What is Executive Functioning?
Executive functioning skills are important cognitive skills involved in executing goal directed everyday activities (also known as our occupations).
Executive skills enable us to do the following:
Initiate: commence an activity.
Difficulty: A child may have trouble getting started on school work or dressing
Inhibit: Ability to refrain from acting on impulse and ceasing inappropriate actions at the right time.
Difficulty: A child may act without forethought and have trouble stopping inappropriate behaviours.
Emotional control/regulation: Modifying and controlling one’s emotional response so that it is appropriate to the circumstance or stressor.
Difficulty: The child may be easily upset or explosive; small events may trigger a large emotional response which may seem disproportionate to the initial problem.
Shift: transition between one activity/situation or aspect of a problem and adapt to the demands of the situation as needed.
Difficulty: The child may become fixated or stuck on a topic or tends to perseverate on ideas or actions.
Plan: Anticipating upcoming events, goal set, and develop the required steps needed for an activity ahead of time.
Difficulty: A child may leave activities until the last-minute underestimating the time and effort required to complete things, they do not think ahead and anticipate potential problems.
Self-monitor: Reflecting upon one’s own actions during, or shortly after concluding a task to confirm the goal has been fulfilled suitably.
Difficulty: A child may not proofread work for mistakes; may be unaware of how their own actions impact upon others.
Organise: Creating or preserving order in a task or within a place; carrying out an activity in a logical manner.
Difficulty: A child may approach a task with a disorganised approach to problem solving and can be easily overwhelmed by larger tasks with an uncertainty of where to begin.
Working memory: The ability to retain information in the mind in order to complete related tasks and activities.
Difficulty: A child may have trouble remembering things, even for a few minutes; when going to get something, they may forget what they were supposed to get.
For the majority executive functioning occurs without conscious and is something that develops over time as we mature. Some individuals however require additional guidance to develop appropriate strategies and thanks to the neuroplasticity of the brain there is potential for improvement.
Here are some strategies Occupational Therapists use to create greater independence in everyday activities that can be easily implemented at home and school.
Play games or create obstacle courses
Targets: planning, working memory, inhibit, emotional control
Play memory games or card games like war or uno; games that have a win/loose factor can also help the child learn to manage their emotions when they are not winning at the same time the child needs to monitor their cards, consider the cards their opponent may have, plan their next move. Create obstacle courses and change the rules or objectives each time around to target your child’s attention eg. step only on the red stones. Gross motor activities can also be helpful with emotional regulation as a “brain break” between activities requiring high levels of concentration.
Cook together
Targets: Initiation, planning, organisation, working memory, inhibit, self-monitor, shift, emotional control
Following a recipe targets all of the executive functioning skills. A child will need to maintain attention and shift between various steps while cooking. They will also need to use their working memory to collect items and ingredients to complete the task. Meal preparation is a key life skill so developing independence at an early age is a great way to give your child a head start. If your child is a picky eater getting your child involved in meal preparation can be a great way to increase your child’s involvement and their curiosity to try new foods.
Providing scaffolds through visual schedules
Targets: Initiation, planning, organisation, working memory, inhibit, self-monitor
Creating a morning or evening routine with a visual schedule or even a visual schedule for something such as showering can assist the child to develop important skills and independence by reducing prompting required to complete a task.
Example:
o Go to the toilet
o Have breakfast (this can be broken down into the steps to making breakfast if the child is old enough)
o Brush teeth
o Get dressed
o Pack lunchbox and reader
o Put on school shoes
o Get in car
The schedule can be adapted to have words or images and a self-check list the child can tick off as they go along. Using a timer for activities will also assist with time management and planning. Keeping things in the same location and labelling things is also helpful to remain organised (school bag is always at the kitchen bench ready to be packed; clothing drawers are labelled e.g. t-shirts, underwear etc).
Work on a project
Targets: Initiation, Planning, Organising, Working Memory, Self-monitoring
Work backwards; teach the child to consider the end result and work back to determine the steps needed to get to this point, this will help them understand where to start, what is needed, break down steps and plan out time required to complete the poster on time.
Example: A poster on a famous person; the child decides it will have photos and information on the individual.
o Select a person
o Use a mind map to determine information to include
Research information
write down information
proof read
Find photos
Print information and images
Glue images and information on poster paper
From here you can place these steps onto a calendar to assist with initiation eg. project is due in 2 weeks we will have it completed 2 days prior (gluing items on) two days before this we will print the information and photos, two days before this we till need to have proof read the information etc. which means we need to start the project tomorrow. This will also allow time for any unexpected interruptions.
Sources: https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/organisation/executive-functioning/