The Skills Behind the School Day: Helping Kids Strengthen Executive Functioning

When considering success in school, we often focus on academic skills like reading, writing, math, and studying. However, children also rely on executive functioning skills, the mental abilities used to plan, organize, manage time, remember, initiate tasks, regulate emotions, and adapt when things go wrong. These skills develop over childhood and adolescence and greatly influence a student’s independence in handling school demands.

What Executive Functioning Looks Like at School:

Executive functioning is key in daily school tasks like remembering instructions, tracking assignments, transitioning between activities, estimating homework time, and resisting distractions. A child may understand the material but struggle to start, remember what to bring home, or submit work. These issues don’t always indicate a lack of motivation; often, the task’s executive demands surpass the child’s current skills.

Five Ways Parents Can Support Executive Functioning:

1. Make the Invisible Visible:
   • Children often benefit from having expectations written down rather than relying entirely on memory. Checklists, calendars, visual schedules, and reminders can provide external structure while executive functioning skills are still developing.
   • For example, instead of repeatedly reminding a child to pack their backpack, create a short checklist that they can follow independently.
2. Break Big Tasks Into Smaller Steps:
   • “Do your homework” can feel overwhelming when a student has multiple assignments. Help children identify the individual steps: check the assignment list, gather materials, complete the first task, take a short break, and move on to the next. Breaking tasks into smaller pieces can make it easier to get started and maintain momentum.
3. Help Kids Learn to Estimate Time:
   • Time management is a skill that develops with practice. Encourage children to estimate how long a task will take and then compare their estimate with the actual time.
   • Timers can also be useful, not to rush children, but as a tool for helping them develop a better sense of time.
4. Shift From Reminders to Routines
   • Frequent adult reminders may get the job done in the short term, but routines can help children become more independent over time. Whenever possible, create systems that allow children to check what needs to happen next without relying on an adult to tell them. The goal is not to eliminate support. It is to gradually shift responsibility from the adult to the child.
5. Practice Flexibility:
   • Executive functioning also involves adapting when plans change. Encourage children to consider alternative solutions when something does not go as expected.
   • If a homework assignment takes longer than anticipated, for example, help the child think through the problem: What still needs to be completed? What can be done tonight? Is help needed? What could be done differently tomorrow?

These moments provide opportunities to practice problem-solving and cognitive flexibility in everyday situations.

Support Should Match the Child

Executive functioning skills vary among children, with some needing more visual and hands-on support while others benefit from calendars or digital reminders. The aim isn’t overnight independence but providing enough structure for success and gradually increasing responsibility.

Building Skills for the Long Term

Executive functioning is more than just handling homework or packing a backpack; it involves skills that help children manage complex tasks as they grow. Parents and educators can support this by providing structure, teaching strategies, and giving children opportunities to practice managing responsibilities. Often, it’s better to ask, “What skill does this task need, and how can we help build it?” rather than, “Why isn’t my child doing this?”

With the right support and opportunities to practice, children can build the executive functioning skills they need not only to succeed in school, but to become increasingly confident and independent learners.