Growth-promoting environments provide children with “scaffolding” that helps them practice necessary skills before they must perform them alone. Providing the support that children need to build these skills at home, in early care and education programs, and in other settings they experience regularly is one of society’s most important responsibilities. By focusing on real-life daily situations such as bedtime and mealtime, the Ready4Routines intervention seeks to strengthen executive function skills in adults and children, while also increasing predictability within young children’s lives. Adverse environments resulting from neglect, abuse, and/or violence may expose children to toxic stress, which can disrupt brain architecture and impair the development of executive function.
In other situations, if children do not get what they need from their relationships with adults and the conditions in their environments-or (worse) if those influences are sources of toxic stress-their skill development can be seriously delayed or impaired. Some children may need more support than others to develop these skills. Self-control enables us to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses.Ĭhildren aren’t born with these skills-they are born with the potential to develop them.Mental flexibility helps us to sustain or shift attention in response to different demands or to apply different rules in different settings.Working memory governs our ability to retain and manipulate distinct pieces of information over short periods of time.Each type of executive function skill draws on elements of the others. These functions are highly interrelated, and the successful application of executive function skills requires them to operate in coordination with each other. They also enable positive behavior and allow us to make healthy choices for ourselves and our families.Įxecutive function and self-regulation skills depend on three types of brain function: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. These skills are crucial for learning and development. When children have opportunities to develop executive function and self-regulation skills, individuals and society experience lifelong benefits.
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