What Are Executive Function Skills for Children, and Why Do They Matter? Part 2

Posted on 08/09/2021

little girl dressed up as a superhero with her dog on the grass

From the overview of executive skills in Part 1, you're probably starting to see how important these skills will be for your children to succeed both in the classroom and in their future professions - and other areas of life! While the brain's frontal lobe won't be fully developed until they're in their mid-twenties, these skills can still be honed as well as accommodated, helping give our kids the crucial life skills they will need in the workforce and beyond. It's estimated that up to 70% of those entering the workforce lack basic skills tied to executive skills, so by helping our children establish these skills, we'll help them stand head-and-shoulders above their peers. Skills include collaboration, communication, planning and organizing, problem solving, and attention to details.

Seeing Connections

In case you still aren't seeing the direct connections between executive skills and the above-listed soft skills, consider how classroom and workplace success can be impacted by losing assignments or paperwork, lacking initiative to start a long-term project, or failing to remember to show up for a class or important meeting. (Such activities involve task initiation, organization, planning/prioritization, working memory, time management, sustained attention, and goal-directed perseverance.) Of course, when failure results, frustration is often the result, and that can easily spiral into all kinds of negative emotions, which are all the more dangerous when a person does not know how to persevere amid emotional turmoil. (Surviving such disappointments involves executive skills such as emotional control, response inhibition, metacognition, and stress tolerance.) From driving a motor vehicle to going out with friends, these kinds of skills impact virtually every corner of a person's life.

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Noticing Deficits

Now that you're getting familiar with the various executive functions and seeing how they correspond with real life activities, you can probably start to notice which ones your child needs help to establish. Maybe for a period of about a week or two you could create a check sheet to help you determine which executive skill or skills seem most in need of your attention. You can enlist the help of other trusted adults who spend time with your child on a regular basis and in various settings; such individuals may include your partner, other family members, babysitters, camp personnel, and teachers. You'll then want to talk to your child about these skills, so they have a framework from which to address them.

This is, of course, a means to an end: the next step is to start to address areas one at a time, starting with the area in which you notice the most problems - or the one with the most significant potential consequences in the near future. As you consider these areas, you may notice that although you're leap years beyond your child when it comes to executive skills, your weakest areas are the same. This is no surprise. So how can you help your child when you need help yourself? If you're asking that question, you're ready for Part 3.

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