If you look at the criteria used to diagnose ADHD, inattentive type, you could understand why a child with EFD might be diagnosed as having ADHD. But it's important to know that EFD can cause learning disabilities (LD).

Is executive functioning a learning disability?

Trouble with executive function isn't a diagnosis or a learning disability. But it's common in people who learn and think differently. Everyone with ADHD has trouble with it.

Is EFD a mental illness?

It can be a symptom of another condition or result from an event such as a traumatic brain injury. Sometimes executive dysfunction is called executive function disorder (EFD). EFD is not clinically recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) used by mental health clinicians.