Developing children’s executive functions and learning capability while playing

Reviewed by: Dr. Winnie Wing Sze Wong, a play expert

From putting on clothes to finishing homework, executive function plays an important role in helping us organize and manage every task in our daily life. It involves an array of highly-interrelated mental skills including cognitive flexibility, working memory and self-control. They are operating in close coordination with each other, for facilitating the behaviors required to plan and attain goals. It is also vital in developing children’s ability to learn.

Developing executive function through play

Children are born with the potential to develop executive function skills, particularly though teaching and learning. For younger children, play is actually the key to developing these mental skills. As a parent, while loving to see your children playing, you are encouraged to intentionally weave play into their daily routine, fully engage with them, and properly plan out activities for their different growth stages.

18 Months or below – Enlightenment phase

Even as early as this stage, infants are actively and healthily developing their core executive function skills while interacting with adults. Hide-and-find games and predictable rhymes are great ways to help infants exercise working memory and practise basic self-control skills. Imitation or copying games can also be good alternatives, while infants’ attention can be tested out at the same time. In any event, infants should be the ones deciding how long to play and parents should switch to other activities when appropriate. Sensory play will then be a suggestion for the infants at this stage. During the process, parents can switch games of stimulating different senses, including sight, smell and touch, to keep your children engaged.

18 to 36 Months – Development phase

Toddlers are becoming more active physically, and their spoken language skills develop along with their motor skills also at this age. Parents can introduce different age-appropriate activities to the little ones, to strengthen various components of their executive function. While active games are useful for practicing children’s concentration, additional game rules will help exercise their working memory. Meanwhile, parents can bring your children to the park or other outdoor play areas. Gross motor skills can be properly exercised through making good use of the facilities within. Matching or sorting games can also be equally-good training, and changing requirements within are indeed great tests for cognitive flexibility. 

Age 3 to 5 – Acceleration phase

At this age, executive function skills develop exponentially. Looking for activities exercising self-control and working memory? Musical games will be fun and effective.

Let your children dance when the music plays, and freeze when it stops! Parents can also support and encourage children’s pretend plays by reading books to them. During the imaginary plays, preschoolers are practicing their cognitive flexibility. Parents should always be ready to say “YES”, and provide reaction to their children’s imagination. For instance, when sitting on the sofa, your children suddenly start the imaginary play at the sea, yell out, “HEY! Shark!”, and moving their legs off the ground. In order to avoid “killing” the creativity, parents can respond immediately by following suit, and say, “Look out! Don’t let the shark bite you!” Through the positive feedback, your children will be encouraged to further the imagination and continue to develop their own stories. Want to test out the core execution function skills in one-go? Try out games like tangram, memory card games or board games. Gradually moving onto the next phase, with children become increasingly independent, parents can try to reduce the support provided.

Learn through play at child’s own pace

As the brain grows, executive function skills continue to develop and they can still be improved until early adulthood. Parents can just let children learn at their own pace with different games and activities. Stop comparing, but rather, set “step-by-step” benchmarks for children to improve during the process. This will help lay the foundation for a lifetime of successful learning. It is also essential for the parents to put aside their phones. Start to spare time playing with your children daily and become real playmates of them from today!    

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Reference:

1. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2020, March 24). Executive Function & Self-Regulation.
2. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2015). Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence.
3. Suh, L. (2019, August 22). Building Executive Function Skills Can Be Fun. Edutopia. 
4. Experience in Action Games and the Effects on Executive Control. The Inquisitive Mind magazine issue 8 2015 / Issue 27. (2015, August). 
5. Rahim, M. H., Siddo, R., & Issa, M. (2015, October 29). Tangram-base Problem Solving in Radical Constructivist Paradigm: High School Student-Teachers Conjectures. RahimSiddoIssa6.