Fostering Key Cognitive Skills Called Executive Function
through Children’s Play
Shannon D. Lockhart: [email protected]
Definition of Executive Function-- refers to a group of skills that helps us to focus on multiple streams of
information at the same time, monitor errors, make decisions in light of available information, revise
plans as necessary, and resist the urge to let frustration lead to hasty actions.
Three Components of Executive Function
1. Working Memory—capacity to hold and manipulate information in our heads over short
periods of time (e.g., remembering a phone number long enough to dial it; stop reading
when interrupted and go back to the same place; follow multiple steps—go put your
jackets away, wash your hands and sit at the table for lunch; or taking turns in group
activities.
2. Inhibitory Control—skill we use to master and filter our thoughts and impulses so we can
resist temptation, distractions, and habits and to pause and think before we act (e.g., push
aside daydreams so we can work; Biting our tongue and say something nice; controls
emotions rather than yelling, etc.,; waiting your turn; stop before hitting; ignore
distractions; stay on task.
3. Cognitive or Mental Flexibility—capacity to nimbly switch gears and adjust to changed
demands, priorities, or perspectives (e.g., saying something to a co-worker privately, but
something different in a staff meeting; a friend asks about her haircut and you don’t like it
but because you don’t want to hurt her feelings you say something different; changing
plans).
A closer look at Executive Function
Executive Functions
Working memory and recall— holding facts in mind; accessing
long term memory.
Activation, arousal, and effort— getting started; paying attention;
finishing work.
Controlling emotions— ability to tolerate frustration; thinking
before acting or speaking.
Internalizing language— using “self-talk” to control one’s
behavior and direct future actions.
Taking an issue apart, analyzing the pieces, reconstituting and
organizing it into new ideas— complex problem solving.
©2013 HighScope Educational Research Foundation
Routine
Planning and Recall
Work time and small
group time
Problem solving
Work time and problem
solving
Work time and small
group time
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5 factors of Intrinsic Motivation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Interest
Enjoyment
Sense of control
Probability of success
Feelings of competence
Why is Play Important?
1. Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, language,
social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.
2. Child Driven Play allows children to:
a. Practice decision-making skills
b. Move at their own pace
c. Discover their own interests
d. Engage fully in what they want to pursue
e. Problem solve with materials
f. Practice skills in resolving conflicts
3. One central component of executive function is the ability to self-regulate which children
practice out skills to control through play.
4. Make believe play is a powerful tool in developing “what’s called private speech: They talk
to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it.”
5. Private speech is highest during make-believe play. This type of self-regulating language has
been shown in many studies to be predictive of executive functions.
6. Play alters systems in the brain having to do with emotion, motivation and well-being (i.e.,
pleasure and enjoyment, emotional regulation; stress response systems, attachments and
learning and creativity.
Strategies for Supporting and Scaffolding Executive Functions
1. Plan and recall with your children: When children are able to follow through on their
intentions successfully, they develop a sense of initiative and enterprise.
2. Build in enough time in your routine to support children’s complex play:
a. Must be a child initiated time, undisturbed by adult directions.
b. Purposeful when children have a plan/ideas to carry out.
c. At least 45 minutes to an hour (ECERS).
d. Support and extend pretend play.
e. Leads to complex play.
f. Encourage children to talk about what they are doing.
©2013 HighScope Educational Research Foundation
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3. Intentional Planning and Interactions
a. Play hide and seek games/ games that require children to stop and think.
b. Make up stories with children to act out.
c. Model private speech.
d. Teach in context with choices (child size vs. adult size).
e. Play as Partners.
f. Model roles and role playing.
g. Intentionally plan for activities that support self-regulation and executive function
throughout the routine.
h. Implement the 6 steps to problem solving:
1. Approach calmly, stopping hurtful actions
2. Acknowledge feelings
3. Gather information
4. Restate problem
5. Ask for ideas for solutions and choose one together
6. Give follow-up support as needed
4. Use Other-Regulation:
a. Give children opportunities to other-regulate.
b. Plan experiences in which children have to identify mistakes in the teacher’s work or in
written information.
c. Plan activities in which children who have trouble with self-regulating can regulate other
people’s use of that target behavior.
d. Pair other-regulation and self-regulation with an external mediator and private speech.
Implementation Plan
Think about your children and classroom. What strategies do you want to put in place to begin
supporting executive functions in children’s play?
©2013 HighScope Educational Research Foundation
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Resources
Alliance for Childhood. (n.d.) Time for Play, Every Day: It’s Fun – and Fundamental. Retrieved July 23 2009, from
http://drupal6.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/pdf/projects/play/pdf_fil
es/play_fact_sheet.pdf
Bodrova, E. & Leong, D. J. (2007). Tools of the Mind. The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education.
Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.
Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive
Function. (Feb. 2011)Center for the Developing Child Harvard University.
Christakis, D.A., Zimmerman, F.J., DiGiuseppe, D.L. & McCarty, C. A. (April 2004). Early Television Exposure and
Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children. American Academy of Pediatrics, (Vol. 113) No. 4, 708-713.
Dendy, C.A. (February 2002). Executive Function…“what is this anyway?” Retrieved February 29, 2008, from
http://www.chrisdendy.com/executive.htm.
Ginsburg, K.R. (January, 2007). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining
Strong Parent-Child Bonds. American Academy of Pediatrics, (Vol. 119), No. 1, 182-191.
Henig, Robin M. Taking Play Seriously. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/magazine/17play.html
Lester, S. and Russell, W. (2010) Children’s right to play: An examination of the importance of play in the lives of
children worldwide. Working Paper No. 57. The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Levin, D. (2007) Meeting Children’s Needs in Violent Times. Early Childhood Education: An International
Encyclopedia. R. New & M. Cochran (Eds.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Miller, E. & Almon, J. (March 2009). Crisis in The Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School.
www.allianceforchildhood.org.
Montie, J., Xiang, Z., & Schweinhart, L. (2007). The role of preschool experience in children’s development:
Longitudinal findings from 10 Countries. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (July 1994). Media Violence in Children’s Lives. Retrieved
February 29 2008, http://www.naeyc.org/positionstatements.
Packer, L. (December 9, 2004). What are the Executive Functions? Retrieved July 23, 2009 from
http://www.schoolbehavior.com/conditions_edfoverview.htm.
Spiegel, A. (February 29, 2008). Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control. Retrieved February 29, 2008, from
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=76838388.
Zimmerman, B.J. (2001). Theories of Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview and
Analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Eirbaum.
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