Cover image by razelion on Pixabay
by Cindy Nebel
I am in full conference planning mode for the researchED St. Louis conference on September 26, 2026. I was sharing with some friends in special education that we have several talks they might be interested in, especially at the intersection of neurodiversity and executive functioning. So today, I’m reviewing several related resources that might be useful for others in this space.
Getting Started with Executive Functioning by Cambridge International Education
This article is a great primer for those who are unfamiliar with the research on executive functioning, including a glossary and related resources.
Executive Function Mapping Project by Stephanie Jones, Rebecca Bailey, Sophie Barnes, and Ann Partee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education
This paper was submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services to help disentangle the many different terms used to describe executive functioning in the literature. It’s helpful if you’re reading up on this topic and confused as to whether people are talking about the same thing.
A Guide to Executive Function by Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child
This is a digest within a digest. This site contains a wide variety of resources, including guides for helping students develop executive functioning skills but also adults who might be struggling (as we all do sometimes).
Teaching Executive Functions to All Students with Mitch Weathers and Jennifer Gonzalez of the Cult of Pedagogy
The Cult of Pedagogy is a fantastic podcast that also includes excellent summaries of each episode. In this episode, Jennifer interviews Mitch Weathers about a structured method for meeting students where they are with executive functioning to allow all students to be successful.
When Consistency is the Game Changer with Mitch Weathers and Emily Kircher-Morris of the Neurodiversity podcast.
This is where I started in my search for today’s digest materials. Emily and Mitch are both speaking at the conference I’m hosting and I had no idea about this collaboration! Emily is a leader in creating equitable environments for students with neurodiversity. Using Mitch’s framework and applying it directly to neurodiversity is, as the title says, a game changer.
