58/100 Self Talk

A few weeks ago I found myself in a rush trip to the tiny toy store in my neighborhood. I love this toy store, so much to look at but in a rush trying to buy a present for a kid I didn’t really know I was already feeling a little irritable. In the toy store was a dad and kid and they were narrating every thought they were having as they slowly walked through the store. The store is so small and no one else was in there so I could not escape hearing them and it was making me crazy. Then I started to think about why I was so annoyed and it was because of self talk. Self talk is a coping mechanism I use all the time because metacognition and sustained attention are weaknesses of mine. I literally have to think reminders to myself to focus to complete a task. Sometimes at home this can literally be me talking to myself. On this morning I realized that my irritation was that these people were distracting me from my own self talk. I then reminded myself what I have learned through this project, these people were not trying to be jerks, their brains worked in a different way then mine. It was then that I realized that actually what they were doing was self talk. The dad was narrating his thinking process probably for himself but also for the benefit of the kid. I suddenly felt so much less irritated, I was able to pick out a present and leave the store feeling way calmer. I am grateful to this project for giving me more understanding of my own thinking but also more patience with the thinking of other people.

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57/100 Moving into the Logical/cool colors

Each color in these portraits represents 1 of 12 Executive Function skills. After people fill in the Executive Function self assessment I then make a portrait of them cutting the paper to the length of their answers. So if you see a long bar of one color that means that skill is something the person stronger in. If you see a shorter bar that means that is more of a weakness for the person. In order to come up with a color for each skill I divided the skills into emotional (warm colors) or logical (cool colors.) Metacognition or yellow green is in my mind the bridge between emotional and logical. Metacognition is the skill of stepping back and evaluating not only yourself but others feeling in a situation to make good decisions. To me this seems like one of the hardest skills, you have to not only have a understanding of yourself in a situation but also your own feelings as well as others. It is a the perfect combination of emotions and logic.

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57/100 labels

I often hear people worry about labeling someone because of the limitations of a single label. Through this project I have realized how much labeling happens even when we don’t mean to. Until a few years ago I had never even heard of Executive Functions but now I realize that Executive Functions have been defining me and everyone else our whole lives. Instead of labeling with an Executive Function or diagnosis people say things like, “oh she is always crying about something” or “he would loose his head if it wasn’t attached” or “they are so smart if they could just live up to their potential.” We have all heard these types of labels placed on others in our lives and I am going to say that I think these labels are much more detrimental and unhelpful then many other labels I have heard. #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

56/100 Sustained Attention (orange Yellow, right) and Task Initiation (yellow, left)

Sustained Attention is the Executive Function that allows a person to continue to pay attention to a task even if they are tired or bored, without getting distracted. Task Initiation is the ability to began a task in a timely manner without procrastination. Like so many of the Executive Functions I see a very close relationship between these two skills. Two edges of the same sword. I am someone who is really good at getting started but am easily distracted and take a long time to finish something, if I even finish at all. On the other hand someone who has weak task initiation may wait till the last minute but get through a task really quickly once they get started. For these people working under pressure is usually key. In my portraits I have found that overall these are the two skills that are the most coin on weaknesses for people. One or both and I wonder again if this has something to do with the current time we are living in or if this would always be the case. A few people have commented on these skills in their assessment noting the role anxiety plays in their ability to either start or pay full attention to a task. #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

55/100 Flexibility (orange)

Flexibility is basically the skill to change plans in the face of obstacles or mistakes. Someone who has this as a strength is probably thought of as easy going or a go with the flow kind of person. Someone who has this as a weakness might seem unwilling to change or might become easily overwhelmed when things don’t go the way they wanted or expected. Of all the Executive Function skills, I wonder most about how flexibility has been effected by Covid. For most of the world living through a global pandemic has meant that life choices have been beyond our individual control more often then in other times. The shift back and forth between virtual learning and work alone has forced most people to adapt in a way unlike any other time in their life. I wonder if this has made us more flexible? Or caused more stress to people for whom flexibility was a challenge. As we see so many people struggling with mental health at this point in the pandemic I wonder how much forced flexibility plays a part in that? #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

54/100 Working through the process

This week I made #34-40 (I will flatten, hang, scan and hopefully email them to people this week) I have always thought of these as sort of part 1 of this project, that after making and gathering enough of these I would make or do some sort of culminating thing with them. I am still thinking on this, though honestly any bigger project may need to wait till school is over and I have a little more time. In the meantime I would love to make a few more so if you want to take the self assessment go to Katiegillharvey.com I have also been adding all the portraits there so you can see them all together.

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53/100 taking things apart and putting them back together in a little different way.

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52/100 What does it actually mean to be a grown up?

In this project I have only been doing the Executive Function portraits of adults. In my early research and learning about Executive Functions most of what I could find was related to kids, teens and early adults who are still developing their Executive Functions. I wondered does that mean that all adults at some point just have Executive Function skills? Like was I going to do this project and just see a bunch of adults all the same. Every person who has taken my assessment so far is a person I at least somewhat know in real life. They are all functioning adults with jobs or kids or people who seem to manage adulthood. Yet their Portraits are all totally different. I am now realizing that at some point your Executive Function skills become somewhat irrelevant not because they change but because you learn to adapt. What really happens in adulthood is that you learn to work with your own strengths and weaknesses. You learn to find a job that works for you, systems and processes that work for you, you learn how to work with other people who work differently then you do or at least how to do all these things enough so that you can get by. So if you think of adulthood as really just being able to figure out how you work with what you have and then structuring your life to suit you abilities wouldn’t it be best for us to tell kids that? To help kids understand how their brains work, especially older kids, so they can start figuring out ways they work and making decisions that work best for their brain and the way they work? #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

51/100 How our Executive Functions effect others?

Probably the conversation I have had most with people about this project is about the mash up between two different peoples Executive Function skills. The relationship between spouses, teacher and child, parent and child, co-workers or even friends. Do you think you work better with someone who has similar Executive Function profile to you or different? #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

50/100 half way

One of my kids took this photo the other day and I laughed because this is probably how I have looked to them a lot for the last 50 days. I am half way through this project and while it seems crazy to talk about the same subject for 50 days (and some people who talk to me in real life have been hearing about this for way longer!) this subject is so near and dear to my heart I know I can easily go on about it forever. If possible I think this subject is even more important now then when I started. It’s not about the actual Executive Function skills, though I think those are important, it is about learning how your brain works so you better understand how and why you do things the way you do. And thereby understand how and why other people do the things they do. Especially if they do things in a different way then you do.

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49/100 Self

There is a whole aspect to Executive Function that relates to self that I still don’t feel like I fully understand but feels really important to me. Generally speaking there can be a difference between peoples Executive Functions skills for others and peoples Executive Function skills for themselves. As a teacher I recognize this in the many, many kids I have taught over the years who seemed to struggle with their own Executive Function skills but then became my number one class helper and excelled when helping others with tasks they would have had a hard time doing for them selves. I think this also explains why some people can have amazing Executive Functions in their work or some public realm of their life but have a really hard time with Executive Functions in their personal life or at home. The part I am still trying to understand is why this happens but I think it’s really just important to know it does happen. Especially that we cannot expect that just because someone can do something in one place that means they can do it somewhere else. I have often heard people say this as a reason why they think someone is just being lazy or not trying. It’s not that simple, you brain works differently in different parts of your life.

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48/100 housekeeping

I finished portrait #33 today! After I finish the portraits I have to press them, scan them, hang them and then email them to the person whose portrait it is. So it takes me a little bit. This weekend I sent emails to #22-24 with completed portraits and hopefully this week I will send more. I also have a backlog of emails for people who’s portraits I had to redo that I hope to send out soon. If you have done the survey and at any point want to know your number just let me know and I can message you what it is. I seriously can not thank you all enough for you help and support in this!

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47/100 “I think trying to understand another person is a worthwhile thing to do”

I have been relistening to the STown podcast, I listened to it years ago when it came out and couldn’t remember all the details so started again. Today, in a few minutes I had to listen and work on portraits, I heard this line that stopped me right in my tracks “ I think trying to understand another person is a worthwhile thing to do.” That’s it, that’s what I have learned from this project. It’s not about strengths or weaknesses. It’s not about having awesome Executive Function skills. It’s about taking the time to understand why somebody works the way they do. And it’s worthwhile to know that about somebody else. It makes you more empathetic, more patient and more understanding if you take the time to understand why somebody works the way they do, especially if it’s different then how you work. This picture is 20 of the portraits I have made, each one of these represents a different person and their own unique way of being.

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46/100 13-24

Now that I have fixed and streamlined the process I am able to get through these pretty quick. Here is how it works, someone fills out the Executive Function self assessment, this is a google form with 12 sections each with 3 questions. People answer the questions ranking themselves between 1-7 depending on how they relate to the question. At the end of each section people count up their total for that section which can be anywhere between 1-21. The answers are then sent to the person taking the Assessment so they have their own information to look at and is sent to me. I then give each person who takes the assessment a number in the order in which I receive them. Then I use their answers from the google form to make the portrait. I have strips of painted paper for each color that corresponds to the 12 different Executive Functions. Depending on the persons number for each section that is how long I measure and cut the paper. I then glue down all the bars. When you step back and look at each finished paper it become clear what the persons individual strengths and weaknesses are. Their strengths being the longest bar in their portrait and the weaknesses being the shortest bar. Each portrait is as unique as the person answering the questions, which I love. If you would like to be part of the project I am still looking for people to take the assessment (you can go to Katie gill harvey.com and click be part of the project) or if you want to see the assessment without being part of the project I will put a link in the comment so you can check it out.

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45/100 interwoven

I’ve been thinking a lot about how interwoven all these things are.

How interwoven all the different Executive Function are with each other.

How Interwoven our own strengths and weaknesses are.

How interwoven our own Executive Functions are with the other people in our world.

How interwoven our Executive Functions are with stresses and anxieties in the world beyond our control.

How interwoven all the parts of our brains are.

How interwoven our brain function is with our genetic makeup and ancestry.

How interwoven our Executive Functions are with the million big and little things we do every single day.

And how somehow all these things happen every moment of every day in our entire lives without us even realizing it.

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44/100 Red-orange Emotional Control

Emotional Control feels like the twin sister to Response Inhibition to me. These are two separate things but they are so closely linked it is often hard to tell where one starts and the other stops. A lot of people lump these two Executive Function skills together and call them Self Regulation. Emotional Control is the ability to control your emotions in order to complete a goal or task. Someone who has this as a strength might be really good at not letting all the little day to day challenges derail them. They are also probably pretty good at managing their emotions, especially negative emotions, so they don’t overtake them. People who have this as a weakness might be described as someone who really feels their feelings or someone who has big feelings. In my learning about Emotional Control one thing I found really important is that people who have Emotional Control as a weakness are often able to keep control over their emotions in some places, like school or work, but at a cost. Keeping their emotions contained in one place may cause an emotional overflow when leaving that environment. For kids in particular Emotional Control can be a hard thing. I wrote yesterday about the movie “Turning Red” which was a great example on teaching kids to name and manage feelings, not try to get rid of them. For a lot of people who struggle with Emotional Control learning to name their feelings and then learning techniques that help them work through those feeling can be really helpful. The red orange line, 2nd row on the left in these portraits represents Emotional Control.

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43/100 Response Inhibition

So many of the Executive Functions overlap with each other, which is why I think different researchers or models have different numbers of them. The model I am using for this project has 12 which is really good for breaking Executive Function down into specific skills(and good for matching the color wheel.) The first Executive Function in each portrait is red which stands for Response Inhibition. Basically Response Inhibition is your brains ability to control your reflex responses, so essentially to “Think before you act.” Response Inhibition starts to develop in infancy but is often not fully developed until adulthood. Though it seems through a lot of my research this is the skill that is central to all Executive Functions development. Meaning that if you can’t control your impulses it effects your ability to plan, organize and manage in lots of other situations. Whether Response Inhibition is a strength or weakness for you, emotion plays a big part in someones ability to actually demonstrate Response Inhibition. We all@probably know that feeling when you are mad and say something you would never say otherwise. This is because your impulse control is overtaken by you emotions. Which is why Response Inhibition and Emotional control are so often lumped together. For people who have Response Inhibition as a weakness they may often say or do something before they have thought better of it. On the flip side if this is a high strength you might be the kind of person who needs to think through everything before acting. I chose red for this EF Skill because in my mind it had so much to do with emotions, especially anger and embarrassment both things I associate with the color red. Above (top left line under the pencil marks) are 4 different peoples Red-Response Inhibition lines. Also I just watched the movie “Turning Red” with my kids which is an awesome kid friendly way to explain Response Inhibition!!!

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42/100 it’s okay to be different and it’s okay to not be

I was in 2nd grade when I first learned that my brain works differently. I don’t remember what I made of that then but I know I spent many years trying to figure out how to work with my brain. I eventually became a teacher and have always been really vocal about my learning differences. As a result I have found that so many people over the years have talked to me about their own or their children’s brain differences. I love these conversations because as an adult, I now see the way my brain works as my strongest asset, so I am happy to talk about it. I know I didn’t always feel that way and I respect that some people feel really differently in learning that they or a loved one have a brain that works a little differently, whatever that actual diagnosis might be. This project is not necessarily about people whose brains work differently, it more about understanding how your brain functions and works with other people who’s brains may work the same or different then yours. I am grateful to all the people who have been willing to fill in the Executive Function self assessment and be part of this project with me. I don’t take it lightly and understand that talking about brain and learning differences can be really hard for a lot of people. One of my hopes for this project is just starting a conversation, putting this out here for myself and my own family but maybe it will also help others too. #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

41/100 Warm and Cool colors

There is some debate on exactly how many Executive Function skills there actually are, but for this project I went with 12, because that was the first book I had read used but also because that perfectly matched up with the number of colors in the color wheel. Inspired by my sons art class I broke the Executive Functions into emotional and logical. I made the emotional EF functions warm colors and the logical cool colors. After a little redo the first 12 Executive Function portraits are done and corrected!

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40/100 The Cycle

I also wonder if Executive Functions and Confidence can be a vicious cycle for lots of people? If you struggle with Executive Functions it is very easy to mess up without realizing. If your brain doesn’t care about time management or goal persistence it’s probably not aware that other peoples do, especially for younger kids. The consequence of this is walking around always worrying that you might mess up and not realize it till it’s too late. If you are always worried that you might mess up you are going to be far less confident in trying. I think people at this point go one of two ways, they either quietly mask in an attempt to cover up their weakness and worry (why a lot of women with Executive Function issues go unnoticed) or they act out in frustration. Either way causing their confidence to take a hit and repeat the cycle.

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