Executive Function Skills Assessment Tool (EFSAT)

What is the EFSAT?

The Executive Function Skills Assessment Tool (EFSAT) is a criterion-referenced, skills-based assessment that helps practitioners examine executive function through observable behavior and performance in everyday situations.

Rather than relying on broad descriptions of executive functioning, the EFSAT helps identify what an individual can do now, which skills are beginning to emerge, and where additional teaching or support may be beneficial.

Who is the EFSAT designed for?

The EFSAT is designed for individuals whose executive function skills fall broadly within a developmental range of approximately 7 to 11 years, regardless of their chronological age, diagnosis, or whether a diagnosis is present.

It may be appropriate for a wide range of learners when the assessment matches the individual’s developmental level and needs.

What does the EFSAT assess?

The EFSAT includes 81 items across 13 executive function domains:

• Organization
• Planning and Time Management
• Initiation
• Working Memory
• Attending to Others
• Attending to the Environment
• Self-Advocacy
• Problem-Solving: Social Conflict
• Problem-Solving: Environmental Barriers
• Flexibility
• Emotional Regulation
• Self-Management
• Inhibition
  

How does the EFSAT define executive function skills?

The EFSAT introduces new, comprehensive operational definitions for each of its 13 executive function domains. These definitions translate broad and sometimes abstract concepts into specific, observable, and assessable skills. This provides practitioners with a shared framework for understanding each domain, evaluating performance consistently, and connecting assessment results to meaningful goals and intervention strategies.

What kinds of challenges can the EFSAT help practitioners understand?

Many clinicians and educators work with children who are bright, funny, and highly capable but have persistent difficulty making friends, cooperating with adults, managing their time, completing routines, or independently doing things they appear to know how to do.

The EFSAT can help practitioners explore an important question: What can we teach an individual who appears to know what to do and wants to do it, but has difficulty doing it independently, consistently, or when circumstances change?

How is the assessment completed?

The EFSAT guides practitioners in bringing together information from multiple sources, including:

• Direct assessment
• Observation
• Options for parent, child, and teacher input
• Relevant record

Considering these sources together helps create a more complete picture of how an individual applies executive function skills across people, settings, and everyday activities.

How can the results be used?

EFSAT results can help practitioners:

• Identify existing strengths and emerging skills
• Determine individualized intervention priorities
• Develop meaningful and measurable goals
• Select appropriate teaching strategies and supports
• Create progress-monitoring plans
• Support greater independence across everyday contexts

Why take a skills-based approach to executive function?

Successful goal-directed behavior rarely depends on a single skill. It requires an individual to organize information, begin an activity, remember what they need to do, monitor their progress, respond to changes, solve problems, regulate their behavior, and advocate for what they need.

By examining these interconnected skills through observable performance, the EFSAT provides a practical path from assessment to action—helping professionals understand what an individual can do now, what they may be ready to learn next, and how to support continued growth toward greater independence and personally meaningful goals.

Regina Symons, PhD, BCBA-D, is a behavior analyst, educator, and researcher with extensive experience supporting students and school teams in public education. Her work focuses on executive functioning, skill development, and the practical application of behavior analysis to everyday challenges affecting independence and participation. She has developed professional training, assessment resources, and school-based systems for behavior analysts and educators, and her research has examined executive functioning from behavioral and developmental perspectives. Regina is a co-developer of the Executive Function Skills Assessment Tool (EFSAT). Her work reflects a particular interest in translating complex concepts into observable, teachable skills that help individuals make meaningful progress toward their goals. 

Candice Colón, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA, is a behavior analyst and researcher with extensive experience in clinical practice, professional development, applied research, and college teaching. Her research focuses on executive functioning skills, assessing and treating interfering behavior, health-related skills, procedural integrity, and developing practical, socially valid interventions that can be implemented effectively across settings. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, and she presents at local and international conferences.  She is also a co-developer of the Executive Function Skills Assessment Tool (EFSAT).  Dr. Colón also contributes to the advancement of behavior analysis through service on professional and licensure boards in Massachusetts.

Hilary Kingery, M.Ed., BCBA is a behavior analyst, educator and MSW candidate with a professional career spanning schools, homes, foster care, juvenile justice, and integrated behavioral health settings.  Her work as a behavior analyst in the public school system focused on students with developmental, emotional,and behavioral disabilities. She worked within broad teams to support students in accessing the least restrictive environment by addressing barriers and teaching needed academic, social emotional, and executive functioning skills.  This experience working with a broad range of students with executive functioning differences helped her to co-develop the Executive Function Skills Assessment Tool (EFSAT).  Currently, she provides mental health services under supervision to adults, children, families, and couples experiencing anxiety, OCD, depression, relationship stress, and difficulty with life transitions.  She continues her interest in expanding the ethical practice of behavior analysis by providing BCBA supervision and exploring further ways to support parents and caregivers with a broader spectrum of behavior analytic support.