Take a peek in your youngsters room. Are the drawers all shut on their dresser? Is their dirty laundry in the laundry basket? Are their toys put away?

If you laughed hysterically at the idea that your kid can shut a drawer after opening it, you’re not alone.   Although your child begins developing executive function skills in their infancy, many children continue to struggle with other aspects of this skill well into adulthood.

Executive function is your ability to control yourself, it includes response inhibition, emotional control, working memory, task initiation, and goal persistence. A baby might show response inhibition by smiling at an adult they recognize—but not smiling at ones that they don’t.

As your child grows they learn to control tantrums, put the cap back on the toothpaste, and finish their homework.

Improving Executive Function

No matter what age your child is, there are activities that can help your child learn to master executive function. The benefits of this are enormous. A child who can focus on a task and complete it, control their emotions, and also their bodies, are better able to handle problems in life.

How you help improve executive function depends on their age, but here are a few activities you can do.

Play Board Games

Puzzles and board games can be wonderful ways to build executive function. They can help with working memory and emotional control, while also helping them work toward a goal. Board games are ideal because there are games suited to kids as young as 3, helping them to get an early start.

Coloring, Drawing and Crafts

Coloring can also help build focus and goal completion, as well as crafts for more advanced children. By learning to add detail or color within the lines, you are learning how to spend more time on a focused task.

Games for babies

Even babies can benefit from developing their executive function. Games such as “peek-a-boo” and learning to clap a rhythm to music can be the beginnings of focus work and attention. As they grow, these games can advance to hiding a toy under a blanket and then finding it, and grow from there into more advanced scavenger hunts for toys as your child develops.

How developing executive function can help

Even adults can benefit from developing their executive function skills. Executive function can help a child stay focused enough to clean their room on their own, finish their homework, or perform well on a test. It can help adults learn how to stay organized in their own homes, work, and lives.

We can all benefit from that little bit of extra focus, and if we can give our kids that gift, it will carry on as a useful part of the rest of their lives. (Plus, they may grow up to actually be the person who puts the toilet paper on the spindle.)

Executive function is important, and luckily most kids enjoy the tasks that lead to its development.