Executive Function Skills: When and How They Develop

When and Which Executive Function Skills Should I Expect at Different Age Levels?

Executive Function Skills don’t just emerge they are taught through many daily activities.  It is so important to encourage and ALLOW the child to explore and try things on his/her own.  Our role is to create opportunities for the child/student to have to use executive function skills. 

Opportunities range from helping clean-up, making bed, chores to unstructured time to be bored and forced to create, explore outside, travel, play games, interact with family and friends.  When a person is put in a position “to do” executive function skills kick in.  We want to encourage this and not deprive the child’s/student/s opportunity to grow.  In doing so we enable resiliency and confidence to thrive.  Each time a child practices executive function skills — even when they fail and try again — they are building the grit and resilience they’ll need to thrive in school and life.

Below provides a listing of executive function skill development with sample activities that promote, teach and cause EF acquisition.  

Executive Function Skills by Age + Activities:

EF Skill	Early Childhood (3-5)	Middle Childhood (6-12)	Adolescence (13-18)	Young Adulthood (18-25)
Response Inhibition	Skill is Emerging.      Simon Says, Red Light–Green Light, waiting turns in board games	Skill is Growing.     Card games with rules (Uno), team sports where turns matter	Skill is becoming stronger.      Delay texting/replying until homework is done	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Budgeting: wait 24 hrs before spending, resisting impulse buys
Working Memory	Skill is Emerging.     Follow 2–3 step directions, songs with actions, “I Spy”	Skill is Developing. Cooking recipes, memory card games, multi-step chores	Skill is becoming stronger.  Take lecture notes, recall and summarize readings	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Manage multiple deadlines, balance school/work/social calendars
Emotional Control	Skill is Emerging.  Practice calming with stuffed animal, deep breaths, clean-up routine	Skill is Developing      Journaling, role-play peer conflicts, use a “feelings thermometer”	Skill is becoming stronger. Mindfulness apps, exercise for stress relief	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Stress management strategies for job interviews, deadlines
Flexibility	Skill is limited.  Pretend play (doctor/patient, store), changing rules in play	Skill is Developing . Board games where rules change, switching group project roles	Skill is becoming stronger. Debate club, seeing multiple perspectives	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Travel, adapting to new environments, new work challenges
Sustained Attention	Skill is Emerging.  Puzzles, storytime with questions, building blocks	Skill is reliable but can be uneven.      Reading chapter books, LEGO/robotics kits	Skill is becoming stronger. Pomodoro study sessions (25/5 rule), sports practice drills	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Internship projects, long research papers, professional training
Task Initiation	Start clean-up after timer, “first do this, then fun” routines	Skill is Emerging.          Start homework with 5-minute timer, chore chart	Skill is Developing     Break assignments into chunks, set first-step deadlines	Self-starting projects, creating personal deadlines without reminders
Planning & Prioritization	Pack a toy bag for a trip, choose bedtime story order	Skill is Developing     Plan a birthday party, prioritize homework order	Skill is becoming stronger. Use weekly planner for assignments, sports, and social events	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Meal prep, bill payments vs. wants, weekly schedule planning
Organization	Sorting toys, matching socks, simple clean-up games	Skill is Developing   Color-coded folders, desk organization, backpack checks	Skill is becoming stronger. Organize digital files/folders for school subjects	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Maintain tidy living space, organize job/work tasks
Time Management	“5 more minutes” warnings, picture schedules	Skill is Emerging.      Visual timers for homework/chores, estimate vs. actual time	Skill is Developing . Block schedule for study/social life, track screen time	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Use calendar apps, daily/weekly planning for work & life
Goal-Directed Persistence	Finish a puzzle, complete a block tower, story re-telling	Skill is Emerging.  Science fair project, saving allowance for a toy	Skill is Developing . Sports training goals, long-term projects, study for finals	Skill is becoming ingrained.  Finish degree, marathon training, career milestones
Metacognition	Simple reflection: “What did you build? What do you like?”	“What strategy worked best?” after homework or games	Skill is Emerging.  Journals: “What helped me study? What distracted me?”	Skill is Developing .  Self-check-ins: “How am I handling independence?”

**The EF Skill stress tolerance, or being able to regulate one’s behaviors, thoughts, and emotions, is embedded in all the activities listed.

Activities that facilitate development in multiple executive function skill areas across all ages are: biking, swimming, trail hiking on rugged terrain, drawing/painting/sculpting, cooking and eating a meal with multiple people. Competitive team sports and/or activities like chess or debate are excellent – taking the child/student from emerging to full acquisition of EF Skills.   Teenagers and young adults-  driving and dating requires executive function skills to be honed or refined to enable the relationship to flourish.  

Activities that stifle executive function skill growth:  screen time – many games on smartphones and tablets have users attend for very short periods before rewarding or moving on to next image or concept- the user does not learn to wait and is not challenged to sustain his/her attention, creates avoidance to flexible thinking, and decreases stress tolerance and emotional control. 

Many schools /universities have moved components of learning and reading to e-platforms,  even when  students have yet to acquire  the fundamentals skill in a concrete form.  Our brains are still “in want” for tangible paper, books, writing with a pencil to make imprints on one’s brain to efficiently retrieve the information later- most screen time promotes memorization and emotional responses not true development of a skill. 

Counter act this with have your child/student by having him/her calculate math using pencil and paper, reading physical books and writing out complete sentences that are mechanically and grammatically correct. The key driver of learning is having students complete the full process from start to finish. Simply clicking a key skips the steps that teach them how to plan, sequence, and problem-solve — the very skills scaffolding is meant to develop. 

To learn more view TGlearn.com, Educational Consultants immersed into reinforcing executive function skill development.  EF Skill proficiency is the #1 predictor of long term success in school and in life.