plan and start tasks.
- Around 70% of people with autism spectrum disorder may struggle with executive functioning.
- Executive function challenges can also make it difficult for adults with autism to regulate their emotions.
- It’s important to identify an autistic individual’s unique struggles with executive function and to come up with tailored solutions.
Introduction to executive functioning in autism
Executive functioning refers to a set of cognitive skills that enable us to manage everyday life effectively. This includes planning, organizing, starting tasks, staying focused and regulating emotions. Think of executive functioning as the brain’s management system. For autistic adults, executive functioning can be both a major challenge and an area of opportunity for growth and support. Research suggests that up to 70% of autistic people struggle with executive functioning. However, some autistic people may also have particular strengths in certain areas of executive functioning.
Executive functioning impacts things like paying bills on time, remembering appointments, shifting between tasks and coping with stress. Autism often brings unique patterns of executive function differences—not deficits in intelligence or motivation. Understanding these patterns can help autistic adults and those who support them develop more effective strategies and create environments that align with how their brains function most effectively.
While not every autistic person struggles with executive functioning, many do experience difficulties in areas like cognitive flexibility, working memory and self-regulation. These challenges can be supported with the right tools, techniques and understanding.
Identifying executive functioning challenges
The first step in managing executive dysfunction is to identify exactly what you’re struggling with. For many autistic adults, these challenges might include difficulty:
- Starting tasks (also known as initiation difficulty)
- Switching between activities or recovering from interruptions
- Keeping track of appointments, deadlines or possessions
- Managing time or underestimating how long tasks will take
- Regulating emotions during stress or transitions
These struggles aren’t about laziness or lack of willpower. They are neurological. For instance, someone might want to clean their apartment but feel overwhelmed by figuring out where to start. Or, they may freeze when plans change suddenly due to rigid thinking or difficulty with cognitive flexibility.
By recognizing these challenges for what they are—neurological differences, not character flaws—we can respond with compassion and solutions.
Strategies for improving executive functioning
Improving executive functioning doesn’t mean changing who you are. It means building systems that support how your brain operates. To support executive function development, autistic individuals can focus on enhancing the specific cognitive skills often linked to executive function challenges, such as:
Improving selective attention
Neurodivergent individuals with executive functioning difficulties may struggle to maintain focus for extended periods. One way to try building this skill is through practice, such as by listening to audiobooks and recalling key details from the narrative, or by having a friend share a story and repeating back the important points.
Engaging in fine motor activities can also benefit selective attention, alongside improving dexterity. These activities can be enjoyable, such as crocheting, beading or assembling small crafts.
Practicing impulse control
Executive function deficits can often present as difficulties with impulse regulation. To strengthen this skill, individuals can work on identifying their impulses, labeling them and brainstorming alternative responses.
For example, if someone feels the urge to lash out verbally at a partner during an argument, they might pause to acknowledge the emotion (anger), identify the impulse (I want to yell) and choose a healthier strategy (I’ll walk away, breathe deeply and return once I’ve calmed down).
Building working memory
This cognitive function involves holding and using information to complete tasks. Unlike short-term memory, which only stores data briefly, our working memory allows us to actively engage with information, like remembering a phone number or following multi-step directions. To enhance working memory, autistic individuals might practice solving mental math problems, memorizing sequences of instructions and performing them accurately or reciting poems and stories from memory.
Practicing cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility allows us to adapt to change, multitask or smoothly shift between tasks. The shifts don’t always have to be huge changes; even answering a friend’s question while also responding to a text on your phone requires cognitive flexibility. So does taking a new route home from the grocery store, or having to reschedule an appointment.
Empathy, or seeing an issue from someone else’s point of view, is also a form of cognitive flexibility. Autistic adults may struggle with cognitive flexibility. To improve flexibility, autistic people can try taking new routes when traveling to a destination or considering different problem-solving methods when working on an issue. They can also try journaling from someone else’s point of view or playing puzzle games with multiple solutions.
Trying healthy lifestyle changes
Other activities, such as exercise and mindfulness, have also shown promise as ways to improve executive function.You don’t have to hit the gym for hours. A quick walk around the neighborhood or dancing to your favorite playlist are forms of exercise, too. Plus, meditation doesn’t have to mean thirty minutes of complete silence. You can find guided meditations specifically for autistic adults on platforms like YouTube and Spotify.
Progress often comes through repetition and support, not sudden change. What matters is building habits that make life smoother and more predictable, not more demanding.
Tools and resources for executive functioning support
There is a wide range of tools and resources that can help autistic adults manage executive functioning more effectively. Many of them are tech-based, including:
- Calendar apps like Google Calendar or TimeTree for scheduling and reminders
- Task managers like Todoist, Trello or Habitica (which turns your to-do list into games)
- Pomodoro timers to help break work into focused sessions with built-in breaks
- Digital visual timers and planners for those who benefit from seeing time pass in a tangible way.
In educational or workplace settings, accommodations such as extended deadlines, written instructions or flexible routines can also be powerful. The key is to choose tools that reduce stress rather than add more layers of complexity.
Technology is especially helpful for working memory, a common area of challenge. Having digital reminders, notes or even voice memos can take the pressure off needing to hold everything in your head.
For those who prefer less technical solutions, you can try:
- Agendas and planners: Tangible, paper-based planners still accomplish what digital planners accomplish, like time management, keeping track of appointments. Additionally, writing tasks down in a planner can help commit them to memory.
- Color coding: Color coding tasks and items can help you stay organized. Perhaps high-priority tasks get highlighted in orange or yellow, while personal plans get highlighted in blue. Maybe work supplies get kept in a green backpack, while personal items get stored in a pink backpack. Anything that helps an autistic adult indicate the importance of specific tasks, or the type of task that is being completed, can help with executive functioning.
- Visual reminders: Hanging a visual picture-based schedule on your refrigerator or in a busy part of the house can help remind you of upcoming commitments or tasks to be completed.
Self-regulation and emotional control
Self-regulation is deeply connected to executive functioning. It involves managing emotions, controlling impulses and calming the nervous system, especially under stress. For autistic adults, emotional regulation is especially challenging during transitions, sensory overload or when routines change unexpectedly. Emotional regulation can be challenging, so it’s helpful for autistic individuals to explore techniques that support emotional balance. These strategies include:
- Breathwork: Practicing deep breathing can be a grounding and calming experience. A simple method is "box breathing," where you inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, and hold again for four before repeating the cycle.
- Stimming: Self-stimulatory behaviors like rocking, using fidget toys or interacting with comfort objects can support emotional regulation by offering a sense of stability and sensory relief.
- Sensory input management: Working with a professional through sensory integration therapy can help build tolerance and responses to sensory stimuli in a manageable way.
- Minimizing stressors: Reducing exposure to overwhelming environments or adjusting how you navigate them can make a big difference. For instance, if busy stores are difficult to handle, planning visits during quieter hours can ease the experience.
- Therapeutic behavioral strategies:, Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help some autistic adults develop emotional awareness and coping skills. Others may find somatic or body-based therapies helpful for regulating nervous system responses.
It's important to experiment and find what works best. Emotional control isn't about suppressing feelings. It's about learning how to ride the wave instead of being swept away by it.
How Prosper Health can help
Executive functioning may be a daily challenge for many autistic adults, but it’s not an insurmountable one. By understanding how these cognitive skills work and where they might falter, autistic individuals can develop targeted, affirming strategies that foster growth and reduce frustration.
If you’re autistic (or think you might be) and you're struggling with executive dysfunction, Prosper Health can support you.
We provide insurance-covered adult autism evaluations and neurodiversity-affirming therapy. Our skilled clinicians use evidence-based approaches and personalize care to fit the specific needs of autistic and neurodivergent adults. 80% of our clinicians either identify as neurodivergent themselves or have a close connection with someone who is, which gives them a deep understanding of the neurodiverse experience.
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below to get connected with a compassionate clinician within days.
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