Executive function skills are the skills that help us plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Children aren’t born with these skills — they are born with the potential to develop them.
Helping young children to acquire self-regulation and executive function abilities stands them in good stead for the rest of their lives.
Working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control are the three brain functions most important for executive function and self-regulation.
As teachers and parents, we can help by
providing safe places,
being a consistent, reliable presence that young children can trust,
guiding children from dependence on adults to gradual independence,
fostering social connection and open-ended creative play,
encouraging vigorous physical exercise daily,
instilling daily routines,
increasing the complexity of activities gradually to ensure children are challenged but not frustrated,
providing opportunities to practice skills repeatedly,
demonstrating the skills and behaviours you are teaching, and
encouraging and supporting children’s efforts.
For more information, watch this teaching video from the Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efCq_vHUMqs
Source: Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. 2012. ‘InBrief: Executive Function.’
