Building Executive Function Skills in the Home

More and more parents hear about executive function skills and how important they are to learning. The term executive function (EF) refers to specific brain processes that all us to focus, encode learning, and problem solve.  Executive function skills promote the ability to do the things listed in the diagram – and more. As you can well imagine, these skills are vital to learning.

Play is how children practice EF skills so they can perform them later.  These are not skills that are easily taught in activities or lessons. They are skills the brain is already programmed to learn – as long as the child spends time in healthy, useful activities.

The education world has known about EF skills for some time, but the term has just begun to wind its way down to schools and classrooms in the last few years. Poor EF skills are not a learning disability. However, poor use of these skills will make other learning disabilities much worse. They are just as important for a child not diagnosed with a disability to allow them to learn at their potential.

Whenever we hear something new about learning it is common to look for a program or a complicated process to help us teach it. But, developing EF skills is pretty straightforward. . Here are four that can easily fit into any family schedule:

Reduce screen time

Screen time takes away from the time children could be spending developing EF skills with other activities such as play and conversation. Research tells us to keep screen time to a minimum. Even education games take away from EF skill development.

Send them out to play

Any kind of non-screen play, the more active, the better, offers children plenty of time to practice the EF skills that will be strong and ready when they need them for school learning. Children who have weak problem-solving skills, working memory problems, or difficulties staying focused will all be helped by healthy doses of play.

Talk with them and read to them

Strong language skills are the foundation for any learning. When you talk with your children and read to them, you are building EF skills that will help them learn. This is one reason why families that have technology-free meals together produce better learners.

Hold them accountable for tasks

When children have jobs to do, they practice EF skills. When you give them feedback on how they are doing they practice EF skills in a way they will use them in school.  

Playing for Brain Power

Credit: Gareth Wild via storyful.com

The clip above is of a toddler methodically disposing of important family items by shoving them through the pet door. While I am sure the family is happy to have solved the mystery of the disappearing TV remotes, this toddler’s fascination with the pet doors is its own mystery.

This lovely young scientist is conducting a series of experiments that not only inform her brain about three dimensional shapes fitting through holes, but also help to develop her thinking skills for future learning.

This is what play is all about. Play not only helps a child to understand the world, it also develops executive function skills that are necessary for problem solving. In this clip the toddler is practicing focused attention, she is remembering which sizes fit and which do not, called divided attention, and she is working on something called cognitive flexibility.

The PBS show NOVA: Bird Brains reported that scientists in one experiment found birds left to play with shapes and containers developed flexible thinking that allowed them to solve complex puzzles for peanuts. The birds that had not been allowed to play typically gave up on the puzzles and abandon the peanut reward. Here is a clip from that show:

PBS NOVA Bird Brain

The lesson for us as parents is to remember that God designed the brains of children to grow and learn while they are moving, playing and experiencing their world. We want to be careful to not stop this process. Children need to be up and about, inside or outside, playing, exploring, and practicing trial and error. If we stop them because we want to “teach” them a skill, keep them quiet with a screen, keep the house perfectly clean, or keep them a bit too safe, we will interrupt that process.

Children need to play. It is the single best thing for brain development, language development, and emotional development. It is also the best way to prepare your child for school or any other kind of learning.

So put away those screens. Send your children outside. Let them entertain themselves. They are developing brain skills.

Children: Play Outside!

Children need to play outside. It is a simple statement and one that is easy to dismiss. Read this article, written by an occupational therapist, to get a better understanding of why this kind of play is so important.

Children need to run, skip, and roll. They need to keep themselves upright on a merry-go-round, slide down a slide, and balance on a see-saw. They need to ride bikes, and play basketball, and go swimming, and climb trees.  All of these activities strengthen parts of the brain that help children to self-regulate their bodies. Playing outside is good for more than burning up energy!

Summer break is starting, soon. Begin making plans, now, for getting your children to play -- outside. It will improve their learning as well as their physical health. 

Parenting: Technology

As an early childhood teacher of many years and a student of cognitive psychology, this picture makes me more than a little nervous. It is not so much what the children are doing - technology is a part of our world and they are exploring and learning.

What bothers me is what they are NOT doing. They are not moving around, they are not breathing fresh air and integrating sensory information, they are not talking, they are not playing with each other. All of these activities are essential for healthy development and learning.

It is interesting to note that when Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, was asked how his children liked the iPad he responded: "They haven't used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home."

I am not one of those who believe that technology ruins brain development. I believe that technology encourages a different kind of development. 

I am not one of those who believe that technology stifles creativity. I believe technology can inspire as much creativity as crayons and paint - you just need to find apps that give the equivalent of a blank piece of paper instead of a coloring book page with lines. 

However, I do know that God's plan for how children learn has not changed because we have developed technology for even the youngest among us to use. Children still need to talk, to run around, to create things with found objects, to imagine they are someone else. They need to sing, shout, and argue. They need to make mistakes and get into trouble. They need to problem solve and learn to get past failure.

They need to play.

Technology is great, but don't let it replace childhood.