Executive Functioning: What It Is, How It Develops, and Why It Matters
Executive function refers to the mental skills that help us manage information, control our attention, regulate our behavior, make plans, and follow those plans through to completion.
You can think of executive function as the brain’s management system. These skills help a student decide what needs to happen, organize the required steps, begin the task, stay focused, adjust when something changes, and finish the work.
Executive-function skills affect much more than grades. Students rely on them to get ready for school, remember materials, manage emotions, follow directions, complete homework, maintain friendships, meet deadlines, and become increasingly independent.
When these skills are still developing, a capable student may appear careless, unmotivated, disorganized, or inconsistent. In reality, the student may understand what needs to be done but lack a reliable process for doing it.
According to the Annual Review of Psychology, executive function refers to “a family of top-down mental processes needed when you have to concentrate and pay attention.” Simply put, executive functions are the brain’s management system. A powerful visual metaphor for executive function is an orchestra conductor. Just like the conductor selects what music an orchestra will perform, how it will be interpreted, who will play what and when, and at what tempo, executive functioning allows people to activate awareness, plan, set goals, and get things done. Think of executive functions as the brain’s project management system.
Now think of a school-aged child or teen. Imagine their brain as the inside of an average student’s backpack—only, instead of paper, school supplies, and leftover lunches, thoughts are flying all around. One minute, students might be thinking about a research project or a test, the next, they suddenly remember the funny joke a friend told them or ponder what to wear to prom and how many pictures to post. Not surprisingly, with so many thoughts coming and going, things can get messy and inefficient, possibly overlooked.
Executive functions are not just about academic performance; they also help shape students’ self-beliefs. Students with strong executive functioning skills often have a more positive self-image and a stronger belief in their ability to control their learning and academic outcomes. On the other hand, students with underdeveloped executive functioning skills may struggle with a poor self-image and a sense of hopelessness about their academic abilities, potential, and long-term goals. Understanding the role of executive functions can help trusted adults empathize with the challenges students face and support them appropriately.
What Is Executive Function?
Executive function is not one isolated ability. It is a group of connected mental processes that help people direct their thoughts and actions toward a goal.
Researchers often organize executive function into three core areas:
Working memory
Working memory allows a person to hold information in mind long enough to use it.
A student uses working memory when they:
- Remember a teacher’s instructions while beginning an assignment
- Keep track of the steps in a math problem
- Connect an earlier paragraph to the one they are currently reading
- Recall what materials they need to bring home
- Follow a multi-step direction without repeatedly asking what comes next
Inhibitory control
Inhibitory control helps a person pause before acting, resist distractions, manage impulses, and regulate attention or emotion.
A student uses inhibitory control when they:
- Ignore a phone notification while studying
- Wait their turn during a conversation
- Stop themselves from abandoning a difficult problem
- Manage frustration after receiving corrective feedback
- Choose a long-term goal over an immediate distraction
Cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility, sometimes called flexible thinking, helps a person shift attention, consider another perspective, adjust to change, and try a different approach when the first one does not work.
A student uses cognitive flexibility when they:
- Transition from one class or task to another
- Revise a plan after a deadline changes
- Consider another person’s point of view
- Use a different strategy after making a mistake
- Adapt when an assignment does not go as expected
Together, these core abilities support the planning, organization, self-monitoring, and follow-through required in school and everyday life.
What Skills Are Controlled by Executive Function?
Executive function supports many of the behaviors adults often expect students to manage independently.
These include:
- Paying attention
- Beginning tasks
- Completing tasks
- Planning and prioritizing
- Organizing materials and information
- Estimating and managing time
- Remembering instructions
- Shifting between activities
- Monitoring the quality of one’s work
- Managing frustration
- Regulating impulses
- Solving problems
- Setting goals
- Persisting when work becomes difficult
- Recognizing when help is needed
A student may be strong in some of these areas and need support in others. For example, a student may be able to focus deeply on an interesting project but struggle to start routine homework. Another may begin work quickly but lose track of materials, skip instructions, or fail to submit completed assignments.
Executive function is therefore not an all-or-nothing trait.
How Do Executive-Function Skills Develop?
Executive-function development begins early in life and continues through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.
Children are not born with fully developed executive-function skills. They are born with the capacity to build them through relationships, routines, instruction, experience, and repeated practice. The Harvard Center on the Developing Child compares these abilities to an air-traffic-control system that helps the brain manage competing information and demands.
Development is gradual and uneven.
A student may demonstrate impressive independence in one setting but struggle in another. Skills may also appear less reliable during periods of stress, fatigue, major transition, increased academic demand, or emotional pressure.
The expectations placed on students also grow faster than their skills sometimes do.
A middle school student must suddenly manage several teachers, classrooms, assignments, passwords, and deadlines. A high school student must balance long-term projects, extracurricular activities, testing, and college planning. A college student may be expected to structure an entire week without the daily oversight they had at home.
Executive-function abilities continue to mature through adolescence and into early adulthood. That does not mean students should simply wait to “grow out of” their difficulties. It means expectations, instruction, and support should reflect the student’s current developmental level while helping them practice greater independence.
Do Executive Function Challenges Go Away With Age?
Some students become more effective as their brains mature and as they gain experience managing school and life. However, age alone does not guarantee that a student will develop effective systems.
A student may continue to struggle if they have not been explicitly taught how to:
- Break down assignments
- Estimate how long work will take
- Use a planner consistently
- Prioritize competing responsibilities
- Create realistic routines
- Begin an uncomfortable task
- Monitor their progress
- Ask for help before falling behind
The environment also matters. Difficulties may become more noticeable as external structure decreases.
For example, a student may perform well in elementary school when one teacher manages most deadlines. The same student may struggle in middle school when six teachers use different systems. A high school student may succeed with significant parental oversight but have difficulty when college requires independent scheduling and follow-through.
The goal is not to provide permanent adult management. It is to teach and practice systems the student can gradually manage for themselves.
How do I Know if My Child or Teen is Struggling With Executive Function Skills?
Ask Yourself These 14 Questions
- Is your student underperforming relative to ability?
- Does your student have difficulty initiating tasks?
- Does your student have difficulty completing tasks in a timely manner?
- Does your student leave the house unprepared?
- Does your student struggle to manage their time?
- Does your student find it challenging to organize their thoughts?
- Do you feel like you are managing your student’s academic life (i.e., you are operating like their pre-frontal cortex)?
- Does your student struggle to follow directions?
- Does your student struggle with multi-step instructions?
- Does your student struggle to prioritize effectively?
- Does your student often forget what they just read or heard?
- Do you feel that you are constantly battling your student to do things that seem obvious and easy to you?
- Does your student struggle to switch from one task to another?
- Does your student fixate on things and feel overly emotional?
Note: If this looks and sounds like ADHD, that’s because people with ADHD frequently also struggle with executive functioning. However, it is important to note that not all people with underdeveloped executive function skills have ADHD.
Ultimately, underdeveloped executive function skills can make it seem like students aren’t ‘working hard’ or ‘aren’t intelligent and/or capable.’ However, that is not the case. Rather, people who struggle with executive function issues may have to work significantly harder than others to achieve desired results. Over time, the additional effort required can be exhausting and discouraging, potentially resulting in burnout and/or capitulation.
Needless to say, executive functioning is critical for success at home, in school/college, and career. In fact, “well-developed executive function skills have been shown to be the leading indicator of long-term success,” according to Rachael Barron, Founder of Effective Students. She goes on to say, “when surveyed, more than 80% of students share they have never been taught to study, manage their time, or plan ahead,” yet these are the skills needed for self-direction and independence. Research suggests that college students with ADHD should receive executive functioning intervention prior to college matriculation to increase their chances of academic success (DuPaul, et al., 2021). Thus, we can infer that students without ADHD who exhibit similar executive function challenges should also receive such support.
Students can and should be taught how to build executive functioning to promote self-directed learning and self-determined lives. To prepare students for success in school and college, it is common for students to work with executive function or academic coaches who are uniquely trained and qualified to help students build processes and develop these skills for long-term success. Click HERE to learn 10 Academic Coach Tips for Back-to-School Success.
Helping Students Become More Independent
Executive-function difficulties can make capable students look inconsistent. They may understand what to do but struggle to organize, begin, sustain, or complete the process.
These skills are not simply personality traits that students either have or do not have. They develop over time and can be supported through instruction, structure, coaching, and deliberate practice.
At Effective Students, we help middle school, high school, and college students strengthen the systems behind academic success, including planning, organization, time management, task initiation, studying, self-advocacy, and follow-through.
Our goal is not to manage school for the student. It is to help the student become increasingly capable of managing it for themselves.
Schedule a free 15-minute parent conversation to share what your family is experiencing and learn whether coaching, a workshop, or another type of support may be the right next step.
Effective Students supports families in Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville, Portland, and virtually.
References
Adele Diamond, (2013). Executive Functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 8, 135-168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
DuPaul, G. J., Gormley, M. J., Anastopoulos, A. D., Weyandt, L. L., Labban, J., Sass, A. J., … Postler, K. B. (2021). Academic Trajectories of College Students with and without ADHD: Predictors of Four-Year Outcomes. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 50(6), 828–843. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2020.1867990
