Student Engagement & Wellbeing News

The Development of Executive Function

Last time I spoke about executive functioning and gave an insight into my hectic mornings… well in the past mostly. Development takes time and consistency. As my Mother-In-Law used to tell me, “Don’t worry, they will grow.”

Acquiring the early building blocks of these skills is one of the most important and challenging tasks of these early years (for us and them!). Young children depend on their emerging executive function skills to help them as they learn to read and write, remember the steps in performing an arithmetic problem, take part in class discussions or group projects, and enter into and sustain play with other kids. Children will increase their skills throughout adolescence and adulthood. These are skills that everyone can work on to make life run smoother and feel easier. Students with strong executive function skills will be able to make better decisions and be more effective in a range of situations across their lifespan and are more likely to enjoy long-term physical and mental health (Zelazo et al., 2016).

Children’s executive function skills include their ability to focus and pay attention, remember instructions and demonstrate regulation of emotions. These skills are important aspects of participating in school and are correlated with social and academic success.

In last weeks edition, I gave you an overview of the different skills that make up Executive Functioning. This edition, I will go a little deeper into a couple of them.  Remember, we ALL have things that we are good at, and things that we need to work on. And that’s okay =)

Cognitive flexibility

This is the ability to pay attention and switch attention from one task to another. For example, children use cognitive flexibility when they focus on one activity, and in the early years room it may be building with blocks. At the next stage, children can transition to another task, such as putting the blocks away and joining their peers on the mat.

Working memory

Here the function is to mentally hold and process information. Young children use working memory when they have to recall and follow one or more directions. At home this might be remembering to take their shoes off before sitting up on the couch.

Inhibitory control

This is sometimes referred to as impulse control and is the brain's processing system that registers input, and reacts in line with the input. In young children this may be observed in turn-taking situations where sharing may be expected with a desirable toy; depending upon the demand and stressors associated, the child may be able to request this verbally or hold their hands out - at other times, it may be an emotional response observed through grabbing or crying if the toy is not relinquished in a timely manner.

For children, these three aspects of executive function work together and can be seen in many different ways, such as when a child has to listen and follow directions, ignore distractions and wait in line. 

It is not widely recognised, however, that these capacities do not automatically develop with maturity over time. Thus it is important for educators and caregivers to know that brain circuitry related to these kinds of skills follows an extended timeline that begins in early childhood and continues past adolescence and into adulthood and that it provides the common foundation on which early learning and social interactions are built.

Of course, some conditions and disabilities can also impact the development of executive function skills.

Click here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nwDSrVSuqUJtJby19dwwOXy2lDiOu-XW/view?usp=drive_link for more information on EF skill development by age.

Anna Gbikpi-Benissan

Assistant Principal