And parents may prevent their children from misplacing their homework by teaching them to put notebooks in the same place each night. Parents and teachers may not always know if brain damage has occurred. A child may have fallen off a bike and hit his head, but the parents don't remember the injury as severe and don't realize that brain damage may have occurred. Therefore, it is sometimes hard to know whether a link exists between a child's executive-functioning irregularities and possible unreported brain injury. One study indicated that 185 children out of 100,000 need hospital care for a head injury.
Silver also conducts neuropsychological testing of certain children.
In one exercise, children are asked to sort cards without being told how. They are expected to recognize a pattern and group the cards accordingly. Difficulties with executive functioning may not be as obvious as other disabilities, such as memory loss, after brain injury. But children and adults eventually may run into difficulty in classes, on the job or in social settings because they are unable to regulate their reactions and control their anger or to organize tasks. Children with executive-functioning difficulties may have trouble in school when, for instance, they fail to allow enough time to get from one class to another.