Are you curious about how you can support your child as he or she works to develop executive functioning skills?
Executive functioning is a general term that describes the neurological processes related to self-regulation and mental control. These behaviors influence a variety of behaviors, from controlling impulses to paying attention, remembering information, and planning out time and materials.
One of the best ways you can support your child is to make your living spaces executive-function friendly. Not sure what that means – or how to do it? This article will take a closer look.
Executive Functioning: Environmental Support for Long-Term Success
Just as you provide your child with the physical, mental, and emotional support he needs to thrive, you also need to give him environmental support.
What exactly does this mean?
Providing environmental support means that you create a space that is set up deliberately to help your child thrive.
There are a few general ways you can do this, such as posting a daily schedule, providing visual support and minimizing clutter in the home. This last piece is especially important. When there is minimal visual clutter, it will lead to less mental clutter that your child has to deal with.
You’ve likely noticed this effect yourself. Have you ever noticed how relieved and clear-headed you feel after you spend a day cleaning the house?
Another thing to do is to make sure that the home is arranged so that specific areas are meant for specific tasks. The kitchen is for eating and the bedroom is for sleeping, for example. Don’t allow your child to eat in the living room or play on his computer in the bedroom.
By setting up clearly defined areas for various tasks throughout the day, it will help your child stick to a routine and understand what needs to be done (and what goes where) a bit better.
Besides decluttering and setting up clearly defined areas in your home for different tasks, there are plenty of other things you can do to support executive functioning. We’ll take a deeper dive into these areas below!
How to Arrange the Home for Executive Function Improvement
Here are a few ways you can set up your home to help your child improve his or her executive functioning skills.
Kitchen
The kitchen is one of the easiest rooms in the home to make it more executive-functioning friendly. Here are a few ideas.
1. Post a Daily Schedule
The kitchen is the most obvious place to post your child’s daily schedule, although this could technically be posted in any room of the home. Put up a list of clear, consistent routines as well as procedures that your child is expected to follow at any given point and time throughout the day.
If you’d like, you can set up different schedules and visual supports in every single room of your home. Posters with problem-solving steps and routines, as well as color-coded folders and schedules, can be helpful just about everywhere.
You could even make a procedural post listing everything your child needs to do in the bathroom as part of his grooming routine – from brushing the teeth to washing the hair, all of these different tasks can be listed and color-coded for clarity.
2. Put Up a Menu Board
Another poster you can put up in the kitchen is a menu board. List the week’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu so your child can see what to expect.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can even make a list beneath each menu item of what tasks need to be completed before the meal is served – and then have your child help you cross those items off the list. For each dish, write down the ingredients that are needed and use a grocery checklist to guide him.
Then, work together through a recipe to give your child an active role in preparing the meal.
Planning ahead like this is an executive function that needs practice to become automatic. By going through these shopping, cooking, and food preparation procedures, you can go a long way in helping your child be a more independent “planner.”
3. Set Up a Meal-Prep Station
Create an area of the kitchen that’s just for kids! Allowing your child to help in the kitchen is one of the best ways to improve his executive functioning.
From being able to think flexibly to being creative, there are all sorts of skills that are best built in the kitchen. Let your child measure out ingredients in a mixing bowl, crack eggs, and peel vegetables – all of these little tasks can be helpful. Set up an area where all of the necessary tools and ingredients are easily accessible (you may need to set out stools or supply aprons, as an example).
This is a great way to encourage your child to become an active part of meal prep!
Bathroom
Although your child won’t spend as much time in the bathroom as he does in other areas of the home, there are still plenty of ways you can adapt it to be executive functioning friendly.
1. Set Up a Timer
We all know that kid who likes to dawdle in the bathroom!
There’s an easy way to help your child work on bathroom time management skills. Whether it’s taking too long in the shower or “forgetting” to brush his teeth, setting up a timer can encourage your child to take a reasonable amount of time on tasks and to make sure everything gets checked off the to-do list.
Again, putting a checklist of grooming tasks that need to be completed on the wall can be helpful. So, too, I can set up a timer. Work with your child to help him break down the different tasks that need to be done and figure out how much time is appropriate for each. Then, set a timer to make sure he sticks to those tasks.
2. Set Up Some Houseplants
There are all kinds of houseplants – such as the pothos plant and aloe vera – that grow particularly well in a bathroom. Caring for a plant not only teaches your child how to care for living things but also builds executive functioning skills.
Not only do they have to schedule time to care for the plant, but they also need to practice adaptive thinking and self-control. Place the plant in your child’s bathroom and have your child water the plant and dust its leaves, along with providing other basic care tasks. These tasks can also help to develop fine motor skills, which can help with writing.
Living Room
The living room is an easy place to adapt for kids who are working on their executive functioning skills.
1. Create an Exercise Area
Exercise is a great habit to form when it comes to developing executive functioning skills. Although it’s much easier to exercise outdoors – particularly when the weather is warm and sunny – year-round exercise is essential for keeping the brain healthy.
Consider installing a treadmill, elliptical machine, stationary bike, or even a few free weights or a Nintendo Wii to help encourage your child to keep moving. The living room is a great place to do this!
2. Have a Homework Station
If your living room has a tendency to be on the noisy, high-trafficked side, this station could also occur in the bedroom – however, it’s better to separate sleep and school whenever possible.
Create a homework station in the living room that is quiet, well-lit, and stocked with paper and pencils (along with any other supplies that are needed). The hunt for papers and pens can easily derail homework time and make it hard for your child to sit down and focus.
Plus, if you’re nearby, it’s easier for your child to ask you questions so they don’t have to hunt you down.
Having a homework station set up in the living room will avoid the dilemma of having your child wait for inspiration to strike to tackle the pile of papers – the homework station is right there, so it will serve as a constant reminder to get to work.
Plus the clean, organized space will make it difficult for any distractions to derail the work!
3. Have a Spot for School Gear
Having a preset spot for backpacks, coats, and shoes is a great way to help with a child’s routine, time management skills, planning, and organization. It makes it easier to initiate tasks, too – like taking out homework supplies and getting ready for school.
Whether this spot is an area of the living room or a spot in your foyer, make sure it’s clear to your child what needs to go where.
Bedroom
The bedroom should be set up as a sanctuary for sleep with as few distractions as possible. Limit cell phone access in the bedroom (you can create a charging station in the kitchen just for this reason!) and try not to allow video games or other distractors in this area, either.
Here are a few more tips to make the bedroom executive functioning friendly.
1. Set an Alarm
Let’s face it – most kids don’t like to get up early.
However, sleep is essential when it comes to honing executive function skills. Make sure your child has an alarm set in the bedroom both for when it’s time to wake up in the morning as well as it’s time to go to bed.
Consider having them set multiple alarms for different things, like when to start the bath or when to begin a wind-down routine.
2. Post a Bedtime Routine
Routines are essential for every aspect of executive functioning. From cleaning up toys to taking a bath, putting on pajamas, and brushing the teeth, there are lots of tasks that can be added to a routine checklist to make bedtime a little easier.
Post this in a location where your child will be able to easily access it and encourage him to check off the boxes (you can laminate it and use a dry erase marker to make things easier!) as he goes through the tasks.
Potential to Grow
Executive functioning skills can take a while to develop, and they develop at different rates in different children.
We’re constantly growing – and so, too, is our prefrontal cortex in the brain. For children with unique learning needs, it may take a bit longer to develop the executive functioning skills necessary for independent living and learning.
That said, these tips for how to set up your home to be more executive function friendly should help to make a difference in your child’s progress – try a few today!
Further Reading
- Check out our free EF assessment
- Download our Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook (coupon code LSA20 for 20% off at checkout)
- Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University: Executive Function & Self-Regulation
- Amy Sippl: Executive Functioning Skills 101: The Basics of Time Management
- Todd Erickson: Mix It Well: Cooking as a Means for Integrated Development in the West PM Classroom
- Amy Sippl: The 12 Time Management Skills to Teach Your Child Now