Wait, I thought this was a blog series on daily living skills. So why are we talking about executive functioning again?
If you’ve been following along with our new series all about teaching Daily Living Skills (DLS) to diverse learners, you’ll know that we’ve been talking about how to build a strong foundation of prerequisite skills to help teach all the tasks for independent living.
In the first part of our series, we talked about how communication skills form the base of DLS. Today we’re adding another level to discuss how executive functioning skills build upon communication to create the next layer required for success in teaching DLS.
What are executive functioning skills?
Executive functioning skills combine the cognitive, communication, sensory, and motor skills we have developed over time to become successful adults. Starting at a very young age, we use these skills to conduct daily activities, from playing to socializing and learning. We use executive function skills in just about every aspect of our daily lives, but they become of vital importance once we reach school age.
As school-age kids become more independent, they need to learn how to manage their time correctly to get tests, assignments, and other work done on time. In addition, they need to pay attention to learn new things and how to stay organized enough to find the necessary materials.
How do we develop EF skills?
Many psychologists and child development professionals subscribe to developmental models of executive functioning skills, meaning that we are born with a genetic capacity but then develop executive functioning skills through environmental learning.
As children grow, they practice executive functioning skills within social play activities. By ages 5-12, we begin to take on greater responsibilities at home and school. During these activities, parents, teachers, and caregivers provide opportunities to practice executive functioning skills and positively reinforce those behaviors when children succeed.
Adults build a ‘scaffolding’ of support to help children develop skills like organization, time management, emotional control, and other important executive functioning behaviors. As a result, we have many experiences that have shaped our skills in these areas by the time we are teenagers and young adults.
At this time, the adults around us begin to disassemble the scaffolding and expect teens and young adults to continue to use executive functioning skills independently. While children may still have stumbles and missteps, if the foundational executive functioning skills are well-established, they can live healthy lives at home, school, and personal relationships.
How do executive functioning skills relate to daily living skills?
To describe how closely executive functioning skills relate to DLS, let’s consider an example of a fictional student named Mickey.
An Example
In the 10th grade, Mickey attends a public high school near his home. Mickey likes to spend time with his friends Donald and Minnie and his dog, Pluto. Mickey has ADHD and sometimes struggles with getting his homework and chores done on time. His parents and teachers have a communication system, but Mickey’s focus can start to slip if they don’t stay on top of things.
Mickey would really like to learn to drive and has his eyes set on a red sportscar. Mickey’s parents aren’t so sure. They sit down to meet with Mickey about getting his learner’s permit and discuss these things:
- Understanding how a car operates and basic traffic laws (Working Memory)
- Getting to and from school on time without someone else’s help (Time Management)
- Staying focused on driving and on the road with distractions (Attentional Control)
- Having a plan to pay for gas, insurance, and car maintenance (Planning and Organization)
- Quick decision making and defensive driving (Flexibility, Problem Solving, Emotional Control, Impulse Control)
After their conversation, it became apparent to Mickey’s parents that it wasn’t just learning to drive a car that was important.
3 Reasons Building Executive Functioning is Key to Building Daily Living Skills
1. Most DLS skills involve some form of EF
As the example above shows, most daily living skills involve some form of executive functioning. Complex skills like driving a car require many different instances of EF behaviors. But even simple skills like folding laundry and washing dishes require planning, working memory, and organization. In addition, skills like emotional control and problem-solving are critical when our learners start navigating the community.
Clearly, if we want our children and students to be successful with learning new DLS skills, we should also want them to continue building executive functioning skills.
2. Challenges with EF can create barriers to learning new DLS
What if our learners struggle with EF skills?
In our article How Teaching Executive Functioning Skills Can Reduce Challenging Behaviors, we detailed many reasons poor executive functioning skills can create challenges for learners with unique needs. For example, learners who demonstrate escape and avoidance behaviors with DLS may actually not struggle with the task itself but with the EF skills related to it.
Does your child take way too long to complete daily living tasks?
Do they frequently miss deadlines, arrive late, or fail to allow enough time to complete DLS?
Do they struggle to know where to get started or how to identify the most critical step in a DLS task?
These questions may indicate a need to focus on executive functioning skills of planning and prioritization, maybe not on the task itself.
In these examples, the learner might be engaging in problem behaviors during tasks because it’s easier to escape or avoid tasks when planning and time management is complex. They may also be seeking adult or peer assistance when task management skills go awry.
You can help your child complete DLS more quickly and efficiently by addressing and improving executive functioning skills. Subsequently, they’re less likely to encounter frustration and confusion, and DLS tasks ‘go easier.’
3. There’s not really a wrong reason to build EF skills
There’s no absolute limit to what any of us can learn regarding executive functioning. Even adults with strong EF skills can still learn tools to be better at things like organization, time management, and planning.
While it’s true that there’s not always time to work on every skill that our teens and young adults need for independently living if there are really no downsides to working on EF skills with your student as you’re practicing DLS.
How To Evaluate EF Skills
Curious if your learner could use a boost in executive functioning skills? Life Skills Advocate has a short series of Executive Functioning questionnaires to evaluate EF skills directly. They also can help brainstorm goals for your learner to support future growth.
Download our free .pdf EF assessments by entering your email below and check out our Executive Functioning 101 Resource Hub.
Further Reading
- Centers for Disease Control, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (2020). Developmental Milestones Checklists. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html.
- Executive Functioning 101 Hub
- Life Skills Advocate Blog – How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Get A Routine to Stick
- Life Skills Advocate Blog – How Teaching EF Can Reduce Challenging Behavior
- Life Skills Advocate Blog – EF Development by Age
- Life Skills Advocate Blog – DLS Development by Age