Executive functioning for college students: Beyond checklists and planners (with Jill Fahy)

What if young adults are still prompt-dependent when they go away to college? 

Or what if they and their parents aren’t aware of how much support they’re actually getting? 

On top of that, how can professionals navigate the complexity of supporting language and executive functioning (or knowing when to address which skills)? 

I invited Jill Fahy to episode 122 of the De Facto Leaders Podcast to answer some of these questions. 

Jill is a licensed speech-language pathologist and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Eastern Illinois University. She is also the co-director of the Autism Center and Director of the Students with Autism Transitional Education Program, where she develops and delivers transitional programming in social skills and executive functions for college students. 

When Jill and I decided to record this conversation, we both agreed that one interview is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this topic. 

At the very least, we wanted to take a stab at illustrating the complexity of designing effective supports for students in both language and executive functioning. 

We also shared our frustration with common professional-development models, and why it’s so hard to get to actionable step-by-step plans in a typical seminar on this topic. 

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅How can we tell if students need work on language or executive functioning? What if kids need support in both areas? 

✅Why many young adults struggle to turn in assignments and manage their schedules, even if they’ve been given tools like checklists and planners. 

✅Common executive functioning skills needed for independent problem-solving and goal-directed behavior; including ideational fluency and future thinking. 

✅How to consider someone’s executive functioning profile (and use this to help them and their family get an accurate picture of how much support they’re really getting).

You can connect with Jill via email at [email protected]. You can read her article, Assessment of Executive Functions in School-Aged Children: Challenges and Solutions for the SLP from ASHA Perspectives here. 

You can learn more about the Students Transitional Education Program at Eastern Illinois University here and the Autism Center here. 

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program for related service providers who want to take a leadership role in implementing executive functioning support. You can learn more about the program here. 

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