🍎2/4 Tools for TEACHERS to support EXECUTIVE FUNCTION: Learn 10 aspects of EF

It’s up, teachers, and welcome back to video two in the series about executive function and how to help your students. In the last video, I helped you identify students who struggle with executive function in a very easy way, and in this one, I’m going to help you really understand executive function.

First, I want to tell you that I have a PDF for you. Go ahead and print that PDF. It will give you a really great, easy checklist you can pin up on your classroom or office wall. It will help lay out some of the aspects of executive function so that you can have a very clear idea of what they are in a handy reference. You can even use it to check off areas when you’re looking at kids and trying to figure out what they’re struggling with. It can help you pinpoint areas where you can support them.

So, I’m going to talk about where executive function happens in the brain, and then I’m going to talk about 10 aspects of executive function. After that, I’ll give you a quick tip you can implement today that’s a real easy win for these kids.

Okay, so the first thing I’m going to talk about is what’s going on in the brain.

Firstly, a lot of people misunderstand executive function. Parents and teachers often misunderstand it, and what ends up happening is that we send the wrong message to kids. Adults mistake “they can’t” for “they won’t.” Some adults think that the student is being willful, lazy, unmotivated, or that they don’t care about school or aren’t trying hard enough. These are stories based on a misunderstanding of executive function.

Rather than thinking that it’s a “won’t,” we need to understand that it’s often a “can’t.” If students legitimately have executive function issues, they genuinely cannot do what we are asking them to do. They do not yet have the skills.

Fortunately, the brain develops from the back forward. The prefrontal cortex — the front 30% or so of the brain — is where executive function takes place. This is the part of the brain that helps us get things done.

Their brains will continue to develop until they are about 25 to 30 years old. That means the better interventions we can provide now, while their brains are in this incredible stage of development, the better off these kids are going to be. They’ll be more able to accomplish the goals and dreams that are important to them.

Again, executive function takes place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This is where these aspects I’m about to mention generally happen. All of these aspects work together, so if it sounds like there’s overlap, there is. They are all interconnected.

Now, the aspects of executive function have to do with execution. The reason it’s called executive function is because these are the functions of the brain that help you execute complex tasks.

For example, lesson planning is a very complex task. It requires all of the things I’m about to mention, and I’ll use lesson planning as an example throughout this discussion.

Before I get into the aspects, I want to say something about the experts who talk about executive function. I love these people — they’ve contributed so much to our world and brought a lot of understanding to these issues. But when they describe the aspects of executive function, it’s often very clinical and difficult to understand.

Experts are also all over the place. I personally talk about 15 to 20 aspects. Some experts say there are three, some say five, and some say eight. Don’t worry about disagreements between experts. Instead, focus on getting a general vibe or understanding of what executive function is really about.

### Aspect #1: Focus, Concentration, and Attention

To me, focus, concentration, and attention are basically the same thing.

If you want to do your lesson planning, you have to focus, concentrate, and pay attention in order to execute the task.

The opposite of focus is distraction or distractibility. These are two sides of the same coin. Executive function requires the ability to focus, pay attention, concentrate, and inhibit distractions.

### Aspect #2: Planning and Time Management

If you are creating a lesson plan, you have to envision the lesson. You have to think in a way that allows you to plan out the steps needed to make the lesson successful. You also have to manage your time carefully.

Teachers with weak executive function know how difficult this can be. It can feel like you’re never getting your lesson plans done. Teachers with strong executive function skills often feel much more capable of accomplishing their planning goals.

Kids with executive function struggles often dislike planners. They lose them, avoid them, or simply don’t “get” planners, calendars, agendas, or time itself. Many experience time blindness.

The front part of the brain helps you think sequentially and make plans, and these kids struggle with planning, which gets them into all kinds of trouble.

### Aspect #3: Organization

These kids often struggle with organization in three ways.

The first is organizing things in physical space: backpacks, folders, lockers, desks, and bedrooms.

Sometimes a kid may appear organized, but if you look closely inside their folders or backpack, things are actually chaotic — papers in the wrong folders, crumpled assignments, random notebooks used for every class, and notes written on random pages instead of sequentially.

The second area is organizing thoughts. Language arts teachers often notice that students with executive function struggles have writing that jumps all over the place. They don’t want to brainstorm, outline, or plan their papers. Instead, they dump all their ideas onto the page and then struggle later when trying to reorganize everything.

The third area is organizing their digital world. These students often struggle with portals, inboxes, passwords, links, and online systems. They can usually find digital things that interest them, but when it comes to school systems and organization, they often lack good habits.

### Aspect #4: Advocacy

This isn’t exactly an aspect of executive function, but it’s closely related.

These kids are often not good at advocating for themselves.

You tell them, “Come meet me at lunch so I can help you,” and they don’t show up. Sometimes they legitimately forgot. You ask them to email you or ask for help, but they often don’t.

Many of them have had negative experiences asking for help. Maybe they asked a teacher for clarification and were told, “I already explained it.” So they begin associating asking for help with discomfort or embarrassment.

### Aspect #5: Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring means being able to reflect on yourself and say, “This worked for me, and this didn’t.”

These students often are not monitoring whether they are staying on task. They don’t naturally ask themselves questions like, “What would help me focus better?”

They often lack strong metacognition — understanding themselves as thinkers, understanding how they process the world, and reflecting on their own learning.

### Aspect #6: Working Memory

Working memory helps you keep track of information in the moment.

For example, if I asked you what 163 + 52 is, your working memory would help you juggle those numbers mentally.

Working memory also affects everyday tasks. If you tell a student, “Go to your locker and grab your calculator,” they may get to the locker and suddenly forget why they’re there.

These students are often unprepared and struggle with many things related to working memory.

### Aspect #7: Emotional Regulation

This is a huge one.

These kids often feel emotions very intensely and are still learning how to regulate those emotions.

Executive function — particularly the prefrontal cortex — helps regulate emotions. Many students struggle with emotional regulation, and some of the students I worry about most are the ones whose struggles are invisible.

A student may appear completely fine in class while internally having a panic attack, feeling depressed, or feeling angry.

Because these struggles are invisible, we have to become better at recognizing subtle signs and co-regulating with students.

### Aspect #8: Flexibility or Pivoting

Flexibility means being able to transition smoothly.

When the bell rings, students have to stop what they’re doing, pack up, go to their locker, move to the next class, and prepare again.

Executive function helps people move through transitions, but many students struggle with this process. Even if we don’t see it externally, transitions can feel overwhelming for them internally.

### Aspect #9: Task Management

When it comes to completing tasks, there are three parts:

* Starting
* Following through
* Finishing

Task initiation means self-starting. These students often procrastinate, but procrastination is not laziness — it’s difficulty with the skill of getting started.

Task persistence means follow-through. Some students begin tasks but struggle to continue.

Completion means actually turning the work in. Some students finish the work but still forget to submit it and end up with a zero.

### Aspect #10: Prioritization

These students often struggle to prioritize the right things.

They may prioritize video games, fun activities, or whatever is most interesting in the moment instead of focusing on long-term goals.

One of the easiest strategies I use is asking students:
“What is your number one priority today?”
or
“What is your most important thing today?”

If they’re in study hall, I might walk up and ask that question directly.

Often, they don’t even know where to start. But that simple question helps narrow down the overwhelming pile of unfinished tasks into one clear focus point.

You can then follow up with:

* “Could you start that right now?”
* “When are you going to start?”
* “How are you going to start?”

That’s it for this video.

We talked about where executive function happens in the brain and explored 10 aspects of executive function. Hopefully, this gave you a good overall understanding, regardless of how different experts break it down.

All of these aspects work together like the spokes of a wheel to help people execute tasks, so there is naturally a lot of overlap.

In the next video, I’m going to talk about how you can take action as a teacher — what you can do in your classroom, with grading, and with differentiation.

My name is Seth Perler. Thank you for watching this video about understanding executive function.

And please, if this helps you, share it with your teacher friends, share it on Facebook, give my YouTube videos a thumbs up, and subscribe on YouTube. Help me get this work to more people so we can better support kids who struggle with executive function.

Finally, thank you to all the teachers, administrators, professionals, therapists, and anyone else watching this. Thank you for dedicating your life to serving kids. We need you. You have one of the most important jobs in the world.

These kids need you.

Thank you for showing up in this lifetime the way you have chosen to.

Take care.