All Variations

The National Center for Learning Disabilities has published an ebook called “Executive Function 101.”  This e-book is designed to explain executive functions in a clear, understandable way and to help parents pinpoint the struggles their child might experience. It’s organized into three broad categories where executive skills come into play: learning; behavior and emotions; and social situations and relationships. Each section includes tips for providing support and practice in specific skill areas.

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Article Title: The Sexual Politics of Autism

Author: Virginia Hughes

Date of Publication: July 14, 2014

“Imagine you walked down the street and asked random people what autism is. What would they say? My guess: They’d talk about social skills, and the rising prevalence, and probably the vaccine nonsense. And they’d almost certainly mention that it happens to boys.

The idea that autism is a mostly male disorder is pervasive in the news, pop culture, and scientific circles. And it’s not just an academic curiosity. Last year a popular fertility clinic in Sydney, Australia, reported that about five percent of couples went through in vitro fertilization just so they could select a female embryo and thus lower the kid’s risk of developing autism.

The sex skew in autism is real: A diagnosis of autism is almost five times more common in 8-year-old boys than in 8-year-old girls, according to the latest statistics from the CDC.”

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Article Title: Anatomic magnetic resonance imaging of the developing child and adolescent brain and effects of genetic variation

Authors: J.N. Giedd, M. Stockman, C. Weddle, M. Liverpool, A. Alexander-Bloch, G.L. Wallace, N.R. Lee, F. Lalonde, R.K. Lenroot

Date of Publication: November 11, 2010

“Magnetic resonance imaging studies have begun to map effects of genetic variation on trajectories of brain development. Longitudinal studies of children and adolescents demonstrate a general pattern of childhood peaks of gray matter followed by adolescent declines, functional and structural increases in connectivity and integrative processing, and a changing balance between limbic/subcortical and frontal lobe functions, which extends well into young adulthood. Twin studies have demonstrated that genetic factors are responsible for a significant amount of variation in pediatric brain morphometry.”

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Article Title: Puberty-related influences on brain development

Authors: J.N. Giedd, L.S. Clasen, R. Lenroot, D. Greenstein, G.L. Wallace, S. Ordaz, E.A. Molloy, J.D. Blumenthal, J.W. Tossell, C. Stayer, C.A. Samango-Sprouse, D. Shen, C. Davatzikos, D. Merke, G.P. Chrousos

Date of Publication: January 9, 2006

“Puberty is a time of striking changes in cognition and behavior. To indirectly assess the effects of puberty-related influences on the underlying neuroanatomy of these behavioral changes we will review and synthesize neuroimaging data from typically developing children and adolescents and from those with anomalous hormone or sex chromosome profiles.”

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Article Title: Executive Function: What Does It Mean? Why Is It Important? How Can We Help?

Author: Mark Katz, PhD

Date of Publication: Summer 2014

“The term ‘executive function’ is being used throughout educational circles, from preschool classrooms to university research labs. But what exactly is it and how does it influence school success?

To complete tasks, reach goals, solve problems, and successfully navigate our social world, we rely on our executive function, 1. a family of mental processes that includes working memory; skills in organization, planning, and time management; and self-control and emotional self-regulation, among others. 2. While we typically see these mental processes discussed separately, they actually work in harmony. In fact, it’s our ability to successfully synchronize these processes that allows us to navigate the world. Experts in the field have used different metaphors to describe this process and its coordination: our brain’s orchestra conductor, air traffic control system, or chief executive officer.

Executive function is getting a great deal of attention lately for good reason. How well it works is an important predictor of who will succeed in school and who will not. And if we can predict problems of executive function, we can prevent them.”

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Article Title: IEP and Lesson Plan Development Handbook of Specially Designed Instruction and Supplementary Aids and Services

Authors: Kentucky Special Education Cooperatives and Kentucky Department of Education

Date of Publication: August 2003

“In designing an Individual Education Program (IEP) for a student, the ARC must determine specific instructional strategies that teachers must use and the supplementary aids and services that the student needs in order for the student to have access to the Program of Studies (i.e., the general program).

This handbook is one resource that provides some examples of Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) and Supplementary Aids and Services (SAS) that might be used to support the student’s goals, benchmarks, and objectives on his/her IEP.”

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Article Title: Disorders of Executive Functions – Civil and Criminal Law Applications (excerpts from the book)

Authors: Harold Hall, PhD and Robert Sbordone, PhD

Date of Publication: 1993

“Law and neuropsychology of executive functions will be increasingly intertwined as findings are applied to forensic settings and situations. In instances where executive impairment is suspected, this book will assist the forensic evaluator to demonstrate the relationship between frontal lobe impairment and criminal/civil behavior.”

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Article Title: The social brain in psychiatric and neurological disorders

Authors: Daniel Kennedy and Ralph Adolphs

Date of Publication: October 6, 2012

“Psychiatric and neurological disorders have historically provided key insights into the structure-function relationships that subserve human social cognition and behavior, informing the concept of the ‘social brain’. In this review, we take stock of the current status of this concept, retaining a focus on disorders that impact social behavior.”

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Article Title: Sex Redefined

Author: Claire Ainsworth

Date of Publication: February 18, 2015

“The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.

As a clinical geneticist, Paul James is accustomed to discussing some of the most delicate issues with his patients. But in early 2010, he found himself having a particularly awkward conversation about sex.

A 46-year-old pregnant woman had visited his clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia to hear the results of an amniocentesis test to screen her baby’s chromosomes for abnormalities. The baby was fine — but follow-up tests had revealed something astonishing about the mother. Her body was built of cells from two individuals, probably from twin embryos that had merged in her own mother’s womb. And there was more. One set of cells carried two X chromosomes, the complement that typically makes a person female; the other had an X and a Y. Halfway through her fifth decade and pregnant with her third child, the woman learned for the first time that a large part of her body was chromosomally male.”

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