Inside the Functional Individualized Therapy for Teenagers with Executive Deficits (FITTED): Insights from the Adolescents and Their Parents

Abstract

This study explores Functional Individualized Therapy for Teenagers with Executive Deficits (FITTED) factors facilitating adolescents’ improvement. At each of eight therapy sessions, 41 adolescents with executive function deficits and their parents wrote the primary concept they “took away.” Experts categorized their answers by the FITTED model’s main factors—goals, strengths, and strategies—adding child’s difficulties for the parents’ answers. Results describe answer frequencies by factor in each session. Across time, strengths and strategies dominated among adolescents, and strategies and difficulties among parents. Cognitive strategies are integral to the FITTED process for improving the daily functioning of adolescents with executive function deficits.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• executive function deficits
• parents
• strategy
• strengths

Acknowledgments

This article is based on my PhD research. I thank Prof. Naomi Josman and Prof. Sara Rosenblum for their professional and meaningful supervision throughout my PhD. Thanks to Dr. Sonya Meyer, who provided the second expertise and coded the responses of parents and adolescents who participated in the study.

Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declaration of Interest

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yael Fogel

Dr. Yael Fogel is a faculty member in the Dept. of Occupational Therapy, Ariel University, Israel, and head of the Laboratory for Promoting Daily Executive Functioning. Her research focuses on relationships between individuals’ daily functioning and higher-level cognitive processes (executive function and awareness) to understand and promote efficient, adaptive, and independent functioning in daily life. The lab emphasizes individuals with neurodevelopmental difficulties (attention, learning, motor difficulties, etc.) who experience daily difficulties and need wider support from their environment to cope with life’s extensive, changing demands.