Cynthia Kim's Blog, page 8

Executive Function Summary

Some of you mentioned that it would be nice to have a concise summary of the key elements of executive function impairment to share with family members and others. So I made a thing! You’ll need javascript to view it. You can pause the slideshow by hovering your mouse over it and then clicking the […]

Autistic Motherhood: The Social Dimension

The first article in a 3-part series on motherhood is out today at Autism Women’s Network: Motherhood: Autistic Parenting I kicked off the series with the social aspects of motherhood because that was one of the biggest challenges for me and for many of the women who answered the survey questions. In the article, I […]

Executive Function Primer (Part 4)

This is part 4 in a series about executive function. After wrapping up the discussion of regulatory functions with some thoughts about Cognitive Flexibility, it talks a bit about some models of EF and how the various pieces fit together. Looking for the other parts?Part 1| Part 2| Part 3 —- Cognitive Flexibility Cognitive flexibility […]

Executive Function Primer (Part 3)

This is part 3 in a series about executive function. It looks at the regulation functions that are related to initiating, monitoring and inhibiting our actions and thoughts. Looking for the other parts? Part 1 | Part 2 ——- The second category of executive function components, regulation, includes cognitive flexibility and the initiation, monitoring and […]

Executive Function Primer (Part 2)

This part 2 in a series about executive function. It looks at the remainder of the organizational functions that were introduced in part 1: problem solving, verbal reasoning, working memory and attention. —– Problem Solving Problem solving is another umbrella term, encompassing the activities related to identifying and overcoming obstacles to reach a predefined goal. […]

Executive Function Primer (Part 1)

I’ve written a lot about executive function, but I realized recently that I don’t have a post that explains what EF is. I set to write one post and 4000 word later, I have a short series. This is part one. The three remaining parts will be posted over the next two weeks. So what […]

Scenes from Silent Monday (I)

Happy 2014! I hope you’re all staying warm.This is the first in an occasional series of reflection posts about Silent Monday. Intentional silence–silence by choice on Mondays–is forcing me to think hard about involuntary silence. It’s also raised the question of when do I need to speak and why? Passing someone on the street? That […]

Socializing: Reboot

I had jury duty recently. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the US jury service system, US citizens are periodically required to fulfill our civic duty by reporting to a local courthouse and making ourselves available to sit on a jury panel for a criminal or civil trial. The processes vary quite a […]

Autistic Regression and Fluid Adaptation

In my last post, I talked about my recent language difficulties and mentioned autistic regression. Sometimes called autistic burnout, autistic regression is a loss of skills or coping mechanisms. Regression can refer to a specific set of skills or abilities: progressively losing the ability to speak deteriorating executive function reduced memory capacity loss of self-care […]

Comorbid Conditions: Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis in Autistic Women

There’s a new article today at Autism Women’s Network:Autistic Women: Misdiagnosis and the Importance of Getting it Right The rate of being diagnosed with a co-occuring condition if you’re autistic is very high. In fact, I’m curious if there’s anyone here whose sole diagnosis is autism or Asperger’s. I have a comorbid diagnosis of an […]