Why Every Child Needs Executive Function Skills

Ever feel like your brain is juggling too many things at once—like keeping track of appointments, remembering to reply to that email, and trying not to burn dinner? That’s your executive function at work. These behind-the-scenes mental skills help us stay organized, make decisions, manage time, and keep our cool when life gets hectic. Whether you’re a parent, a professional, or just trying to get through the day with a little less stress, strong executive function skills can make life a whole lot easier.

Laura Filtness, author of 30-Minute Groups: Executive Function, highlights nine essential skills that everyone can benefit from developing. In this post we’ll dive into why these skills matter and how we can all build them up in ourselves and our students.

Nine Essential Executive Function Skills

Executive function helps regulate, control, and manage thoughts and actions. It affects key skills like:

• • Planning

• • Time Management

• • Organization

• • Task Initiation

• • Attention

• • Self-Monitoring

• • Self-Regulation

• • Impulse Control

• • Flexible Thinking

Imagine a teacher giving students ten minutes to complete an assignment. One student spends most of that time gathering supplies or getting distracted. When time is up, they haven’t finished and feel frustrated. Later, students who completed their work participated in a fun activity, while the students with unfinished work had to complete that work instead, leading to more frustration.

What executive functioning skills could have helped? All of them!

• • Time Management – Understanding how to divide time effectively.

• • Task Initiation – Starting promptly instead of procrastinating.

• • Organization – Having materials ready to begin.

• • Planning – Thinking ahead to complete tasks on time.

• • Self-Monitoring – Recognizing when we’re off-task.

• • Self-Regulation & Flexible Thinking – Adapting to consequences and shifting mindset.

• • Impulse Control – Avoiding distractions and staying focused.

Helping kids develop executive functioning skills benefits them both at home and in school—and sets them up to succeed and thrive throughout life.

The following lesson from 30-Minute Groups: Executive Function introduces children to executive functioning skills and explores how the brain plays a role in them.

Executive Function Skills and Your Brain

When you hear the word “skills” you might think about skills like being able to dribble a basketball or being a talented artist who can paint. But did you know there are other skills, skills that will help us both now and as we get older? These skills help us succeed in school and will help us when we get a job.

These skills are called executive functioning (EF) skills.

EF skills help us get things done. They help us stay on task, keep organized, and regulate our emotions.

Skills like handling strong feelings (self-regulation), thinking positively, planning ahead, setting goals, organizing materials, remembering information, and staying focused are all executive functioning (EF) skills. These skills happen in the front part of our brain, called the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC).

The PFC is like a thoughtful turtle or wise owl that helps us think before we act and make decisions we are proud of.

There are two other important parts of the brain you should know about:

• • The amygdala is a tiny, almond-shaped part of the brain that feels and responds to our emotions. It’s like a guard dog that keeps us safe. When we face challenges like a hard test or experience a strong emotion like disappointment, our amygdala might mistake the feeling as a danger and react. This can lead to us doing or saying things we regret.

• • The hippocampus helps us remember. This is our memory-saver. It helps us learn and remember new things. It also allows us to recall things we have learned in the past. Just as we can work out to build stronger muscles, we can also do things to help “train our brains.” In our group we are going to help build our EF skills and strengthen our PFC.

Which Parts of Our Brain Help with Executive Skills?

Here is a great activity mentioned in the 30-Minute Groups: Executive Function workbook that you can use with students. Pass out the Our Brain Coloring Sheet along with some crayons or colored pencils. Share the scenarios listed below. After each scenario ask the students to point to the part of the brain on their coloring sheet or call out the part of the brain that helps with this activity.

• • You read a book and when a friend asks you about it you can tell them all about it. (hippocampus)

• • Your teacher gives you a big project and you make a plan to do a little each day so you’re ready. (PFC).

• • You get to a hard question on a test and throw your pencil on the floor. (amygdala)

• • You clean your backpack so it’s ready for school on Monday (PFC).

• • You learn a new idea. (PFC).

Teaching children about executive function skills is essential because these abilities lay the foundation for lifelong success. When children understand how their brain works and learn strategies to manage their time, stay organized, and control their emotions, they become more confident and capable learners. These skills not only support academic achievement but also help children build positive relationships, make thoughtful decisions, and adapt to new challenges—both in and out of the classroom!