Maturity plays an important role in EF development. Dr. Lorie Humphrey, a clinical EF neuropsychologist and research associate at UCLA, reports that improvement occurs naturally, with normal development during adolescence and early adulthood. Consider the ability of a normal 10-year-old versus a normal 25-year-old to sit through an hour-long lecture or to write a Master’s thesis. The 25-year-old has the capacity to do these high-level, attention-requiring tasks because of his more fully-developed frontal lobes.
This development starts in earnest during puberty and lasts into the late 20’s. Additionally, Dr. J. Giedd, a neuroscientist with the National Institute of Mental Health, reports that the cerebellum keeps developing well into adolescence. This fact means that adolescents can improve their skills as they mature.
But for some students, maturity alone may not be enough to provide them with the level of EF needed to plan, organize, and manage their studies. For them, EF cam best be stimulated through specific training in organizational, problem-solving, and reasoning skills and strategies.
Dr. Humphrey says that for many students with ADHD, development alone will not close the gap. Individuals with ADHD show improvement with maturity, but their EF remains less-developed than that of their peers. So even though ADHD patients may perform much better relative to their younger selves, their abilities lag when compared to those of others the same age. EF can be increased, through the combined treatment of medication (for ADHD students) and behavioral strategies (e.g., teaching organizational skills). The greatest improvement for the person with ADHD comes with combined maturation, medication, and training.