Executive function and self-regulation skills provide critical supports for learning and development.
· Working memory forms part of this and is the ability to hold information in our mind and use it.
· Inhibitory controls allow us to alter thoughts and impulses in order to resist temptation, distractions and habits and to allow us to pause and think before acting.
· Cognitive flexibility lets us to switch gears and adjust to changing demands, priorities or perspectives.
From 3- 6 years children’s executive function and self-regulation skills grows at a fast pace.
Here are some activities to support executive function and self-regulation. Ultimately the goal is to shift children away from relying on adult regulation.
1. Imaginary Play:
This allows for co-operative play in which rules guide children’s actions as they take on roles. They hold complex ideas in mind and shape their actions to follow these rules, inhibiting impulses or actions that don’t fit.
You can support imaginative play by reading books and providing props and toys. This helps with selective attention, working memory and planning.
2. Story telling:
This encourages children to relate a series of events. With practice children develop more complex and organized plots, holding and manipulating information in working memory. Children can draw their stories, tell them in groups or act them out.
Bilingual children can tell stories in their own language, as fostering fluency in a second language is known to benefit a variety of executive function skills.
3. Movement Challenges/song games:
Synchronizing words to actions and music requires a specific rhythm which supports executive function. All these tasks contribute to inhibitory control and working memory. Songs that repeat, have actions and a complicated clapping rhythm are very effective.
Climbing structures, obstacle courses, balance beams, yoga and dance, test a child’s ability to focus attention, monitor and adjust their actions and persist to achieve a goal.
4. Quieter Games:
Children can be asked to sort by different rules, promoting cognitive flexibility, such as by color or shape or opposites. Board games can be introduced as through strategizing a child’s working memory, inhibitory control and flexibility must work together to support plan-based effective play. An important aspect of developing executive function and self-regulation is having a constant challenge.
Increasingly difficult puzzles can engage children at this age, exercising visual working memory and planning skills.
Cooking is also an excellent activity to practice inhibition. When waiting for instructions working memory is tested as you must hold complicated directions in mind and focus attention when measuring and counting.
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