Page 41 - Course 4 Skills and Strengths Part 2 Executive Function Skills

What does this unit teach us?

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS ARE VITAL FOR LEARNING AND PLAY. THEY ARE NOT FULLY DEVELOPED

UNTIL ADULTHOOD. THEY ARE WEAKENED IN STRESS.

Executive Function skills help us to process and remember information, focus

attention, adapt to change, problem-solve and compromise, inhibit unhelpful
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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
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in one or more of the Executive Function skills.

Executive Function skills are housed in the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain
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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
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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
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good decisions in that moment – however much they intended to keep to promises

and do well.