Executive Functions
CHILDREN ARE APT TO FORGET TO REMEMBER By Kat Marsh, M.Ed.
Executive functions are a collection of mental processes that guide our everyday actions and help us plan for the future. Think of them as the characteristics and behaviors a person in charge of running a company would need to succeed. Some executive functions help us pay attention and remember details, others help us organize our thoughts or the physical space we live in, still others help us figure out the best way to solve problems or plan what we should do next. Researchers are trying to sort out and define executive functions with names such as metacognition (thinking about thinking), working memory (visual or verbal information we hold onto while we’re making decisions), response inhibition (holding back unfruitful reactions), and task initiation (getting started on non-preferred tasks). Some figure we have eight or ten distinguishable executive functions. Others suggest there could be more than thirty. Although all executive functions interact and some overlap, we can make sense out of most executive functions by categorizing similar ones together into four groups:
GROUP ONE IS WHAT I CALL THE STP GROUP: SPACE, TIME, AND PLANNING. This group has to do with keeping physical space organized, having a sense of the sweep of time, and planning that has to do with time management. Caution: organized space can look messy to another person. The key factor is whether the organizer can work effectively in the space. For children, these spaces are typically their homework space, backpack, and locker. If your child’s spaces look messy, but they know where everything is and can find things they need, then they have some kind of organization scheme that makes sense to them. Sensing the sweep of time means being accurate when estimating how much time a task will take, and as you work, gauging whether you need to speed up to finish. continued next page >>>
June 2020 | Boston Parents Paper
37
