Executive Functions Are Critical for Academic Success

Ekoniak Tutoring
Mar 30
5 min read

Updated: Apr 6

Introduction

Hello! My name is Keaton Ekoniak, and I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan with a B.S.E in Industrial & Operations Engineering in 2023. I am so glad that you are here and have chosen to learn more about executive functioning! If you are a parent of a young student or if you’re currently a middle or high school student, this article will provide you with some of the insight that I wish I had prior to starting college.

What is Executive Functioning and Why is it Important?

Executive functioning skills are defined as the “mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully” according to Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child.

While humans aren’t naturally born with these skills, they are essential to navigating daily life independently. Harvard likens executive functioning skills to an “air traffic control system.” Just as an air traffic control system is required to manage multiple entities at one time, such as planes landing and taking off or buses transporting passengers to their gates, independent adolescents and adults must similarly balance a multitude of responsibilities in their daily lives using executive functioning skills. For many young adults, these skills are used to balance school, sports, friends, extracurricular activities, hobbies, and part or full-time jobs.

So what are executive function skills? Executive function skills include all of the soft skills that are used for learning, development, and independence. This list includes the following: planning, organization, time management, initiation of tasks, focus, setting goals, prioritization, communicating effectively, and more. While this is just a short list, there are a multitude of soft skills that fall under the umbrella of executive functions. If you’d like to learn more, check out the Executive Function section of Harvard’s resource library.

How Can Executive Functioning Help Your Child Succeed?

Executive functioning skills are required for nearly any daily activity, from deciding when to set a morning alarm to managing a group of people to accomplish a goal. These skills are applicable to everyone from children to CEOs of Fortune-500 companies, however, I’m going to talk about how executive functions can benefit middle and high school students. Mastering executive functioning can make a large impact for middle and high school students in the following areas:

Time Management: One of the most important executive functions is time management. High school students often juggle multiple classes and extracurricular activities, which require effective time management skills. Effective time management can help students to allocate study time, balance curricular and extracurricular responsibilities, and help avoid becoming overwhelmed.
Organization: One of the easiest areas in which nearly all students can improve lies in their organizational skills. Staying organized ensures that students know where to look for assignments, homeworks, and study material for each of their classes, and also helps students to avoid losing or forgetting about assignments.
Problem Solving and Study Skills: These two facets of executive functioning help to improve students’ test-taking skills. Although each student learns differently, there are proven methods that students can use to promote a long-term understanding of the material. In fact, students who utilize proven study strategies often spend less time learning the material than students who cram the day before a test!
Planning & Goal Setting: Planning and goal setting are two skills that students can use to balance their busy schedules. Daily planners are essential for keeping track of homework, and many students use Google Calendar to visually plan out their weeks, set aside dedicated study time, and keep track of planned events with friends or family.
Task Initiation: A less well-known executive function is the ability to start tasks easily. It is no mystery that students like to procrastinate their school work. What most don’t know is that there are proven strategies to identify and mitigate the root causes of the procrastination. Effective use of these strategies enables students to avoid procrastination and the stress that comes with it.

How to Begin Improving Your Executive Functioning Skills

Like mastering anything, building the executive function skills required to effectively balance daily responsibilities requires years of learning. Executive function learning is often prioritized at a young age as parents and teachers encourage teaching their children how to work with others, follow rules, avoid impulsive actions, and prioritize certain activities over others. However, building these skills falls out of the spotlight in middle and high school, and a focus on learning individual subjects takes priority. While mastering individual subjects is important, executive function skills should continue to be prioritized throughout high school. Otherwise, students will not be equipped to navigate college or a full-time job, which both come with increasing levels of independence. Additionally, research has shown that adolescence is one of the most important times for students to build positive habits, as displayed in Figure 1 below, from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

To learn more about the “Core Skills” mentioned in Figure 1, please refer to the attached Harvard article.

It is imperative that middle and high school students continue to build their executive functioning abilities on a regular basis. Doing this will prepare them to excel in the many responsibilities expected of them as they enter secondary education or the workforce. To help your student build the executive function skills required to succeed inside and outside of the classroom, it is important to first understand their executive functioning strengths and weaknesses. The goal of this exercise is to understand how your child approaches and balances their current responsibilities. These can be related to school, extracurricular activities, or school-life balance. A great way to start is by asking yourself some questions and to observe how your child completes various activities:

Does my child complete tasks independently, or does someone else need to remind/convince them?
How does my child organize their school work? Are missing assignments a rarity or a commonality?
Is my child on a path to be independent by the time they graduate from high school?
Do they plan ahead, or do they live spontaneously? (Spontaneity can be beneficial, as long as it is sustainable)
Is my child able to focus when they complete their homework? If not, what is the main distractor?
Which executive function skills would I like my child to master by the time they finish high school?

These questions will help you to set a great starting point as you work to understand your child’s executive functioning. Once you have answered these questions and have set goals for your child’s executive functioning abilities, it is important to begin helping your child implement sustainable habits that develop their executive function skills. For example, with many of my clients, I start by encouraging them to write down their homework assignments in their planners. Although this is a very small task, once they habitually organize their homework assignments, it is very easy to help them build other productive habits.

For more information on how to develop your child’s executive functioning skills, check out Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child database. I have also shared a few executive function tips that helped me to stand out as a student and gain admission to the University of Michigan’s prestigious Engineering School. You can find the article link attached here. For additional help, please reach out to me at keaton@ekoniaktutoring.com. I would love to help your child master their executive functioning skills so that they can achieve their goals, academic or otherwise!