Posted on 11/10/2021
In the past 3 posts in this series (see Parts 4, 5 & 6), we've defined 11 of the 12 core executive skills we all need to succeed in both our daily lives and our careers. As parents, we want our kids to acquire these foundational skills they will need for the future. What we can't control is whether they naturally have strong executive skills or which ones are stronger than others. However, we can impact how well our children understand the importance of these skills and how we help foster an environment that's conducive to their growth along with a growth mindset that encourages a can-do attitude about developing these skills. In this post, we'll take a peek at the twelfth and final executive skill and then discuss some talking points as you begin to work on these skills.
Executive Skill 12: Task Initiation
If you're a procrastinator, your task-initiation skills are probably lacking! A child who has good task-initiation skills will be able to begin a school assignment or other task as soon as instructions have been given. Middle school students will show aptitude in this area by not waiting until the night before a big test to start to study - or the day before a project is due to tell a parent about the resources needed in order to complete it.
Executive Skill Conflicts: Mismatched Strengths
When you and your child have similar strengths as one another, it can be difficult for you to help your child grow. When this is the case, it can feel like the areas where your child is weak are the ones that are "no-brainers" to you, so you don't even know how to help. Maybe you have a friend who is also weak in the skills in which your child needs to grow, and that person can share ways that they compensate for their weaknesses. (For instance, maybe they have terrible time management skills, so they constantly set alarms on their phone, to remind them when they need to do certain tasks. Or perhaps they make sure to post a visual to-do list where they can see it often, to make up for their poor prioritizing and planning skills.)
On the positive side, though, if you and your child have mismatched executive skill strengths, you may complement one another well, making you a great team in various tasks, such as cleaning out the basement or going back-to-school shopping.
Executive Skill Combinations: Constant Disasters
When you and your child, or any other member of your household, have the same executive skill weaknesses, disaster can easily result. Consider what would happen if no one was mindful of when the kids needed to be out the door to catch the bus or remembered to pick up what was needed for dinner or a special birthday celebration. If you're running into this kind of situation within your family, it can be helpful to talk about your shared areas of weakness and work on not blaming one another when everyone drops the ball. Instead, you can help each other as you all work on the weak areas and find various strategies to compensate for your weak, but growing, skills.
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