Supporting EF skill development at home

As a parent / caregiver, how can I support my child’s executive function development at home?

By involving children in everyday tasks, parents and caregivers can help strengthen their child’s learning skills development as they collaboratively build an executive function toolbox. Cleaning up after an activity, setting the table for dinner, planning meals, making grocery lists – these are often tasks that parents and caregivers take on as part of the “work” of parenting. While these tasks are indeed the domain of caregivers, they present opportunities to model, teach, and practice executive function skills. 

What are executive function skills? 

Executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. At Engaging Minds we distill executive function skills into 9 distinct skills: 

• Organization of materials
• Organization of ideas
• Planning and time management
• Task initiation 
• Flexibility and Transitions
• Self-Monitoring and Follow-Through
• Working Memory
• Motivation and Self Confidence
• Emotional Control and Impulsivity 

Through these 9 distinct domains of executive functioning, Engaging Minds instructors hyperfocus our work with students to develop skills and strategies that strengthen the domains of executive functioning that are most challenging for the student. 

“Executive function and self regulation are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully” (Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, 2024). It is important to emphasize that children are not born with executive function skills; children are born with the capacity to develop executive function skills and the environment around a child profoundly shapes their skill development. 

Tips for Caregivers to Build Executive Functioning Skills at Home

To build and strengthen executive functioning skills, parents and caregivers should name executive functions embedded in tasks and do tasks with the child, rather than for the child, whenever possible. When it is not possible or pragmatic to do tasks with a child, it can be impactful to name the executive functions, skills, and strategies that helped the caregiver accomplish a goal or complete a task. 

The Importance of Individualization 

At Engaging Minds, we believe that there is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy or tool to develop executive functioning skills. As parents and caregivers, it is important to remember that a child’s executive brain functioning can be supported and strengthened in many ways. When building executive function skills at home, it is essential to honor that there are a range of strategies and tools that can help and remember that your child is the expert in what strategies and tools are most-helpful and most-effective for them. The best strategies and tools for strengthening executive functioning may be different for each child in your family, distinct from what ‘works’ for you as the caregiver, and / or unique in each phase of development. 

An example: Building and Strengthening Executive Functioning through Meal Planning 

Collaborative meal planning presents an opportunity to foster EF skills by modeling visually organizing ideas, using backwards design, organizing materials, and planning ahead. Meet your child where they are – it might be best to start with just one or two steps of the process below. Remember to make it a collaborative experience – if the child is not open to writing, consider being the scribe and modeling how to visually organize their ideas. 

• Apply Visual Organization 
  • Engage a child in the process by prompting: “I would like your support in planning our meals for this week – what do you want to eat for breakfast and lunch?” It is important to visually organize their ideas, rather than keeping everything in our heads – consider using a whiteboard, blank piece of paper, sticky notes, or a notes document on a device. Together, organize their ideas into different categories: breakfast foods, lunch foods, and snacks. 
• Use Backwards Design
  • Once the meal list is developed, parents and caregivers can model backwards design, which is starting a process with an end goal in mind. Engage the child in writing out the ingredient list by asking them to think through the ingredients that are necessary for each meal. Consider prompting them with a question like “What ingredients do we need to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast?” Together, create a simple list of the ingredients and items necessary. 
• Create a Checklist
  • After developing the simple list of the ingredients, develop a shopping checklist by considering what ingredients need to be purchased and what ingredients are available at home. Engage the child by saying “Let’s see what we have at home and check those items off, so that we only buy the ingredients that we need at the store.” Parents can model organization of materials by working together with the child to identify which ingredients are available at home and which ingredients need to be purchased at the grocery store. Using the ingredients list, look around the kitchen for which ingredients are available, cross out those items, and create a shopping list. 
• Put it on the Calendar
  • Finally, parents may model backwards design to facilitate student organization and planning strategies. Engage the child by asking “If you want blueberry pancakes for breakfast on Monday, when will we both be available to go to the grocery store?” This use of backwards design requires the child to engage in big picture thinking and consider weekend plans, homework, sports, appointments, and other extracurriculars. Together, identify a time to go to the grocery store, and add it to your family calendar. Once at the grocery store, remember to use the checklist to guide the shopping process. 

EF Coaching Provides an Alternate or Supplement To Building Executive Function Skills at Home

If the recommendations outlined above for fostering executive functioning skills at home are not working or your child is not receptive, Engaging Minds is here to help. Our executive function coaches work with students to promote growth by fostering an environment to practice executive function skills collaboratively in session and building scaffolds to facilitate follow through outside of sessions. An Engaging Minds virtual executive function coach works with students to create a toolbox of learning strategies and skills for students to apply in a variety of situations.