How to Boost Executive Function in Tweens?

 

Executive functions involve life skills that help us concentrate, plan, prioritize and work toward goals. It also helps us manage our responses and emotions effectively while adapting to new and unexpected situations. Because executive functions supervise and coordinate various cognitive, behavioural, and emotional tasks, they make it possible for us to deal with complex challenges and come out triumphant. But executive functions are often challenging to grasp for teenagers. It’s because our executive function skills are not fully developed until early adulthood. But these skills start to progress from the first year of life, so you can have an early start with pre-nursery schools in Noida to boost your children's executive functioning.

 After completing their nursery school education, primary and middle school students suddenly face more tricky schedules, complex academic work, and expanding curriculum. While some children struggle academically, others have difficulty in regulating their emotions. But teenagers who fall short in executive function skills may struggle in becoming self-independent and making plans for the future, such as school admissions2021. Hence, they need to learn some form of executive function skills during childhood to manage it all.

 These skills are vital for learning and development and also enable positive behaviour. Hence, it will allow them to make healthy choices for themselves and their families. When children develop executive function and self-regulation skills early in their formative years, they will reap personal and social benefits all their life. But unlike other developmental milestones, parents need to invest more time and efforts to help their children reach executive function milestones. That's why some children experience minimal challenges or delays in achieving these skills.

 Teenagers often have a problem with self-regulation and go through a rebellious phase. But they're also expanding their network of friends while getting bestowed with new and complicated school schedules. With increased academic demands and after-school obligations, they have a lot to keep track of, especially middle school children. Hence, teens and parents need evidence-based methods to strengthen executive function.

 As one of the top 10 schools in Noida, we have pored over recent research in the field to find proven and evidence-based strategies to boost executive functioning in kids:

Let children talk to themselves.

In preschool, kids learn by repeating what their educators say to them out loud, which help them comprehend the statement. Hence, they should continue this tradition as a form of self-management to exert self-control throughout their lives. Ultimately, it will help them develop a moral compass which adults know as their inner voice. It helps them confront moral dilemmas, find ways to get out of sticky situations and push themselves to try new challenges. It allows them to step outside their comfort zone and broaden their perspectives.

You also have to teach them about consequences to help them manage stressful experiences like tests or arguments with friends. It can also mean reconsidering a pressing problem from the perspective of their peers and asking what your parents do in this situation? When they reframe and talk through an issue more positively, they will come out unscathed.

Recognize your children's pressure points.

Academic success and emotional safety are directly linked with one another. When children feel emotionally safe and ready, they tend to believe they can do anything. Children feel most overwhelmed during their exams. Hence, a period of self-reflection during these testing times might be crucial to success in study. Even researchers and educators found that when students took some time to reflect on their preparation and spoke words of encouragement to themselves before a test, their scores improved significantly. However, prompting emotional stability shouldn’t be confined to test-taking. We should prepare children emotionally before challenges like study habits, sporting events, or academic projects through a pep talk.

 Help them understand the reason.

When children learn new skills, they take much interest in the learning process when they know the purpose behind it. Hence, you must help them understand the rationale behind your actions, or they might treat it as a waste of time. Depending on their interests, kids are constantly weighing things to see which one is worth their effort. But when you explain the rationale behind your strategy, you pique their interest, which encourages them to follow suit.