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| Building EF/SR skills in kids
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Harvard University's Centre on the Developing Child has released a guide on how to promote and enhance executive function and self-regulation (EF/SR) skills in children.
According to the Centre on the Developing Child, EF/SR skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. The centre says that while children are not born with these skills, they have the opportunity to develop them through engaging in a range of age-appropriate activities at home and in early childhood settings.
The Centre website says that EF/SR skills depend on three types of brain function: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. These functions are highly interrelated. Each type of skill draws on elements of the others, and the successful application of executive function skills requires them to operate in coordination with each other.
- Working memory governs our ability to retain and manipulate distinct pieces of information over short periods of time.
- Mental flexibility helps us to sustain or shift attention in response to different demands or to apply different rules in different settings.
- Self-control enables us to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses.
The Centre says that children need support to build these skills in early childhood education and care programs and at home.
"Adults can facilitate the development of a child's executive function skills by establishing routines, modeling social behavior, and creating and maintaining supportive, reliable relationships. It is also important for children to exercise their developing skills through activities that foster creative play and social connection, teach them how to cope with stress, involve vigorous exercise, and over time, provide opportunities for directing their own actions with decreasing adult supervision," says the Centre website.
To support the development of these skills the Centre has made its Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills Activities Guide freely available on its website.
The guide is relevant for very young children right through to adolescents and offers practical tips and tools to encourage learning and development in these EF/SR, which the centre says all children have the potential to develop through interactions and practice.
The 16-page guide, which is available for download below, describes a variety of activities and games that represent age-appropriate ways for adults, including early childhood teachers, to support and strengthen the various components of EF/SR in children.
Each chapter contains suggested activities which may be suitable for the different age groups and the guide can be read in its entirety or chapter-by-chapter.
To read more and download a copy of the guide click here.
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