Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function

Send us a text200 episodes! The Full PreFrontal Podcast has reached a significant milestone, and what does that mean to us? We’re “in it for the long haul!” We find inspiration from Japanese artist, On Kawara, known for his work that illustrates the beauty, structure, and discipline in doing something over a long period of time with persistence and care. A milestone often not only marks the start of a new chapter, but also serves as a reward for past accomplishments, both big and small. Achievements are precious and timeless, and what better way to commemorate them than with precious guests. On today’s podcast, Sucheta celebrates this 200th episode with her two sons who flip the script by taking a look back at the podcast’s journey through time. Kunal Kamath is a graduate of Columbia University and an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company who lives and breathes executive function principles. In his spare time, Kunal loves the performing arts, crossword puzzles, and cultivating an indoor jungle of houseplants in his Brooklyn apartment. Rahil Kamath is also a graduate of Columbia University and is working toward his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University—he is a firm believer of the deep connection between executive function and psychological well-being. Rahil loves reading novels, is an avid soccer fan, and, much like his mom, enjoys nerding out on all things psychology.Sucheta would like to invite all listeners and followers of the podcast to join in on the celebrations as she continues to explore the mysteries of Executive Function while translating the art and science of self-regulated transformation for personal growth.About Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textDuring the 2007 season of America’s Next Top Model, contestant Heather Kuzmich introduced American viewers to her diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the  challenges that go along with it. Having to live in a house with twelve strangers while navigating the social politics of housemates who were also her competitors proved to be quite a bit of challenge for Kuzmich and yet she won viewers’ hearts and ended up in the top five. While this success story offers inspiration and hope to many; for those with ASD diagnosis, the struggle is real and they need help and support from not just experts, but from communities as well.On this episode, practicing clinical psychologist and co-author of two books “Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else” and “Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing”, Dr. Donna Henderson returns to discuss effective ways to manage the ASD condition as it poses many challenges including black-and-white thinking, rigid rule-following, obsessiveness, and perfectionism that can take a toll on one's quality of life.About Donna Henderson, Psy.D.Dr. Donna Henderson has been a clinical psychologist for over 30 years. She is passionate about identifying and supporting autistic individuals, particularly those who camouflage, and she is co-author (with Drs. Sarah Wayland and Jamell White) of two books: Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else and Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing. Dr. Henderson’s professional home is The Stixrud Group in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she provides neuropsychological evaluations for children, adolescents, and adults who would like to understand themselves better. She is a sought-after lecturer on the less obvious presentations of autism, autistic girls and women, PDA, and on parenting children with complex profiles. She also enjoys providing neurodiversity-affirmative training and consultation for other healthcare professionals.Website:http://drdonnahenderson.com/Book:Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else. Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing.About Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textIf a boy has an odd affect, you might think he’s autistic. But if a girl has an odd affect, you’ll think she’s a drama queen!…How does autism present itself? And what if it presents in a way you might not expect? The ordeal of connecting, communicating, and belonging to a neurotypical world while being neurodiverse is the same as navigating the right-handed world while being left-handed ~ it can cause angst and challenge. On this podcast, practicing clinical psychologist and co-author of two books “Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else” and “Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing”, Dr. Donna Henderson discusses effective ways of identifying and supporting autistic individuals, particularly those with subtle presentation who experience life-long effects which are much more than subtle.About Donna Henderson, Psy.D.Dr. Donna Henderson has been a clinical psychologist for over 30 years. She is passionate about identifying and supporting autistic individuals, particularly those who camouflage, and she is co-author (with Drs. Sarah Wayland and Jamell White) of two books: Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else and Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing. Dr. Henderson’s professional home is The Stixrud Group in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she provides neuropsychological evaluations for children, adolescents, and adults who would like to understand themselves better. She is a sought-after lecturer on the less obvious presentations of autism, autistic girls and women, PDA, and on parenting children with complex profiles. She also enjoys providing neurodiversity-affirmative training and consultation for other healthcare professionals.Website:http://drdonnahenderson.com/Book:Is This Autism? A guide for clinicians and everyone else. Is This Autism? A companion guide for diagnosing.About Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textThe process of educating children and growing as an educator in return requires everyone to acknowledge the bidirectionality that is inherent to teaching and learning. The context and culture that invests in both the academic growth of a child and also in the process that honors the input from its learning community brings itself into a new realm of possibilities. By carefully creating time and space to hear the voices of student stakeholders, educators discover meaningful ways to act upon them with clarity and care.On this episode, author, K-16 educator & administrator, motivational speaker, leadership expert and development coach, Dr. Mary Hemphill, discusses the framework of the One-Minute Meeting and the importance of an informative needs assessment that maximizes interactions with students to uncover their transformational potential. In an effort to build self-reliant children, we need to build relationships with children so that they approach their own challenges and roadblocks with courage and trust; and as their brains grow, so does their Executive Function skills.About Dr. Mary HemphillDr. Mary Hemphill is a Leadership Expert & Development Coach, K-16 Educator & Administrator, Author, & Motivational Speaker. With over 17 years of professional experience as a teacher, administrator, state director, & university professor, Mary understands the importance of fusing education, empowerment, & leadership together as she works with learning & working communities & speaks to audiences across the country. She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, & has led, coached, & impacted close to 40,000 educational and corporate leaders around the world on transformational & innovative strategy, self-empowerment, & leadership development. Mary is the proud CEO & Founder of The Limitless Lady LLC ™, an organization that helps people ignite the leader in themselves so they can better serve their community, company, and personal career through coaching, consulting, workshops, and keynotes aimed at corporate and educational leaders and organizations.Mary is the author of The One-Minute Meeting: Creating Student Stakeholders in Schools, which teaches readers how to leverage a unique instructional practice called the One-Minute Meeting to authentically glean information from students. Developed to inspire school and district leaders to fully engage with and empower their students, The One-Minute Meeting is an exceptional resource for college & university courses in school leadership and administration. This text is also a valuable resource for in-service educators and administrators at K-12 institutions.Website:https://www.bealimitlessleader.com/Book:The One-Minute Meeting: Creating Student Stakeholders in SchoolsAbout Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textCulture in general plays an important role in human development and particularly childhood is shaped by culture. Not so long ago raising children was considered rather noisy, dirty, tedious and anything but pleasant. However, those living in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies that make up about 12% of the world’s population have perpetuated over-protective child-rearing practices and principals while ignoring the cultural wisdom of the rest of the world. With this rise in parental hyper-vigilance in creating independent children, there is a growing trend that parents are turning everything in the child's life into a learning/teaching opportunity, which is a likely source of learned helplessness and a predictable path to a failure to launch.On this episode, anthropologist, researcher, and author and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Utah State University, David Lancy, discusses the loss of autonomy and freedom in WEIRD societies and the relationship between how we raise children and the eventual likelihood of a failure to launch and the insecurity, anxiety, and breakdown in executive function. About David F LancyDavid Lancy has done extensive cross-cultural fieldwork with children as the focus. His most important work, just published in a third edition, is The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. That scholarly book was paired by a popular version in 2017, entitled Raising Children: Surprising Insights From Other Cultures. In total, Lancy has authored nine books and edited three. A new work on pedagogy in culture is in progress. Publishers have included Academic Press, Cambridge, Longman, Praeger and Oxford. He has also authored over eighty articles and book chapters.Website:https://www.davidlancy.org/Books:The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattels, ChangelingsRaising Children: Surprising Insights from Other CulturesAbout Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textCulture encourages girls and women to exhibit both traditional “feminine” qualities, such as being empathic, good with relationships, nice, obedient, good mothers, and home-organizers, as well as traditional “masculine” qualities, such as being assertive, competitive, academically driven, and career-focused. However, when girls display disruptive, hyperactive, impulsive, or disorganized behavior, they are at risk of harsher social judgment compared to their male counterparts because they violate the feminine societal norms. For starters, ADHD and resulting Executive Dysfunction in girls and women can turn their lives upside down and in an attempt to avoid social sanctions, many of them spend excessive amounts of energy trying to hide their challenges, which in turn go unnoticed and hence untreated. On this episode, psychotherapist, consultant and author, Sari Solden, discusses why girls and women with ADHD get diagnosed much later than a typical child with ADHD and how best to help alleviate their personal shame and struggles with the unrelenting societal pressure of needing to “prove it to the world” that they are worthy to be given opportunities. An essential component of improving Executive Function skills is building self-knowledge and constructing a personal narrative of a wholesome self that recognizes the common humanity in all of our experiences. Instead of framing self-work or self-change as “fixing something that is broken”, the best therapeutic way to empower girls and women with ADHD is to help them invest in their own future-self.About Sari Solden, MSSari Solden, M.S, is a psychotherapist who has counseled adults with ADHD for over 30 years. She is the author of the books, Women with Attention Deficit Disorder, Journeys Through ADDulthood, and co-author of A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD. Her areas of specialization include women's issues, inattentive ADHD, and the emotional consequences and healing process for adults who grew up with undiagnosed ADHD. She is a prominent keynote speaker on these subjects nationally and internationally. Ms. Solden currently consults with neurodiverse women mental health and helping professionals, as well as trains therapists in how to help women with ADHD. She serves on the professional advisory board of ADDA and was the recipient of their award for outstanding service by a helping professional.You can contact Sari at Sari@SariSolden.comWebsite:https://www.sarisolden.comhttps://www.adhdradicalguide.comBooks:Women with Attention Deficit DisorderJourneys Though ADDulthoodA Radical Guide for Women with ADHDAbout Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textWhy is it that our resolve to lose weight, give up eating desserts, and start a new exercise regimen is bound to fail? Because we all have bought into to the conventional wisdom that follow-through with a new decision is simply a matter of conscious choice and decision and ultimately this belief ends up leading us astray. Even though it’s a common human experience to want to overcome ill-desired habits and change our ways, simply chanting the mantra of the “Just Do it” or reading self-help books will not make it easy to get rid of our bad habits or make us better people.On this episode, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California and author of the book, Good Habits, Bad Habits, Wendy Wood, discusses how the psychological sciences of habit-making, habit-breaking, and habit-reshaping relies on the interplay of decisions and unconscious factors. She highlights that to make the changes we seek, we must first unlock our habitual mind. Since Executive Function skills pertain to forming goals and persisting through time to achieve them, the success of Executive Function training lies in discovering how to tolerate the drudgery of sticking to things over and over again.About Wendy WoodWendy Wood is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California and author of the book, Good Habits, Bad Habits. For the past 30 years, she has studied the nature of habits and why they are so difficult to break. Her award-winning research has appeared in over 100 scientific articles and is regularly featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. She has consulted on habit formation and change with P&G's consumer products division, the CDC's diabetes prevention programs, the World Bank's initiative to increase hand-washing in developing nations, and the US Paper & Packaging Board's recycling program.Websites:https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendywoodhttp://goodhabitsbadhabits.org/ About Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textResearch shows that young children with stronger Executive Function skills present themselves far differently than their peers and their behaviors and actions stand out a bit more. These children are more involved in their preschool classrooms, they interact more freely with their learning environment, and it’s less likely that they get put into “time out”. From there on, these students’ journeys puts them on the fast track to develop greater independence and self-sufficiently because they exhibit skills that allow them to maximize the learning opportunities in activities that are the building blocks of formal education.On this episode, Assistant Researcher at the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Laura Rhinehart, discusses the nature of Executive Function and early development and ways in which children with ADHD or dyslexia differ in their reading, literacy, and executive functioning skills.About Laura Rhinehart, Ph.D.Dr. Laura Rhinehart is an Assistant Researcher at the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She received her M.Ed. and Ph.D. from UCLA’s Department of Education. Her current research focuses on dyslexia, early literacy assessment and reading interventions, and children’s executive functioning skills. Dr. Rhinehart’s articles have been published in peer-reviewed publications, including The Reading League Journal and the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.About Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textRaising children, which was always hard, has become harder; not because of the work that goes into changing diapers, preparing meals, taking kids to soccer or piano, or all the laundry that one has to do; but because not everyone is good with children. On top of that, in modern times and in modern living, parents’ abilities to control what children have access to has fundamentally changed, requiring parents to deal with difficult information and ongoing conflict in motives between what the parents think is appropriate versus what children desire. All this amplifies the ongoing tension and erodes relationships between contemporary parents and their teens while the complex world never ceases to be complex.On this episode, ADHD and parent-teen relationships expert, author, and clinical psychologist, Dr. Arthur Robin, discusses how to build better communication, problem solving, and realistic thinking in interpersonal relationships. A key ingredient to Executive Function development and mastery is effective interpersonal communication and self-initiated problems solving and hence, parents play a vital role in facilitating that for their children.About Arthur L. Robin, Ph.D.Since receiving a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in New York in 1975, Dr. Arthur Robin’s 47 year career has included clinical practice, teaching, 37 years as a pediatric psychologist at Children’s of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine, research, and writing.  Specializing in parent-teen relationships, ADHD in adolescents and adults, and eating disorders in adolescents, he has authored/ coauthored five book and many chapters and journal articles and spoken often throughout the United States and elsewhere on these topics.  Common across all of his books is Dr. Robin’s emphasis on building better communication, problem solving, and realistic thinking in interpersonal relationships.  A licensed psychologist in Michigan, at present Dr. Robin maintains a small clinical practice evaluating and treating adolescents and adults with ADHD and related disorders at Dennis, Moye, Branstetter and Associates in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.Books:Negotiating Parent-Adolescent Conflict: A behavioral family systems approachADHD in Adolescents: Diagnosis and TreatmentDefiant Teens: A Clinician’s Manual for Assessment and Family InterventionYour Defiant Teen (2nd Ed)Adult ADHD-Focused Couple TherapyAbout Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show

Send us a textThere is no impulse more natural than the desire to protect ourselves and our loved ones from pain. When we experience social-emotional pain, we activate the same instincts as a mama bear who jumps to protect her cub as an effort to dial down emotions of distress. An unhealthy emotional pain management can lead to actively taking steps to inflict pain on others through the acts of withholding affection, interactions, or reciprocity. The “silent treatment” or social exclusion is one such powerful tool that delivers insurmountable distress to others providing individuals with only temporary relief.On this podcast, a pioneer and world-leading expert on social and psychological dynamics of ostracism, author, and a distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, Kipling Williams, discusses how the silent treatment can damage relationships, sometimes irreparably and provides effective and meaningful ways we can manage our own disappointments, let-downs, or hurt by engaging personal growth and emotional agility.About Kipling WilliamsKipling Williams is Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. He earned his B.S. from the University of Washington—Seattle (1975) and his PhD at The Ohio State University (1981). Prior to coming to Purdue, Williams was on faculties at Macquarie University and University of New South Wales (both in Sydney, Australia), University of Toledo (Ohio), and Drake University (Iowa). He is a pioneer and world-leading expert on social and psychological dynamics of ostracism. As well as his authored book, Ostracism: The Power of Silence, he has edited ten books, including The Social Outcast, and the soon-to-be published Frontier Handbook on Ostracism, Social Exclusion, and Rejection. He has been an associate editor of Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, & Practice, as well as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. He was the editor of Social Influence from 2010-2019.His research interests include ostracism, social influence, and motivation in groups. He has published over 180 articles and chapters, with articles in Science, Scientific American-MIND, Psychological Science, and other top journals in the field of social psychology. In 2012, he was a Lorentz Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies. He was a co-winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Socio-Psychological (AAAS), and Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences Research Achievement Award. He is past president of the Society for Australasian Social Psychologists and the Midwestern Psychological Association.Website: http://williams.socialpsychology.orgBook:Ostracism: The Power of SilenceAbout Host, Sucheta KamathSucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.Support the show