Executive function skills, crucial for self-control, goal pursuit, and cognitive flexibility, are foundational for a child's academic and social-emotional success, and can be nurtured from early childhood through supportive environments and intentional practices.
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if i were to ask you
to think of a person you know who's
really patient
persistent emotionally balanced
flexible when things change and takes
the long view when it comes to pursuing
their goals
i'm guessing you would not be thinking
of a three or four year old child
it will come as no surprise that young
children are not very good at these things
things
known as executive function skills i've
been studying these skills both as a mom
and as a professor in child development
at one point i was even brought in by
sesame street to help cookie monster
with his self-control
although i'm not sure how successful
executive function refers to the
brain-based processes we use to control
our thoughts actions and feelings
they include holding information in mind
controlling impulses
and thinking flexibly they help us
persevere toward our goals
today i propose we ask ourselves what
would happen
if we tended to the development of
executive function
earlier in children's lives all of us
investing in cultivating these kinds of skills
skills
from the roots up whether you're a parent
parent
a teacher or researcher we know kids
tend to be impulsive
and inflexible for example no matter how
much you think you've prepared your
young child for a trip to the store
to pick up just a few things for dinner
no treats
there is a chance it will end in a
tantrum in the checkout line
this can happen when they get their mind
set on something they feel they must have
have
right now if you know a teenager this
i actually found myself in this
situation with my daughter natalie when
she was three years old
she refused to leave the store without a
new doll
we ended up at opposite ends of the toy
aisle facing each other
with our hands on our hips it was a showdown
showdown
we made it out of the store without the
doll but to be honest for a moment i was
at a loss and i thought i might give in
i wish i had better parenting strategies
we know from neuroscience that executive
function depends primarily
on brain networks involving the
prefrontal cortex this is the front most
part of the brain
and the last brain region to develop
it's not fully mature until one's mid-20s
mid-20s
and then unfortunately it begins to
decline with age
because of this for a long time some
scientists believe young children simply
have no executive function at all
we now know that's not true take for
example the so-called
marshmallow test a researcher offers the
child a treat
such as a marshmallow and explains that
she needs to leave the room
but if the child can wait to eat it
until after she returns
then the child can have two marshmallows
so it's kind of like deciding between
taking a vacation now
or saving for retirement back in the 1960s
1960s
walter michelle and his colleagues
noticed that some four-year-olds would
wait patiently
up to 15 minutes for a larger reward
whereas others grabbed the treat almost immediately
immediately
i was fortunate to be able to
collaborate with walter michelle before
his death
we were wondering whether young
children's ability to delay gratification
gratification
has changed at all since he first did
those studies in the 1960s
and to our surprise using the same procedure
procedure
we discovered that preschool-aged
children today wait significantly longer
on the marshmallow test than they did 50
or 60 years ago
two full minutes longer on average which
is an eternity in the mind of a four-year-old
four-year-old
we don't know exactly why this is but it
does track with the rise in iq in the
general population
as well as preschool enrollment during
the same time frame
my colleagues and i have developed and
validated additional assessments of
executive function
for children as young as two years of
age i even co-founded a company with my
partner phil zilazzo
to further develop these tools and make
them more widely available
and they don't all involve marshmallows
with the minnesota executive function scale
scale
a virtual card sorting game that
requires children to switch flexibly
between roles
we've learned that executive function
performance improves dramatically in the
early years
as shown here from age two to six but
even the youngest kids could demonstrate
some ability
on the lower levels of the game so if
executive function skills can be
measured in early childhood
and we know they'll improve with time
why should we care about them
the reason is because they matter more
to children's success than
you might think of course
parents and teachers want to raise kids
to be happy and successful
success is often defined in terms of
academic achievement
and education level but we know it's
more than that
it also depends on social and emotional intelligence
intelligence
such as being a team player and having
i'm going to offer a way of thinking
about this as the tree of success
it has two major branches academic and
social emotional competence
and we can think of executive function
skills as the roots of this tree
and of reflection as the driver or the
top root if you will for these skills
reflection in this sense is basically
thinking twice
pausing to consider your options before reacting
reacting
and monitoring yourself as you go on the
left side of the tree
there's abundant evidence of a link
between executive function and academic achievement
achievement
kids with stronger executive function
skills in preschool score higher on math
and reading assessments in third grade
and are more likely to go on to complete
high school and graduate from college
on the right side of the tree research
shows that children with strong
executive function skills
are better at taking other people's
perspectives and reflecting on their own
and when they grow up they're more
likely to engage in healthy behaviors
like exercise
and less likely to encounter trouble
with drugs and alcohol
or be convicted of a crime it's
important to note that these relations
often hold even after controlling
for intelligence and family background
so then
if it's so important how do we build
strong executive function
we can use the tree metaphor to
illustrate what my colleagues and i have
learned so far
first you need a rich soil this includes
basic safety
as well as nutrition and sleep iron and
other micronutrients are essential for
healthy brain development
starting prenatally and with respect to sleep
sleep
we've learned it's not so much the
overall amount of sleep but rather
the hours of consolidated nighttime
sleep in infancy
that can predict executive function
skills years later
of course this could be partially
explained by their parents getting
better sleep too
you'll also need lots of sun the sun is
care giving
it's best when it's warm and sensitive
but our research has shown that another
factor also matters
being what's called autonomy supportive
this is when parents and teachers take
the child's perspective
offer choices and provide just enough support
support
but not too much take the example of a
young child working on a puzzle
they might pick up a piece and try to
jam it into place
but it just won't fit and you can see
the signs of a meltdown coming
you could help by telling them what to do
do
or doing it for them but imagine how
different it would feel
if you simply nudged the correct piece
into their view and they discovered it
on their own
owning it is needed before controlling it
it
in other words giving children autonomy
with just enough support
gives them a sense of agency over their
own actions
the very same actions we're expecting
them to learn to control on their own
you'll also need plenty of rain we can
think of this as language input from the environment
