Do you want to learn about Executive Functions and how they can help your child learn and develop?
This post will tell you about executive functions: inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility.
Your child needs them for self-control and self-regulation, as well as for planning, organising and completing tasks.
You will also read about the role of executive function skills in Autism and ADHD.
I will share with you 13 activities that are great for building, developing and strengthening executive function skills that you can do with your child to help them learn.
What are Executive Functions?
Executive functions are mental processes and skills that help us plan, organise, mentally play with ideas or learn.
Children are not born with executive functions, but they have the potential to develop them.
Developing them is pretty long and lasts until early adulthood (the mid-twenties).
It is when the prefrontal cortex (part of our brain) stops maturing and developing.
The prefrontal cortex plays a role in executive functions.
The principal executive functions are inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility, and I will explain them below.
Inhibitory control
Inhibitory control is one of the core Executive Functions.
It lets you control your attention, behaviour, thoughts and emotions so you can suppress and override temptation.
With the help of inhibitory control, you would do whatever is more appropriate or required.
Inhibitory control helps in being controlled by impulses, habits and stimuli.
It lets you choose how you react rather than do it automatically.
Thanks to inhibitory control, we can focus and pay attention to certain things, ignoring others.
It allows us to control our actions and thoughts or memories.
Self-control is part of inhibitory control.
It lets us manage our behaviour and emotions, resist temptations and not react impulsively.
Thanks to self-control, you can stay on task and have the discipline to complete it instead of moving on to something else.
You can ignore distractions and immediate rewards in favour of a larger goal that is not immediate.
It is called delayed gratification.
Working memory
This aspect of Executive functions is about holding information in mind and working with it.
It is crucial in making sense of anything happening over time.
You always need to hold something that happened earlier in mind to make sense of what comes next.
Working memory is essential in :
- Making sense of language- to understand a sentence or a story, you need to mentally recall and be aware of what happened earlier.
- Doing maths in your head
- Turning instructions or directions into action
- Adding new information to your thinking plans
- Analysing different information to see if they relate to each other
- Reasoning- working memory is needed to see connections, pull things apart and combine them in a new way
- Making decisions, considering past events and possible future outcomes
Cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility builds on inhibitory control and working memory and comes later in development.
Cognitive flexibility lets us understand and “see” how things would look if they were a different colour, size, proximity, flavour etc.
It lets us understand someone else’s point of view.
To do that, we must let go of our previous perspective (inhibit it) and load it into working memory.
Cognitive flexibility helps change how we think about something, think outside the box, or find new solutions.
Cognitive flexibility helps our creativity and task switching.
Why are the Executive Functions important?
Executive Functions help:
- with self-regulation- they will help in reacting to stimulating experiences
- with supporting learning and development
- let us focus and filter distractions
- adjust to changing demands
- set priorities
- change perspectives
- stay on task and complete it
- resist inappropriate impulses
- sustain attention
- set goals and make plans (and assess progress)
Executive functions and ADHD
Very often, if not always, children with ADHD will have some problems or delays in executive functions.
It is because the part of the brain responsible for them does not develop simultaneously as their peers.
It has to do with delayed myelination in the brain.
Myelin is a fatty substance that surrounds neurons (the brain cells).
It helps them transmit the information better from one to another. Problems with myelination may affect how the brain matures and, consequently, the development of executive function skills.
Executive function delays and issues cause the symptoms and behaviours associated with ADHD.
The child may find it hard to control themselves, be impulsive, and have difficulty staying on task and completing it.
Things like snatching toys, hitting, and getting upset quickly, are all associated with inhibitory control problems.
Also, due to these problems, children with ADHD might often lie.
A child with ADHD might have problems estimating how long an activity will take and organising resources for it.
Most ADHD symptoms are rooted in executive function disorder.
Executive Functions and Autism
Lots of children (and adults) with Autism struggle with executive functions.
They may find it challenging to manage time, start and complete a task or put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
It all has to do with executive function disorder.
Some research shows a relationship between Executive Functions and theory of mind.
Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others.
It is the understanding that other people think and feel differently from us. In autism, the theory of mind is impaired or delayed.
Also, autistic people, even those with minimal social difficulties, may find it tricky to respond to requests or initiate and organise play because of executive function problems.
Activities to develop and strengthen Executive Functions
Executive skills develop through children engaging in enjoyable activities involving social interactions.
Adults can help children develop these skills by assisting them with activities.
They may start by showing a child how something is done( called modelling) and then slowly stepping back and letting them do it on their own.
Below are 13 activities for your child that will help them build, develop and strengthen their executive function skills.
You might be surprised because you will know most, if not all, of them.
These activities are simple and fun, with very little or no resources you need.
Here are the 13 Executive Function strengthening activities:
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1. Role-play
It can be house chores (sweeping, dusting, picking up toys) or playing at shops or mum and dads.
Take turns with these activities with your child.
Imaginary play will help with working memory, self-control and selective attention.
To be able to play, your child must hold the activity in mind and be able to complete it without distractions.
They will also need to inhibit impulses to do something else instead.
2. Freeze dance/ Musical statues
These activities will exercise inhibitory control.
They will require a child to stop what they do and freeze.
3. Songs with movements and actions
Songs like “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” will let your child strengthen their working memory.
They need to hold the words in working memory while doing the singing and actions in the appropriate sequence.
4. Matching and sorting games
Your child will strengthen their cognitive flexibility when sorting and matching by different rules (sorting objects by colour, size, shape etc.)
When matching with opposites, your child must use their inhibitory control to resist the temptation to choose the object/ picture that matches.
5. Cooking
While waiting for instructions, your child will practice inhibitory control and working memory while holding directions in mind.
Measuring and counting will help with their focused attention.
6. Board games
Those involving some strategy will help with working memory because your child will have to make a plan and keep it in mind.
Coming up with a strategy will involve all three executive functions I mentioned: inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility.
Good games for this could be Checkers or Battleships.
7. Dodgeball
This activity will involve skills of constant monitoring, quick decision making, following rules and self-control, so it is excellent for practising executive function skills.
8. Simon Says
The child has to monitor which rule to apply and switch between actions.
It will involve their attention, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.
9. Clapping and repeating rhythms
This activity will help your child use their working memory (they need to remember the pattern of the claps), inhibition (they need to stop themselves from an impulse to clap something else) and cognitive flexibility.
10. Guessing games
Your child needs to use working memory to hold in mind previous responses and cognitive flexibility to explore different possible answers.
11. I spy
This game is excellent for using selective attention and focus.
The child needs to search for the correct type of object so they can strengthen their categorisation skills.
12. Dancing
It can develop attention, self-monitoring and working memory.
Your child will need to hold choreography in mind and, at the same time, coordinate their movements with music.
13. Playground games
Games like ” Green light, Red light”, “What time is it Mr Fox” or “Duck, Duck, Goose” will be great for practising attention skills and inhibition.
Children need to focus and pay attention to when to stop and go.
They will use their inhibitory control when having to stop suddenly when the game requires them to do so.
I hope you can see how easy it is to help your child develop executive function skills.
They will help them with self-regulation, learning, organising, planning and staying on task.
Let me know in the comments about any other Executive Function strengthening activities.
