Embracing Hope Book

Role:

• • Helps with task-switching and adjusting to new information
  • Regulates internal error detection and correction

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Struggling to shift focus, getting stuck on routines, repeating mistakes

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Helps regulate automatic behaviors and movement patterns
  • Supports switching between motor tasks and cognitive tasks

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Repeating words or actions, struggling to “break” habits, difficulty with new routines

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD

Role:

• • Helps regulate behavioral flexibility and social appropriateness
  • Adjusts responses based on context and past experiences

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Repetitive social missteps, getting fixated on past mistakes, difficulty adapting to new information

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Helps regulate behavioral flexibility and social appropriateness
  • Adjusts responses based on context and past experiences

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Repetitive social missteps, getting fixated on past mistakes, difficulty adapting to new information

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Regulates emotional intensity in perseverative thoughts
  • Helps with emotional transitions and learning from past experiences

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Emotional perseveration (repeating anxious thoughts, dwelling on fears, re-experiencing trauma-related distress)

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Stores past experiences to guide new learning and problem-solving
  • Helps differentiate between past and present concerns

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Repeating questions, reliving past negative experiences, struggling to integrate new learning

Most Impacted in: FASD, Trauma, ASD

Role:

• • Helps regulate awareness of internal emotions and body sensations
  • Supports recognition of changes in the environment

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Getting fixated on sensory experiences, repeating self-soothing behaviors, struggling to recognize internal stress signals

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Helps organize and manage intrusive thoughts
  • Supports stopping unwanted or repetitive thinking patterns

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Intrusive thoughts, repetitive concerns, trouble letting go of an idea or worry

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Supports attention control and shifting between cognitive tasks
  • Helps understand and adjust to changes in surroundings

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Difficulty shifting attention, hyper-focusing on one topic, struggling to transition between activities

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD

Role:

• • Regulates timing of movements and thoughts
  • Helps maintain rhythmic transitions between tasks

Common Challenges
When Underdeveloped: Getting “stuck” in repetitive motion patterns, difficulty pacing actions or thoughts

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Governs speech production and verbal expression
  • Helps regulate rhythm, fluency, and appropriateness of speech

Common Challenges
When Dysregulated: Verbal perseveration (repeating phrases, echolalia, difficulty stopping speech loops)

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Responsible for understanding spoken language
  • Helps process meaning, context, and nuance in speech

Common Challenges
When Dysregulated: Misinterpretation of conversations, repeating misunderstood phrases, difficulty shifting topics appropriately

Most Impacted in: ASD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Processes sensory input from the environment (touch, sound, sight, etc.)
  • Helps filter and integrate sensory information to guide appropriate responses

Common Challenges
When Dysregulated: Getting “stuck” on sensory input (e.g., repetitive touching, fixating on a sound, visual perseveration like staring at lights)

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD

Role:

• • Acts as a relay station for sensory and motor signals
  • Regulates attention, focus, and cognitive switching between tasks

Common Challenges
When Dysregulated: Difficulty shifting attention from one task to another, sensory hyper-fixation, trouble disengaging from thoughts

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD, Trauma

Role:

• • Controls eye movements that support attention shifting
  • Helps track changes in the environment and shift focus between tasks

Common Challenges
When Dysregulated: Fixation on objects or scenes, difficulty shifting visual attention, repetitive eye movements or staring behaviors

Most Impacted in: ASD, ADHD, FASD