Understanding Executive Function (and How to Help Your Child)

Most people have heard the term “executive function,” but not everyone fully understands what it means. Don’t be embarrassed if you count yourself among the latter. It’s not a term that’s often used outside of educational or clinical settings. 

But as a parent, it may benefit you to understand a bit more about this set of mental skills—such as cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control. That’s because these skills are foundational for a child’s development and success—both academically and outside the school setting. 

What is executive functioning?

It helps to think of executive function as the “CEO” of the brain, helping us regulate emotions, manage tasks, and achieve our goals. 

While environmental factors—such as stress, inconsistent routines, poor diet, dehydration, and lack of sleep—can all negatively impact executive function, the inverse is also true. Improving a child’s sleep hygiene, maintaining routine, breaking down big tasks into smaller ones, consuming nutritious foods, and managing stress through coping skills can often help most children improve these vital brain skills.

It’s also worth noting that executive function challenges can sometimes be mistaken for ADHD or learning disabilities. But underperforming executive function skills refer to a spectrum of difficulties and are not a diagnosis in themselves. So while these skills are sometimes not as strong as they could be in people with ADHD or learning disabilities, underperforming executive function skills can impact anyone’s learning potential.

The importance of executive function

While there are many ways that strong executive function skills can help your child thrive, there are four that stand out during the school years. These include:

• Behavior and self-regulation: Strong executive function skills help children follow rules, develop self-control, and manage their behavior in different settings.

• Social and emotional development: Understanding social cues, thinking before acting, and building positive relationships by controlling impulses and managing emotions all rely on strong executive function skills.

• Learning and academics: In order to thrive in a school environment and make learning easier, children need executive function skills that help them plan and complete assignments, problem-solve, organize materials, and mental flexibility to shift between tasks. 

• Daily living skills: As toddlers grow into children and later, teens, these skills become more important to their success. These include things like getting ready for school in the morning with little to no help, managing the belongings they take out of the house, and making responsible decisions.

Signs your child may be struggling with executive function skills

So, just how would you know if your child isn’t living up to their full potential due to underperforming executive function skills? Short of a professional assessment to confirm, you can start by looking for some of the tell-tale signs. Here are few to watch for:

1. Difficulty starting or completing tasks. Procrastination and unfinished projects are often signs of poor planning and sequencing skills and difficulty with time management. There may also be issues of distractibility, impulse control, and a lack of accountability or structure.
2. Emotional outbursts. Children who frequently display frustration or impulsivity may not feel in control of their emotional responses.
3. Struggles with following multi-step directions. When working memory isn’t strong, a child may forget instructions quickly or be unable to hold that information in their mind while completing another task.
4. Resistance to change. Children who have difficulty to adapt to new routines or unexpected changes may have challenges with cognitive flexibility.
5. Trouble prioritizing. When children can’t determine which task needs to be done first, it may be a sign that their planning skills could use a boost.
6. Poor organization. A child who frequently loses their homework assignments, has a messy bedroom, or struggles to meet deadlines may need to improve their executive function skills to master organization.

Ways to boost your child’s executive function skills

While this collection of cognitive skills matures with age, early intervention can be beneficial. One solution that’s helped many children (as well as teens and adults) is cognitive skills training.

Also referred to as “personal brain training,” these programs are designed to target and strengthen the underlying mental processes involved in these crucial abilities. They often use mental exercises to challenge core executive functions, such as cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory in order to improve planning, organizing, prioritizing and adaptability. Best of all, when children feel competent and confident, they usually demonstrate fewer emotional outbursts, boosted self-esteem, and improved relationships with peers, teachers, and family members.*

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To learn more about cognitive testing or personalize brain training, schedule a FREE learning skills consultation with LearningRx Alpharetta where we can begin the journey of what’s going on in your child’s brain and how you can best support them!

*Results from surveys and studies of past clients. You or your loved ones may or may not achieve the same outcomes, but you can read more about our research & results here.