Thrive Initiative Blog

Children are constantly learning new skills, including how to follow directions, understand their emotions, and plan their actions as they grow. These types of skills, known as executive functions, develop over time and may be more challenging for some young children to master. However, strengthening these types of skills can help children carry out their plans, work toward their goals, and grow into successful students and well-adjusted adults (Diamond, 2013).  

A new study found that out of 205 children born during the first COVID-19 lockdown, one-third were rated as “having executive function needs” (Botting et al., 2026). Additionally, research suggests that school-aged children, whose education was disrupted by COVID-19, also struggle with executive function (Chichinina & Gavrilova, 2022). So, what can you do to understand your child’s executive functioning and how can you best support him or her?  

Does Your Child Need Executive Function Support? 

In the study, caregivers rated the frequency of their child’s behavior on approximately 60 items. These questions gauge the child’s ability to control their impulses, shift from one activity to another, hold information in their short-term memory, anticipate events, complete a task, temper their emotions, and navigate change. To begin considering your own child’s executive function, you may ask yourself: 

• Is my child able to follow two-step directions? 

• Does my child work on a 2–4-minute task until it is complete? 

• Do my child’s emotions match the scale of a disappointment or frustration? 

• Is my child able to recall recent information relevant to a task at hand? 

• Is my child able to transition from one task to the next? 

If your answer to several of these questions is “no”, your child might benefit from several specific actions designed to strengthen executive function. 

Supporting Executive Function 

Executive function develops over time and with effort. Here are some things you can do to provide your child with opportunities to grow their executive functions (Montrot et al., 2016): 

• Encourage your child to take on new challenges beyond their current abilities. 

• Increase play and social engagement with both peers and adults. 

• Give your child multi-step directions. 

• Explicitly teach routines for life skills like dressing, preparing breakfast, and putting on their shoes. Then, let them do it! 

• Share your thought process with your child for completing tasks. What did you do to make sure you had everything in your bag before you left the house? How did you plan to meet a friend at the park? 

• Recognize but do not relieve frustration. Talking through emotions and using strategies like belly breathing can help re-center your child while encouraging them to solve their problem. 

Here are some things you can do to support your child with executive function needs: 

• Build extra time into your schedule for transitions like leaving the house. 

• Find routines that work for your family and stick to them. 

• Use both words and pictures to list the steps your child should follow to complete a task. 

• Give your child specific micro-instructions. For example, instead of saying “Clean your room”, say “Put your clothes in your hamper and put the toys on the floor in the bin.” 

Children grow and learn at different paces, and strengthening executive functions can be challenging for parents and children. Not only do executive functions require attention, energy, and effort from the child, they also require patience and support from the parent. Building executive functions, however, is a useful life skill that can help to prepare your child to live a fulfilling, healthy, and high-quality life (Diamond, 2013).