Is My Child Struggling With Executive Functioning?
Worried that your child is struggling with skills related to Executive Functioning? Not sure what Executive Functioning is? Looking for answers to help your child succeed? You're in the right place.
Executive Functioning is a term that has gained popularity in recent years. It refers to the skills that we use every single day like planning, paying attention, following directions, and emotional regulation. For more information about what Executive Functioning is, you can read our blog, "What is Executive Functioning?" here.
Executive Functioning at home
Executive Functioning skills are not limited to a single scenario (school, work, home) or age. Here are a few scenarios of how a child's EF struggles will affect them at home.
My Room is Clean already!
You told your son to clean his room 2 hours ago. When you see him, he is in the living room playing on his iPad. When you ask if his room is clean, he says "yes" but when you check, it is still a mess.
Tantrums
You are at the grocery store and your 7-year-old grabs a candy bar in the check-out line. When you ask her to put it back and tell her no, she starts crying and yells "You NEVER let me have anything!"
"Mom! Where is My...."
Your son constantly loses his belongings. Every day he takes his shoes off by the door, but the next morning he searches frantically and says that he can't find them.
"One day we were on the swings...her Grandma's name is...What's for dinner?"
Your daughter begins to tell you about something at school and somehow, through a chain of comments that are hard to follow, ends up talking about something else entirely.
Sound Familiar?
Do these things sound familiar? Executive Functioning struggles present themselves in several different ways. They can make a child appear lazy, unmotivated, or even defiant.
Be sure to stay tuned for our upcoming blogs because all month we will be talking about parenting tips and things you can do at home to help support your child's EF development.
Want to take these strategies further?
Check out our Spotlight PD: Supporting Executive Functioning Through the Grade Levels.
This 1-hour on-demand training gives you a clear, practical framework to support attention, planning, regulation, and goal-setting from kindergarten through high school.
Executive functioning is one of the most talked-about topics in education right now, but most educators are asked to support EF skills without ever being shown how.
This training changes that.
You’ll get a simple 5-step framework, real examples from K–12 classrooms, and ready-to-use tools you can implement right away, without needing a separate curriculum or a total schedule overhaul.
Aligned with research on brain development
Designed for general ed, intervention, special education, or home settings
Includes a printable EF graphic organizer + 1-hour PD certificate
