Executive Function vs. Executive Functioning Skills: What's the Difference?

While executive function and executive functioning skills are strongly related, they are actually different abilities. They each play important roles in helping children, teens, and adults problem-solve and complete goals every day. Understanding the both the differences and how they are related can help educators and parents set the stage for success for our young learners.

What are executive functioning skills?

Executive functioning skills are the brain processes and abilities we use to complete daily tasks and goals. These include skills like planning, organizing, task initiation, and managing time.

One way to pinpoint executive functioning skills is that they are often easy to see in action.

We see planning skills when students can successfully write out a plan before starting a research project. We see organization when students walk in to class with tidy binders and backpacks. We see task initiation when learners get started on an assignment right away without needing multiple reminders or prompts.

It goes without saying that these abilities are woven into almost everything we do. A solid foundation of executive functioning skills can make a huge difference for children, teens, and even us as adults.

What is executive function?

Executive function is the manager or the boss of our brains. It helps cue, direct, and integrate those individual skills to get going when they need to be done. You can also think of executive function like an air traffic controller, in charge of sending off different skills (like planes) to do their jobs at the right time.

In other words, executive function isn’t actually the skill but the mechanism that manages the skills, helping them to do their job at the right time.

What makes executive function more challenging is that we can’t actually “see” it in action. That’s because it’s internal and self-driven.

Imagine a student with a binder for class. When the student gets a paper back from the teacher, he or she might get an internal cue from their brain to put the paper in the correct spot in the back of the binder. This is their executive function saying, “It’s time to organize. Let’s activate our organization skills.”

On the other hand, another student who doesn’t get that cue may take the paper and shove it into their desk mindlessly. While it’s true that we can “see” the binders and level of organization, we cannot actually see the internal cue that the student is or isn’t getting.

Executive function is the manage of our brains. It helps cue and direct the skills when we need to use them.

Why is it important to understand both executive function AND executive functioning skills?

Let’s start with the understanding that both executive function and executive functioning skills are both important. Essentially, these are the difference between the HOW to use a skill and the WHEN to use a skill.

When kids and teens learn executive functioning skills like planning and organization, they are learning HOW to complete these activities. For example, students might need to learn the steps for how to organize their binder or how to plan for an upcoming assessment in math.

Again, these executive functioning skills are critically important. They lay the foundation for what to do. We cannot expect learners to independently complete a task if they don’t know HOW to do it.

At the same time, students need practice, guidance, and support in WHEN to cue themselves to use these skills independently. This means building executive functioning as the manager of their brains.

If we truly want learners to build their independence and become more self-directed, it’s important to focus on strengthening both executive functioning skills and executive function. The good news is that we can model, teach, practice, and support both executive functioning skills and executive function in various ways.

How can we build executive functioning skills?

Teach growth mindset and brain plasticity. In order to help kids and teens build their skills, they first need to know that they CAN! Discuss the power of growth mindset and the ability for our brains to change over time with practice, strategies, and supports.

Teaching executive functioning skills explicitly. Spend time teaching learners how to plan, organize, manage time, and get started on tasks. Sometimes, it’s easy to assume kids and teens know how to organize their binders or make a plan for a long-term project, but the truth is that many learners need extra support with these skills. Consider teaching executive functioning skills and study skills during an advisory period, homeroom, or guided study hall.

Integrate executive functioning skills into content areas. Make it a point to highlight executive functioning skills throughout the day. When assigning a long-term project, come up with strategies for managing time to complete the project on-time. When starting a new unit, take time to clear out old notebooks and discuss organization.

Model and discuss executive functioning skills as life skills. We use executive functioning skills every day in everything we do. It’s important that kids and teens understand these as true life skills and not “just” academic skills. For example, integrate discussions about how athletes use these skills during sports.

Encourage tools and supports as scaffolds. Tools like schedules, to-do lists, planners, calendars, and timers play a critical role in strengthening our executive functioning skills. Discuss different tools and practice using them together. It’s important to find the tools that work for each individual.

Use strategy shares. Give time for individual learners to share how they worked through a task or challenge. For example, allow a student to go to the board to explain and model who they solved a multi-step math problem. Not only is that student learning more deeply as they teach it to others, but this also gives a chance for others to learn a new technique and way of thinking.

6 ways to build executive functioning skills

How can we build executive function?

Use questioning. Once learners have the skills for a task, encourage them to cue themselves with the use of simple questioning. Use phrases like: What do you think you should do next? What step would come next for you? Note: It’s important to not prompt too much here. The key is encouraging students to activate their brains and think about next steps on their own.

Teach and practice routines. Routines help take the guesswork out of multi-step tasks. In turn, this leaves more space for our brains to problem-solve through other challenges. Everyday routines such as beginning morning work or turning in assignments can be a simple way to make activities more manageable.

Teach and practice calming strategies. Simply put, we cannot activate our thinking brain when our feelings brain is overwhelmed. Kids and teens need strategies to help them calm their minds and bodies. Practice calm-down techniques like mindfulness, deep breathing, exercising, and positive self-talk.

Discuss and act out scenarios. Talking through real-life scenarios provides a chance for kids and teens to imagine a situation before it actually happens. An example might be, “You are taking a math test but realize you don’t have a pencil. What do you do?” This is a critical element to executive function, as it forces us to pause, plan, and problem-solve.

Remove distractions. Distractions such as toys and technology are just too much of a distraction for learners to manage entirely on their own. We can very clearly see this with the distraction of smart phones and social media (even for adults!). Help set the stage for success by removing these from the learning environment so kids and teens can give their brains a chance to cue themselves when needed.

Make learning fun and engaging. There is a significant increase in self-regulation abilities when kids and teens are highly motivated to complete the task. From incorporating movement to using student interests, there are multiple ways to make learning a little bit more fun and engaging.

Provide motivational coaching. Building executive function is tough work, especially for kids and teens who struggle in this area. Give extra encouragement, support, and coaching to help kids build their own inner voice.