Study Skills | Executive Function Strategies | Parenting Solutions
Executive Function
What is Executive Function?
The management system of the brain. The CEO. The conductor of an orchestra. The air traffic controller at an airport. The Big Cheese.
Executive skills refer to the cognitive processes required to effectively control and regulate other abilities and behaviors. These skills include metacognition, goal-directed persistence, flexible thinking, focus and sustained attention, response inhibition, working memory, planning and prioritizing, time management, organization, task initiation, and emotional regulation. Located primarily in the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain just behind the forehead), these skills begin to develop soon after birth, but neuroscientists are now realizing that it takes about 25-30 years for these skills to fully mature. And for kids with attention disorders, these skills tend to develop even more slowly. The MRI images reveal how slowly the frontal lobes of the brain mature (with the color purple representing full maturation).
(Peg Dawson, co-author Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits)
Executive Function
Executive Function Deficits
Trouble with executive function is not a diagnosis or a learning disability, but it is common in people who learn and think differently. Most people have trouble with at least one executive skill, however, those with ADHD may have trouble with many executive skills; as a matter of fact, executive dysfunction is known as the hallmark characteristic of ADHD.
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11 Sub-Skills of Executive Function
Below is a brief explanation of each executive function skill:
- Response Inhibition – self-control; to think before you act
- Working Memory – conscious thinking; to hold information in memory while completing a complex task or to draw on past learning and apply it to the current situation
- Emotional Regulation – the ability to manage emotions (not fly off the handle!)
- Sustained Attention – to focus or to pay attention to something despite fatigue or boredom
- Task Initiation – getting started; to begin a project without procrastination and in a timely fashion
- Planning and Prioritization – future thinking; to create a plan to reach a goal and make decisions about what is essential and delete the irrelevant information.
- Organization – to be able to keep track of information and materials
- Time Management – time awareness; to estimate how much time one has and stay within time limits and deadlines
- Goal-Directed Persistence – finishing things; to have a goal and follow through to the end and resist distractions along the way
- Flexibility – ability to go with the flow; to revise plans despite setbacks or obstacles or to adapt to changing situations.
- Metacognition – self-awareness; to think about your thinking and to be able to look at yourself and how you problem solve. To ask yourself: “How am I doing?” “What do I need to do differently?”
It is essential to keep in mind that children aren't born with these skills--they are born with the potential to develop them. They are natural, just like our ability to learn language. This is promising when it comes to helping struggling students or adults because these critical skills can be strengthened depending on how much they are practiced. Neuroplasticity, or the capacity for our brain cells to change in response to our behavior, can help us more thoughtfully engage in activities that will contribute to our well-being--no matter our age.
(Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2009). Smart but scattered: The revolutionary “executive skills” approach to helping kids reach their potential. New York: Guilford Press.)
