Executive Function: A Key Set of Skills for Your Child

By Ross Middleton

Many parents and teachers of talented, intelligent students know the challenge of a child who demonstrates outstanding abilities, but regularly forgets to turn in homework, or struggles with focus and time management. Though these behaviors can be caused by any number of factors—including boredom and stress—they may be signs of a child experiencing difficulties in the area of executive functioning.

The Rush NeuroBehavioral Center identifies executive functions as “cognitive processes that allow people to plan, organize, make decisions, pay attention, and regulate behavior.” The center’s Director of Education Services, Georgia Bozeday, and Michael Smith—an Education Specialist, Executive Function Tutor, and a previous CTD parent seminar speaker —suggest observing students as they engage with their areas of interest when considering executive functioning assistance. “You might have a student who is a math wiz and really enjoys his or her math class but still loses the homework or forgets to turn it in during class,” Bozeday and Smith explain in an interview with CTD’s blog. “If this is the case, that student could definitely benefit from some executive function coaching.”

Whether a math whiz or a gifted artist, high ability students may demonstrate executive function challenges when they seem unable to focus. Bozeday and Smith explain that if these students “struggle with executive functions, especially the executive function skill of self-regulation, they may find themselves frequently starting tasks and then switching to another task as soon as a new idea, thought pops into their head.” However, Bozeday and Smith note that tunnel vision can be a sign of executive function challenges, too, and the “fixation on a single task can also result in less than stellar results in other subjects.”

Specialists at Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child and the Davidson Institute for Talent Development suggest several ways for parents to support their children’s executive functioning development, including goal setting, open communication with teachers, and modeling behavior. Rush’s Bozeday and Smith offer additional, specific ideas for school and home:

We recommend students use a color-coded and labeled organizational systems for their school work and homework. We also recommend that students get into the routine of using a paper planner and/or calendar. As a family, you can really emphasize the importance of planning by posting a "Family Calendar" in your home. Post things like soccer practice, field trips, science fair project due, family vacations etc. Encourage your child to record these in their personal planners as well. In addition to posting this information, find times to reference the calendar with the whole family... maybe during dinner or every Sunday before another school week begins. — Dr. Bozeday and Dr. Smith

It’s never too late to identify and address executive function problems, say Bozeday and Smith—even as children become young adults in an increasingly distraction-filled digital environment. Planners and apps like MyHomework and Habitica can help students develop time management and planning skills while staying plugged in, though there may not be a substitution for certain skills learned offline. In fact, Smith recently offered five male high school students the chance to track homework and projects on an app, or with a traditional planner. After instantly choosing the app, four out of five tried and preferred the planner, proving that something as simple as paper, a pen, and a system—with enough freedom to doodle and discover in the margins—can aid in the development of crucial abilities.