Executive Function

So, what exactly is executive function?

Executive functioning skills are mental skills that allow us to manage every aspect of our lives! Attention, problem solving, flexible thinking, working memory, self-control, and even emotional control are executive functioning skills that allow us to manage day-to-day tasks, stay safe, and get things done. When executive functioning is a challenge, you’ll see trouble with planning, prioritization, organization, and staying on a task. Behavioral inhibition or emotional inhibition are part of executive functioning too. You’ll find many resources and tools related to all of these areas here.

EXPLORE Popular Topics

What do all these words mean?

Executive Functioning Skills guide everything we do. From making decisions, to staying on track with an activity, to planning and prioritizing a task. The ability to make a decision, plan it out, and act on it without being distracted is what allows us to accomplish the most mundane of tasks to the more complicated and multi-step actions. Children with executive functioning issues will suffer in a multitude of ways. Some kids have many deficits in EF and others fall behind in several or all areas. Everyone needs to develop and build executive functions as they grow. Functional adults may still be struggling with aspects of executive functioning skills. Executive dysfunction can interfere with independence and the ability to perform activities. The cognitive skills are an interconnected web of processing that allows for self-regulation, planning, organization, and memory.

Executive Functioning Skills

As a related resource, try these self-reflection activities for kids.

Executive Functioning Skills

On this page, you will find a resource for those who are working with children or adults on executive functioning skills, as well as a guide to promoting each of these skill areas through activities.
Executive functioning skills development begins at a very early age.

Here are strategies to help the adult with executive function disorder. Many of these tips and strategies are great for teens as well.

What are executive functioning Skills?

The following skills are cognitive processes that make up the general term of “executive functioning skills”. These skills are essential for learning, behavior, and development. All of these skills work together and impact other areas.

You might be interested in games to help improve executive function skills.

Another area of interest to you might be the impact executive functioning skills have on handwriting.

Executive Functioning Skill Names

We listed out the areas of executive functioning and have a brief explanation of each term. There is much more to learn about each of these areas. Click on the links to get more information on each skill area:

Types of Executive Functioning Skills:

Emotional Control–Estimating how long things take and using time wisely.

Task Initiation– Getting started on tasks without procrastination.

Task Completion– Following through with a task from start to finish, even when it becomes challenging.
Metacognition– Thinking about your thinking; self-reflection and strategy adjustment.

Working Memory– Holding information in mind to complete a task (like remembering directions).

Planning– The ability to set goals, create steps, and organize actions to complete a task.

Prioritizing– Deciding what’s most important to do first.

Processing Speed– How quickly the brain takes in information, makes sense of it, and responds.

Organization– Keeping track of materials, plans, and ideas.

Attention– Staying focused long enough to complete a goal.

Self-Monitoring– Recognizing when something isn’t working and making changes.

Impulse Control (Response inhibition)- Controlling impulses and pausing before acting.

Cognitive Flexibility– Adjusting to changes, new rules, or unexpected events.
Emotional control– Managing feelings in order to focus and problem-solve.

Foresight– Thinking ahead to predict outcomes and plan for what might happen next.

Hindsight– Reflecting on past experiences to learn from mistakes and make better choices.

Self-Talk– The ability to use inner speech to guide thinking, behavior, and emotional control.

Problem Solving– Identifying a challenge, generating possible solutions, and choosing the best way to resolve it.

Persistence– Sticking with tasks even when they’re difficult.

Shift– The ability to move smoothly from one task, thought, or activity to another without getting stuck.

That’s a lot of skills working at once! Many of these sub-areas of executive functioning skills work together with other skills. All of them are needed for learning and function. The thing that we can do as support for our kids as parents, educators, and therapy providers, is teach and model these skills. We can use modifications or tools to help with areas of weakness.

Another thing to remember is that the development of executive functioning isn’t complete until around age 30! So seeing challenges in these areas is normal until then.

Cognitive Flexibility

Attentional Flexibility (aka Flexible Thinking) refers to the ability to shift attention mid-task, thinking about things in a new or different way, adapting to changes, adjusting in problem solving, and incorporating new information into plans or ideas.

Attentional flexibility involves several areas of EF skills…working memory, attention, shift, praxis, metacognition, and more.

Try this quick mental flexibility task:

1. Copy a series of letters: rrrrrrhhhhhh.

2. Add these pairs of numbers: 4 and 2, 5 and 5, 7 and 3.

3. Now subtract the numbers.

4. Playing cards spread face up on the table: Turn over all of the even-numbered cards.

5. Now turn over all of the odd-numbered cards.

Check for smooth changes in tasks.
Tally number of errors.
Record number of verbal prompts (“Are you all done?”), physical prompts (pointing, etc.)

Executive function and handwriting

Did you know that executive functioning skills may play a part in letter reversals and other handwriting concerns? Executive function is a component of so much that we do, including handwriting!

Executive functions are heavily dependent on attention. Read about the attention and executive functioning skill connection and the impact of attention on each of the executive functioning skills that children require and use every day.

How to build executive function skills:

Click on the list above to find more information about each of the separate areas listed above. More activities, strategies, and tools to address executive function will be added.

Looking to build executive functioning skills? Follow our new Executive Functioning Toolbox Facebook Page for strategies, ideas, and tools to help build executive function.

https://www.theottoolbox.com/metacognitive-skills/

Tools to Grow Executive Functioning Skills

We have many resources and tools to grow executive functioning skills in functional tasks and learning. Explore the executive functioning blog posts below.

Some tools to support and grow executive functioning skills involve breaking down tasks into the components of executive functioning. By that I mean that you’ll want to focus on the specific executive functions that allow us to pay attention to instructions, plan out a task, and then recall how and why we are doing things, and then maintain the impulse control in order to sustain use of our existing skills in completing the task.

I love to provide students with specific tools to grow and nurture each of these executive functions.

We have resources and activities for the different executive functioning skills on different blog posts on this site, but one way to grow these areas is by focusing on one task and then developing tools for each aspect of that task.

For example, take on common struggle: writing down homework assignments and completing them when they are due, while managing the organization needed for the materials. You can try other tips for organizing a backpack that can help, too.

This is a common challenge for students with executive functioning that is below that of their peers. We know that executive functioning skills don’t fully develop until the early 30’s, so asking a teenager to utilize mature executive functioning skills requires tricks and practice. We can make it part of their routine rather than asking them to complete tasks on a whim with mature executive functioning.

Let’s look at the tools we can use to grow the skills needed for our homework example.

The student needs to write down their homework assignment during a busy classroom, possibly when there is a lot of other commotion going on. It seems like this is more of a challenge than it used to be because of the
deceives like tablets, laptops that students use now, versus the old-fashioned paper planners that they could quickly write on and then tuck into their backpacks. Now, jotting down an assignment means pulling up a notes app or opening another program on the device. It’s not as easy for students to quickly jot down page numbers for their math homework.

We see students that believe they can remember the homework or think they can write it down when they open their laptop in their next class, but that just doesn’t happen. The attention and the distraction of this
age means that the assignment is gone form their minds by the time they get that device opened back up again.

Tools to grow these skills include: using a post it note to quickly write down the assignment. This can support impulse control, attention, working memory, and organization skills.

Next, we have the home aspect. The student might not bring home all of the materials needed for the assignment. They might be left in the locker or lost somewhere along the way from school to home. We might see missing books, missing worksheets a forgotten device, or other materials that are missing or left at school. This involves organization skills, working memory, attention to detail, and impulse control.

Tools to grow this aspect might be using a check in before the student leaves school for the day. They might have a check in process in their locker in the way of a check list. You can practice this by assigning your student “homework” where they need to take home a piece of paper and bring it back to school the next day. Continue with this practice for a week so that they process of checking to make sure they have that slip of paper both in the morning and in the afternoon becomes part of the routine.

Be sure to check out all of our strategies to grow executive functioning skills by clicking through the blog posts on executive functioning skills…