January 12, 2023
from Dr. Jenn Milam, Middle School director
Editor’s Note: Periodically, you will find a guest Head’s Message here from one of MPA’s administrators. We hope you enjoy reading their thoughts and reflections about life at MPA.
As a curricularist, someone formally trained in curriculum, teaching, and learning, I am consistently in awe of the advances we make in the fields of science, the learning sciences, psychology, and sociology. Each of these disciplines and others build a fuller picture of how our brains work and how we learn—each lending something new to how we can improve the daily learning lives of young people in schools.
Take, for example, the learnings about dyslexia in the last two decades. It used to be that we thought dyslexia was simply transposing numbers and letters, which made it hard for a person to read. We now know so much more about how dyslexia presents in different brains, how it impacts brain functions like automaticity and long-term memory storage, processing time, and yes, adeptness and proficiency in reading. With this knowledge, states across our country have enacted legislation to change the way teachers are prepared, funding has increased toward educational support of language learning and reading disabilities, and learning and reading specialists are having even greater success with helping young people impacted by dyslexia develop skills that carry them well on their way to personal and academic achievement. All of that is because we learned more about the actual function of the brain!
Our understanding of executive function skills has developed similarly and more recently to bring us to a more comprehensive view of skill development, effective teaching through scaffolding, and challenges that some young people face in building these essential blocks toward positive self-regulation and independence. McCloskey and Perkins (2013) share that executive functions are not a “unitary trait” but rather are a series of cueing strategies, mental processes, and practices that direct the use of other mental constructs like perceptions, cognition, emotion, and actions (p. 9). Most important for educators, parents, and caregivers is the knowledge and very clear understanding that executive function skills are just that: SKILLS! Like pitching a baseball, kicking a soccer ball, or playing an instrument, people are not born with skills—they are learned through teaching, positive reinforcement, practice, and attention to the explicit and implicit application.
To share how these skills develop over time and build upon one another, in both linear and recursive ways, it can be helpful to think across the school years, or in Mounds Park Academy’s case divisions, to demonstrate how proficiency in accessing and using executive function skills can support personal and academic success.
At the earliest ages of childhood, PreK-4, it is essential to build a foundation of skills and self-regulatory behaviors. Again, these are not inherently hard-wired in young children; they are taught through modeling, direct teaching, and positive support. In these early years, we can focus on the following:
- Response Inhibition: This is the learning of how to respond appropriately in any given situation. In this case, we might think of handling disappointment or anger (both natural emotions for young ones!) in a productive way rather than hitting or biting. Most of the time when young people struggle with response inhibition, it is because they lack the skills to express their needs, emotions, or wants. Helping to calmly reinforce and practice skills is helpful for our youngest learners (and our big kids, too).
- Working Memory: This begins being built as soon as a baby is born. They begin learning, laying down foundational experiences that will guide future responses, interactions, and communication. It can be noted that as we get older, we rely more on our working memory, and those scaffolds, to execute tasks, decision making, and build social relationships. You can work with your young people to build and strengthen working memory through repetitive tasks, the practice of math facts, and routine.
- Emotional Regulation: This may perhaps be the hardest to teach and practice because, as humans, we are all in a state of continuous learning to regulate our own emotions. Ashley Cooper, MPA school counselor, shares that it is important to name emotions, talk about what is felt in those various emotions, and to accept that all emotions are a natural part of the human experience. The important part about emotions is to feel them, note them, and process them. Parents and caregivers can best support emotional regulation by first regulating themselves, and then helping young people to process in a way that acknowledges, values, and affirms in healthy ways.
These first three executive function skills, some would argue, are the most difficult and the most important. And that is, again, why it is critical to note that practicing these skills, daily (even hourly!) is critical for healthy development.
In the next stages of executive function development, we find more advanced skills that support the development of increased independence and self-efficacy. You’ll note that these are skills that are explicitly taught at MPA, in various ways, because they are also some of the most critical to academic success. In the middle years of childhood, these are the next building blocks:
- Planning and Prioritization: The use of organizational tools (planners, schedules, schoolwork routines and yes, even deadlines) help students learn that not organizing and planning can result in stress, missed opportunity, and frustration in the way of low grades and feelings of overwhelm.
- Sustained Attention: In all schools, and especially at MPA, the developmental sequence of classes, increase in length of instructional periods, and scaffolded curriculum across all disciplinary areas, helps to build skill in sustained attention.
- Task Initiation: As young people enter their middle years, it’s important to offer them tasks that require their attention, their initiation, and what my grandmother used to call “stick-to-it-iveness.” Young people need to practice having responsibilities and initiating the work to complete them, over time, and independently.
The adults in their life must also practice and model patience, calm, and supportive dispositions while the adolescent brain adjusts to these new skills and newfound independence!
As our children enter later adolescence and young adulthood, executive function skills become more global in nature, as their context in school, their first job, managing social interactions, and preparing for college or their first career demands. While continuing to practice the first six skills outlined across all areas of their daily life, the Upper School years are characterized by a focus on:
- Time and Task Management: During this time of development, in school and beyond, young people are learning to tackle a big task (think term paper for English or a large project in Physics) with increased independence and support to manage that task over time. While we’ve all felt the pain of procrastination at one point in our lives or another, learning how to manage a task over time is an important skill (even if one chooses not to).
- Goal-Directed Persistence: This is the hallmark of high school years in many ways as we work on deferred gratification, understanding the actions that get one from Point A to Point B. Developing the skill of persistence, and practicing it throughout one’s life is an invaluable skill and essential in so many areas of emotional, mental, physical, and professional success.
- Metacognition: As young people enter adulthood, the ability to reflect, ponder, think about their own thinking, empathize with others, regulate personal needs in relation to others or an idea, are all hallmarks of strong metacognitive development. Even developmental psychologists will tell us that metacognitive abilities are something we continue to develop well into adulthood as we practice them at important pivotal or relevant moments across our lives.
The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard shares that, “Executive function and self-regulation skills depend on three types of brain function: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. These functions are highly interrelated, and the successful application of executive function skills requires them to operate in coordination with each other.” Moreover, we need to remember that every human is on their own developmental trajectory and learning and mastering these skills can take longer for some than others. Certainly, for young people who are neurodivergent or those impacted by learning disabilities, more and varied practice will be required, alongside patience and more time. Dr. Jules Nolan, MPA’s school psychologist, urges us all to understand that executive functioning skills are skills, and no skill is learned through shaming, punishing, or criticizing by dysregulated adults. Skills are learned through repeated exposure, feedback, encouragement, and practice. We must all continue to learn and refine our own skills and patience alongside our young people to build strong, confident, and capable human beings.
A special thanks to Dr. Jules Nolan, Ms. Ashley Cooper, and Robyn Kramer for contributing their wisdom and expertise to this message. We at MPA are fortunate to have some of the brightest minds as part of our instructional team to serve all students well.
Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. Executive Function & Self-Regulation.
McClosky, G. and Perkins, L.A. (2013). ESSENTIALS in Executive Functions Assessment. John Wiley & Sons.
