Intro to Assessment: Executive Functioning
What is Executive Functioning?
Executive Functioning (EF) refers to the brain functions we use to self-regulate, plan, focus our attention, remember instructions, and multitask successfully. Like the “air traffic control” system of our brain, our executive functions manage the “arrivals and departures” of tons of information and reactions. EF skills help us filter distractions, get started, set and achieve goals, prioritize tasks, and control our impulses. They also enable us to think about cause and effect, as well as make adjustments to our actions and reactions if needed.
We aren’t born with these skills, but we are born with the potential to build them (or not) depending on our experiences during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. It is paramount that children have enriching experiences to help these capabilities grow (or that supports are identified and freely given), because we rely on our executive functions for many aspects of our daily lives. Opportunities to build EF skills are one of the most important steps of childhood, and opportunities to try (and falter, and try again!) during adolescence are critical to healthy development.
Children and teens rely on their emerging EF skills to help them as they get ready for their day, learn to read and write, remember the steps to complete a math problem, take part in a group project, and make friends. Developing competence in EF skills helps young people plan and act in a way that makes them reliable friends, committed and curious students, and engaged citizens of the world.
If one does not have the opportunity to strengthen their capacity of EF skills, or if their development of these skills is impaired by a disability or neurodevelopmental condition, they may have a hard time with certain routine tasks of daily life. As such, studying, making and sustaining friendships, keeping a job, managing a home, or withstanding a crisis can pose big challenges without supports in place.
There are types of brain functions needed for executive functioning and self-regulation: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. These functions are highly interrelated, and the successful application of EF skills in daily life requires them to operate in coordination with each other.
Working memory governs our ability to retain and manipulate distinct pieces of information over short periods of time.
Mental flexibility helps us to sustain or shift attention in response to different demands or to apply different rules in different settings.
Self-control enables us to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses.
Common Misconceptions about EF Skills
There are a ton of misconceptions about what to expect regarding a young person’s developing EF skills. Despite the fact that we, as adults, are often capable of giving kids a lot of grace and support as they learn how to be humans, it is easy to forget that the capacity for self control, planning, filtering distractions, adjusting to new demands, or coping with complex emotions is not something that develops automatically with maturity over time.
Misconception: “My child will outgrow this difficulty on their own, they just need to get a little bit older.”
Learning to control impulses, focus, and remember information does not happen automatically as we grow up. Young people who have difficulties in these areas will not necessarily “outgrow” them, and as such, they should not be ignored. By 12 months of age, a child’s experiences begin to lay the foundation for the ongoing development of EF skills. These early abilities to focus attention, control impulses, and hold information “on-line” in working memory appear to be easily impaired by highly adverse early experiences or biological conditions (ex. ADHD, trauma, Autism, traumatic brain injury, and more). Evidence also shows that early intervention aimed at improving these capacities before a child enters school can enhance positive outcomes.
Misconception: “Kids who can’t sit still in class are being intentionally defiant or attention-seeking!”
Children who do not stay on task, lose control of their emotions, or are easily distracted are not “bad kids” who are being intentionally uncooperative and belligerent! Young children with compromised or delayed EF skills can struggle with very challenging behaviors in school and at home. In most circumstances, these difficulties come from impairments in the development of the prefrontal cortex of their brain, which houses EF skills. Efforts to help these children develop better EF skills, as well as accommodations and adjustments of the demands placed on them are much more helpful than punishment for difficult behavior. This is especially true if a child is experiencing EF difficulties linked to adverse or traumatic experiences, and a safe and predictable environment is necessary to establish a sense of security so change can occur.
Misconception: “Kids just need to learn their academic skills at school, they don’t need anything else.”
Contrary to the theory that guides some early education programs that focus solely on teaching letters and numbers, explicit teaching of EF skills has positive results on literacy and numeracy! Early evidence from research on fostering EF skills shows benefits to early literacy and math skills compared with children who experience only “traditional” classroom activities. This tells us that acquiring “traditional” academic skills depends on a child’s capacity to follow and remember classroom rules, cope with strong emotions, focus their attention, sit still, and learn on demand through listening and watching. Neuroscientists are also beginning to relate specific aspects of EF - specifically attention - to specific steps involved in learning to read and to work with numbers. Though this research is new, it is exciting to know that we may be able to enhance the development of EF skills in the classroom to support healthy development, school readiness, and academic and social-emotional success.
What do I do to help develop my child’s EF skills?
There are so many things you are likely already doing as a parent to support the development of your child’s EF skills. The Child Mind Institute offers some bite-sized insight into some strategies you may already be using!
There are a few critical factors that are essential for their development:
Relationships: We develop all our skills in relation to others. This starts at home and extends to caregivers, extended family, teachers, doctors, foster parents, peers, and other members of our community. Children are more likely to build EF skills if the important adults in their lives can:
Support their efforts
Model the skills
Engage in activities to practice those skills
Provide a consistent, trusting presence
Guide them from complete dependence to gradual independence on adults
Protect them from violence, chronic adversity, and chaos as much as possible
Activities: Communities and caregivers are responsible for providing and supporting experiences that promote cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. This is done by:
Reducing stress (addressing the sources of stress, helping kids learn to cope with unavoidable stress)
Fostering connection socially (open ended solo and collaborative/creative play, supported play with adults)
Encouraging physical activity
Increasing complexity of skills step-by-step (finding each child’s “zone” of capacity to be challenged without frustration)
Places: It is necessary that home and other environments where children spend most of their time:
Feel (and are) safe
Provide space for mistakes, creativity, exploration, and movement
Be stable (economically, socially) to reduce anxiety and stress that accompany uncertainty or fear
The Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University offers free to download PDFs on ways to develop EF skills based on age.
Remember, there are lifelong benefits of developing strong EF skills that don’t just count for academic success! In addition to increased school achievement, positive behaviors, good health, and successful transition into adulthood (including workplace and socially) are also impacted by strong EF.
Interested in learning more about your child’s EF skills and attention/concentration? Let’s chat about if a comprehensive evaluation may be right for you and your family!
Sources:
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2014). Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.
Barkley, Russell A., Murphy, Kevin R., Fischer, Mariellen (2008). ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says (pp 171–175). New York, Guilford Press.
Brown, Thomas E. (2005). Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults (pp 20–58). New Haven, CT, Yale University Press Health and Wellness.
Diamond A. (2013) Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(135-168). doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750.
