Page 10 - Course Handbook 2023

Executive Function Skills help us
Unit 2: Brain Control
What skills do we need to do well in learning & play?
to do well – in learning and life.

WHAT WE KNOW / UNDERSTAND PICTURE PROMPTS

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS ARE VITAL FOR LEARNING
AND PLAY. THEY ARE NOT FULLY DEVELOPED UNTIL
ADULTHOOD. THEY ARE NOT SO STRONG IN STRESS.

▪ Executive Function skills help us to process and remember
information, focus attention, adapt to change, problem-solve

and compromise, inhibit unhelpful responses, manage emotions
and control energy. They are critical to both learning and play
and to success in and outside of school.

▪ When a child is struggling at home or at school, it is nearly
always due to difficulties in one or more of the Executive
Function skills.

▪ Executive Function skills are housed in the pre-frontal cortex
area of the brain which doesn’t finish maturing until 25 years of

age.

▪ The connections between parts of the brain in children and
young people are not as strong as they are in adults.

▪ This means that when a young person has big feelings (pleasant
or unpleasant), it will be harder for them to think rationally, act
and speak deliberately and make good decisions in that moment
– however much they intended to keep to promises and do well.