Posted on 08/06/2021
Did you know that your child's success at school - and beyond - is influenced by more than their academic prowess? No matter how much information we throw at them, if they lack key executive function skills, all the wonderful teaching they're given may not seem to matter. In case the term "executive function" is new to you, we'll be defining and analyzing the 11 key executive function skills in this series; after we've laid that ground work, we'll consider some simple ways to encourage growth in them and resources for continuing to learn about and develop them.
Definition of Executive Skills
Executive function skills, or executive skills, can be described as the "cognitive processes that help us to regulate our behavior, make decisions and set and achieve goals." In their book "Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary 'Executive Skills' Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential," Peg Dawson and Richard Guare include executive skill assessments - for both parents and their children. This set of skills includes important life skills that come into play both within a school setting and throughout other areas of life and includes skills such as task initiation, planning and organization, follow through, working memory, and self-regulation. Those who lack these kinds of skills can be classified as forgetful, easily distracted, or disorganized. They are often also easily flustered and can even become angry when routines are changed or expectations are not met. Often those who lack executive skills also act without considering consequences of their actions.
Categories of Executive Skills
Executive skills can generally be grouped under 11 specific categories. The first 5 include response inhibition, working memory, emotional control, flexibility, and sustained attention. The first one is response inhibition, which refers to a person's ability to weigh cause and effect and properly choose their behavior relating to a given situation. Working memory is another executive skill, and it relates to mentally holding information while performing tasks of various degrees of complexity. Emotional control has to do with regulating emotions and guiding behavior. Flexibility is the term used for the skill of revising plans in light of new information, setbacks, or various obstacles. Sustained attention refers to the ability to push past boredom, distraction, or fatigue in order to focus on a task or topic.
The next 6 skills are more advanced and include the following: planning and prioritizing, task initiation, time management, organization, metacognition, and goal-directed persistence. Planning and prioritizing requires making decisions about what's important and focusing on those tasks instead of less important ones. Task initiation refers to the timely beginning of a task; while time management is similar, it refers directly to the ability to assess the amount of time available. Organization relates to creating and maintaining systems for arranging and tracking both material items and information. Metacognition is a fancy word that refers to the ability to think about how you think, but in this context, it refers to self-awareness that promotes the ability to self-monitor while doing a task. Goal-directed persistence relates to the capacity to determine goals and follow through to achieve them.
Continue reading with Part 2.
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