In July of 2024, CAST (the organization that created Universal Design for Learning (UDL)) released a new version, 3.0, of the CAST UDL Guidelines and I was grateful to have been a part of a group of UDL practitioners, called the Guidelines Collaborative, who helped with the revamp of the UDL framework from 2020-2024. One of the biggest structural changes between the old version of the UDL Guidelines (2.2) (CAST, 2018) and the new version (CAST, 2024) was the shift from one guideline being dedicated to Executive Functions to an entire row dedicated to Executive Functions (EFs). This is a huge win for learners who have notoriously encountered challenges related to EFs, students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
As an ADHDer (i.e., a person with ADHD) myself, I’ve always been capable of learning at the same level as my non-ADHD peers, but the part that has always gotten in the way for me (the barrier, if you will) has been all of the other skills and behaviors that are part of learning: planning, time-management, organization, focus, motivation, setting a goal, regulating my emotions and frustration, and comprehension. Executive functions, my arch nemesis!
While there is no agreed-upon definition of executive functions, currently, the most accepted definition in academic circles is that of Miyake et al. (2000) which groups the many skills and processes related to EF into three foundational categories: (a) inhibition, (b) information updating and monitoring (working memory), and (c) shifting (2000). But, I prefer to use Brown’s model of EF (2005) because I appreciate how it explains EFs in a down-to-earth way (see below).
So, when the UDL framework expanded the footprint of EFs in the 3.0 version to an entire row, I immediately saw how impactful this change could be for ADHD students and the professors who teach them. The bottom row of the UDL framework now includes three guidelines that help instructors support students with executive functions. These guidelines are: (1) Emotional Capacity, (2) Building Knowledge, and (3) Strategy Development.
- The Emotional Capacity guideline (which was previously named Self Regulation) tells instructor how to support students with emotional regulation, motivation, inhibition, and metacognition.
- The Building Knowledge guideline (which was previously named Comprehension) shares evidence-based practices that support information processing and working memory.
- The Strategy Development guideline (which was previously named Executive Functions) tells instructors how to support students with goal-setting, planning, time-management, and organization.
If we use the UDL framework to proactively design instruction that supports students’ executive functioning, this can be a game-changer for our ADHD students! AND, as a bonus, many of the UDL-aligned teaching practices that we would put in place for our ADHD students would also help our non-ADHD students as well!
If you’d like to learn more about how the UDL framework supports ADHD students, join me for NCFDD’s July 2025 webinar entitled 10+ UDL-Aligned Strategies for Supporting Students with ADHD.
References
Brown, T.E. (2005). Attention deficit disorder: The unfocused mind in children and adults. Yale University Press.
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org
Miyake, A., Friedman, N.P., Emerson, M.J., Witzki, A.H., & Howerter, A. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex“frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49-100.