Does executive function feel like the missing piece for your child?
Seeds of Learning® helps parents understand what may be behind their child’s struggles with focus, learning, behavior, or independence, so they can respond with the right support instead of more reminders, frustration, or guesswork.
You’ve explained the directions, offered reminders, and helped your child through the steps. Yet homework, getting ready, or everyday routines still feel harder than you’d expect.
What you’re noticing can be a starting point for understanding where your child needs support.
Start With What You’re Noticing
Common EF Challenges
Executive function challenges can affect more than attention and organization. They may show up in how your child understands information, approaches tasks, responds to change, and works independently. Does any of this sound familiar?
Starting and working independently: Needs repeated reminders to begin or follow through, even with familiar tasks.
Following directions and remembering: Misses instructions or loses track of steps, ideas, or information while using them.
Noticing and understanding: Overlooks details, gets distracted, or struggles to make sense of what they see or hear.
Expressing ideas: Knows something but has trouble organizing and explaining their thoughts.
Pausing and making decisions: Acts before taking in information or needs help weighing options and consequences.
Handling frustration and change: Becomes overwhelmed by challenges, shifting routines, or unexpected changes.
Planning and managing time: Struggles to organize materials, identify steps, or estimate how long tasks will take.
Finishing and adjusting: Leaves tasks unfinished, misses mistakes, or struggles to change an approach that isn’t working.
Your child may manage something one day and struggle with it the next. Changes in the task, setting, or support available can affect how well they use their skills.
EF can help explain what you’re seeing
A behavior tells you what happened. Understanding executive function can help you explore what made that moment difficult.
For example:
They haven’t started their homework. They may want to finish but struggle to identify the first step or form a plan.
They didn’t follow your directions. They may have heard you but lost part of the instruction before acting on it.
They rushed and missed mistakes. They may need support pausing, checking their work, and recognizing what needs to change.
They can do it with you beside them. Your reminders may be helping them keep track of the goal and decide what to do next.
They become upset when plans change. They may struggle to shift away from the plan they were holding in mind.
These are possibilities to explore. The same behavior can have different explanations, and executive function may be one part of the picture.
Looking more closely helps you choose support based on where your child gets stuck.
Then, Understand Executive Function
What is executive function (EF)?
Executive function is self-direction: the ability to guide your thoughts and actions toward a desired outcome.
Your child uses executive function to get ready for school, explain an idea, solve a problem, or work through a frustrating moment.
It involves skills that help them:
Focus on relevant information.
Hold information in mind and use it.
Pause before responding.
Adjust when expectations or situations change.
Plan, begin, and carry out a task.
Notice how things are going and make changes along the way.
These skills work together with how your child takes in and makes sense of information. They develop throughout childhood and continue maturing into adulthood.
How does EF affect development and learning?
Learning involves more than knowing an answer. Children need to take in information, connect it to what they know, and use it to respond.
Executive function helps coordinate that process across everyday experiences:
Reading: Holding earlier information in mind while making sense of the next sentence.
Math: Keeping track of the steps and checking whether an answer makes sense.
Communication: Organizing ideas, following a conversation, and adjusting an explanation.
Social interactions: Pausing before reacting and responding when a game or plan changes.
Everyday routines: Remembering the goal, gathering what’s needed, and following through.
When these demands are difficult to manage, your child may struggle to show what they know or use a skill independently. Understanding those demands can help you identify the support they need.
How does EF relate to what you are noticing?
Start with one task that regularly gets difficult. Watch what happens before, during, and after the moment your child gets stuck.
Ask: “When does the process become difficult, and what happens in that moment?”
Consider:
Do they understand what they’re being asked to do?
Can they hold onto the information long enough to use it?
Do they know how to begin and what comes next?
Do they notice when something isn’t working?
What help are you providing when they succeed?
For example, if your child completes the first step but forgets the second, try keeping both steps visible. Then watch whether they need fewer reminders.
Observing, trying a specific support, and noticing what changes can help you make more informed decisions about how to support your child’s learning and independence.
Finally, Learn How to Support Your Child
Know what to do next!
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See the Impact
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Jackie Romito, RN and Dr. Brian Romito
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Vanessa Edson, HT, ASCP, CM Akron Children’s Hospital
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Emily Stark Cudnik, M.A., CCC-SLP; Speech-Language Pathologist; Lakewood, Ohio
First Executive Function, Then Learning.
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