- By Eden
- Salley
Building Real-Life Skills with Executive Function Practice
This article is part of our weekly series Executive Function Tips for Families.
Lifelong success starts with skills learned in childhood. This study explores the role EF skills can play in paving the way for both academic and professional success when mixed with real-world life skills.
Before We Begin:
This article explains the study “Fostering Executive-Function Skills and Promoting Far Transfer to Real-World Outcomes: The Importance of Life Skills and Civic Science”. This study found that training in executive function (EF) skills can lead to real-world success when integrated with intermediate-level EF-based life skills. Effective interventions involve community collaboration to design relevant and sustainable training programs.
Key Takeaways
As parents, we all want our children to succeed in real-life situations, from school to social interactions. One effective way to help them is by combining practice in executive function (EF) skills with real-world skills. Here’s how you can do it:
Provide Repeated Opportunities and Support: Give your child plenty of chances to practice their EF skills in a supportive environment. This means encouraging them, setting up age appropriate challenges that aren’t too stressful, and giving them choices to foster independence.
Make Learning Fun and Meaningful: Effective EF training should be engaging and meaningful for your child. It should continually challenge them in new ways, be guided by a caring mentor (like a parent or teacher), and bring mindfulness while reducing stress.
Practice in Real-World Settings: To help your child transfer their EF skills to real-life situations, practice these skills in everyday settings like at home or school. This real-world practice makes the skills more applicable and useful.
Encourage Reflection: Teach your child to think carefully before acting (prospective reflection) and to look back on what they’ve learned (retrospective reflection). This helps them use their EF skills more effectively in new situations.
Focus on Life Skills: EF skills are a foundation for important life skills like planning, setting goals, understanding different perspectives, communicating well, working with others, and thinking critically. By helping your child develop these life skills, you prepare them for success in various areas of life.
Engage in Civic-Scientific Activities: Involve your child in community-based activities and problem-solving from an early age. This approach ensures that learning is relevant and addresses real-world challenges, making it more engaging and sustainable.
Actionable Steps for Parents
Let’s look at some activities for you and your child to try at home that can build EF and real-life skills simultaneously.
- Physical activity can help your child improve their self-control and ability to focus.
- Play: Stop, Go, or Go Slow?, a fun game that uses listening rules to enhance attention and encourage your child to think before acting.
- Your child can practice making plans and reach goals at home!
- Do: Make A Play Plan, a fun way to give your child the opportunity to think about their interests, practice planning, and stay focused on a goal.
- Just like adults, children feel more confident and secure when their daily activities are predictable and familiar. Having a routine provides children with a sense of stability and a way to build their EF skills.
- Read: The Importance of Schedules and Routines, which explains how important it can be to set up a family schedule that works for everyone involved.
- Help your child expand their working memory (a key part of EF!) and encourage flexibility in the moment.
- Play: Mindful Scavenger Hunt, a fun way for your child to practice working memory and adjusting their thinking as they play.
- Varying which EF skill-centered activities you do with your child will help their EF skills continue to develop as they grow.
- Play: Check out these various EF-centered activities, which are available at different skill levels. Find the activity that is right for your child at this time, then level up as they develop!
Other Study Findings
- A collaborative civic-scientific approach can transform EF learning to produce better outcomes for children.
- A civic-scientific approach involves scientists and community members working together to find solutions that might not be considered by just one group of people.
- Training and interventions can improve EF-based life skills, such as self-control, focus, planning, organization, time management, flexibility, and stress tolerance.
- Intervention plans involve families creating routines that promote EF skill development and support healthier development for children.
Conclusion
As a parent, you can support your child by understanding EF skills and providing a supportive environment at home. You play an important part in unlocking the secret to lifelong success for your child!
