A person with autism faces a lot of challenges in life. That includes impaired language development, difficulties in maintaining meaningful social relationships, and struggles with repetitive behavior.
But what about executive functioning? Is there any connection between autism and executive function? Does autism directly influence it? How?
These are just some of the questions that we’ll answer today. We’ll also talk about Brain Retrain, a learning program that can help deal with autism, including improving executive function.
What Is Autism?
To make sure that we’re all on the same page before moving on, allow us to define autism and executive function. According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism, or more properly known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental condition characterized by challenges in verbal and non-verbal communication, perception, and repetitive behaviors.
Language and other developmental delays help diagnose ASD early. As a disability, there is no known cure for autism, but there are various treatments available to decrease symptoms and improve brain functions, including executive functioning.
What Is Executive Function?
Executive function is a term used to refer to an advanced cognitive ability that allows us to perform our tasks and live our lives. Since these brain processes can’t be isolated from each other, they are more frequently referred to collectively as executive functions or executive functioning.
Categories
According to the University of California Well Institute for Neurosciences, executive functions can be divided into two categories:
- Organization: These are cognitive functions in charge of observation, gathering information, and solving problems. Hence, it also includes working memory and abstract thinking.
- Regulation: These are cognitive functions in charge of evaluating the information you’ve gathered and assessing how you’re going to react to them. It also involves self-control, reasoning, and decision-making.
While autism doesn’t directly impact executive functions, it can still affect the quality of one’s cognitive abilities. One main factor lies in its anatomy. After all, the brain’s frontal and cortical lobes, also associated with ASD, perform many executive functions.
What Are Signs of Poor Executive Functioning?
Regardless if a person has been diagnosed with autism or not, here are some of the warning signs that someone has poor executive functioning:
- Poor Time Management Skills
One of the first symptoms of poor executive functioning is time blindness. It is the inability to gauge time, set schedules, and keep future events in mind.
People with poor executive functioning will find it difficult to finish tasks on time. They tend to procrastinate not because they want to, but because they simply can’t gauge how much time they still need to complete a task or how much is left before a deadline.
- Difficulties in Processing Information
People suffering from poor executive functions will also find it challenging to go through multiple pieces of information and process them to perform and complete related tasks. Thus, this exposes them to much frustration.
- Challenges in Making Sound Decisions
Finally, those who can’t process multiple pieces of information will also find it challenging to solve problems or make sound decisions from these data. People with poor executive functioning will find it overwhelming to recall and follow complex verbal instructions.
Challenges in executive functions cannot be categorized as “executive functioning autism.” Instead, it is more properly known as executive dysfunction.

Autism and Executive Function: The Connection
Now that we have established an understanding of what ASD and executive function are, we can determine the connection between executive functioning and autism.
First, it is important to keep in mind that autism doesn’t directly impact executive functioning. However, as we have mentioned, some cognitive processes happen in the same part of the brain that autism affects.
Also, we’d like to reiterate that brain processes don’t happen in isolation from each other. Even if two processes occur in separate areas and are involved in contrasting activities, brain processes will still end up affecting each other, whether directly or indirectly.
What Are the Major Challenges?
Let’s look at the two major challenges that characterize ASD and examine how they are all related to executive functions.
- Communication Challenges
People with autism find it difficult to express their emotions both verbally and non-verbally. They also fail to decode social cues, including maintaining eye contact and reading facial expressions. Their perception can be quite poor too.
As such, they might also find themselves at a loss when coherently processing their thoughts. Lack of perception is also a sign that their cognitive powers of observation are dysfunctional. Notice how the latter processes are both organization executive functions?
- Restricted or Repetitive Behavior
People with autism thrive well in structured routines. They can find even the smallest changes in their routine overwhelming and unbearable. That can then lead to being overwhelmed.
It can even trigger the abandonment of self-control. Again, these behavioral patterns hint at executive functions. Only this time, they are related to regulation instead of organization.
How Does Autism Affect Executive Function?
These patterns of brain activity can also happen the other way around. Autism challenges can also impact one’s executive functioning.
According to a study published by the journal Autism Research and Treatment, many people with ASD cannot simply process the web of interconnected executive functions that happen with every task.
The good news is that since autism-related challenges are closely influenced by executive functioning yet, at the same time, not directly connected to them, it presents the opportunity to improve either one through adjusting the other.
People with autism can benefit from improved executive functions. Meanwhile, many of the methods used to treat autism-related behavior can potentially increase poor executive functioning.
Tips on How to Improve Executive Functioning
Allow us to share with you some tips on how to improve executive functioning.
Practice Control
People with ASD can find it difficult to control their impulses, especially children. Teaching them to count to five before responding or reacting emotionally would help prevent tactlessness and decrease potentially risky behavior. Doing so will also allow the person to process information, helping them make better decisions.
Memory Challenges
There are a lot of memory games that can help people with ASD improve their working memory. Gaming apps like Fit Brains Trainer and Luminosity are great examples. These activities are fun, engaging, and can even help improve both observation and perception.
Create Mind Maps and Flow-Charts
Mind maps and flow charts create visual representations of thought processes. They can help people with ASD sort through the information they have and plan the next courses of action for more complex projects.
Of course, these are not the only steps that one can take to improve their executive functions and, in turn, autism-related challenges.
While there is no cure for autism, there are a number of treatments available to decrease autism-related symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These include various therapies, medication, and even dietary approaches.
We also recommend looking into alternative methods, like the program that we’ll talk about next.
Brain Retrain

Brain Retrain is a learning program developed by two organizations devoted to autism: the DreamWeaver House and SFK Media Corp.
DreamWeaver House is a non-profit organization based in New York dedicated to providing free services, care, and assistance for families dealing with autism. Meanwhile, SFK Media Corp. specializes in creating entertaining learning materials specifically for children with ASD.
Their latest program, Brain Retrain, is actually an upgrade from their previous bestseller, Reading Movies. It is a series of book movies equipped with their patented Action Caption technology. Basically, they are live-action movies of favorite literary classics and strategically captioned to help improve literacy among children with ASD.
Reading Movies was already an efficient program on its own, but its developers found a way to improve its efficiency. They added a layer of frequency brainwaves to stimulate the natural healing vibrations of the brain in hopes of improving other autism-related challenges beyond just literacy. That includes repetitive behaviors, lack of perception, and of course, poor executive functioning.
Executive Functioning and Autism: In Conclusion
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability characterized by difficulties in communicating, restricted and repetitive behaviors, and poor perception. It does not directly affect cognitive processes, but it can still significantly impact them. Executive functions, for instance, can be severely hindered by autism-related thinking patterns.
Executive functioning can be divided into two main categories of cognitive processes: organization and regulation. Organization is in charge of all brain activities related to processing various information. Meanwhile, regulation processes are more concerned with control and decision-making.
Both categories can be affected by autism-related challenges, such as the lack of perception and inability to process thoughts for effective verbal communication.
The good news is training executive functions can help decrease autism-related symptoms. On the other hand, undergoing treatment for autism can significantly improve executive functioning. Want to decrease “executive functioning autism”? There are different interventions available for you to choose from. Those who are looking for a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approach might want to look into Brain Retrain, though. It is a learning program formulated by experts on autism to improve literacy, autism-related behavioral patterns, and more.