The term executive functions refers to a constellation of cognitive abilities enabling and driving adaptive, goal-oriented behavior which include updating and manipulating information mentally, inhibition of what is irrelevant to current goals, anticipation, goal selection, planning and organization, initiation of activity, self-regulation and monitoring, mental flexibility, attention deployment, working memory, problem solving and feedback utilization. Such capabilities are considered ‘executive' because they are believed to subserve a supervisory role involving the integration of information stored elsewhere in the brain, and can have the potential to affect the processing of other cognitive domains: learning, memory, language, and visual perception.
The components of EFs are a family of three, interrelated core skills (inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Higher-order EFs such as reasoning, problem-solving, and planning are formed from those.
As these abilities are essential for continuing social and cognitive development and academic achievement, it is crucial to optimize methods for assessing these skills in children, and pinpointing potential deficits in order to design appropriate remediation measures.
This highlights the need for a comprehensive Arabic tool to tackle more detailed parts of the executive function deficits.