Counselor from Grow Wellness Group outlines strategies to strengthen children’s executive functioning

A counselor at Grow Wellness Group and school counselor at Mattia High School led a parent workshop on executive functioning and offered practical strategies parents can use to help children organize, manage time and build self-control.

The presenter cited Harvard’s definition that executive functions are "mental skills that help individuals perform everyday tasks and meet goals," and emphasized three core areas commonly discussed by researchers: working memory, cognitive flexibility and self-control. She said those skills underpin classroom performance and daily routines and can be strengthened at home through deliberate routines and practice.

The presentation focused first on organization and building systems that let children track progress. The presenter suggested ground rules co-created with children, school planners or calendars, checklists and a consistent system parents and children both agree on. "You want to encourage or help your child create a system that they can thrive in," she said. She recommended regular, nonjudgmental check-ins so children feel trusted but accountable.

Time management strategies included prioritizing schoolwork, using timers, building in natural breaks and teaching chunking and pacing for large tasks. The presenter described chunking as breaking tasks into bite-size pieces and gave the example of writing a paper by focusing on the introduction first. She recommended teaching students to skip a difficult test problem and return to it rather than spending all their time on it.

To strengthen working memory, the presenter suggested using mnemonics and visualization, tailoring strategies to a child’s learning style and encouraging practices such as writing steps down so students can retrieve and apply prior learning during complex tasks. She noted tests of attention and working memory can be affected by how the child is scheduled and rested.

Cognitive flexibility and self-control strategies included problem-solving through open-ended questions, role play and games (for attention to detail), teaching calming and grounding techniques, and using short acronyms to cue behavior. The presenter outlined two simple mnemonics she uses with families: THINK (is it true, honest, inspiring, necessary, kind) and STA (stop, think, act), as quick reminders to pause before reacting.

The presenter emphasized modeling behavior and vulnerability as part of teaching. "Be honest, be vulnerable with your kids and let them know," she said, adding that parents do not need to appear perfect and that children often mimic parental responses to stress.

She also stressed the importance of autonomy in a child’s personal space: letting children help set order in their room or workspace fosters ownership and cooperation. On rewards, she cautioned that external incentives (for example, paying for grades) are not always appropriate and recommended natural, effort‑based acknowledgments when children do their best.

During a question-and-answer portion, the presenter addressed parental concerns about age and development, telling a parent that disorganization at age 12 can be common and depends on environment and what training a child has received. She recommended early communication with teachers and using classroom resources: "It doesn't hurt to reach out to the teacher...you want him to get what he needs so that he can be successful," she said. She also relayed a statistic cited from an author — that children hear many more "no"s than positive cues through childhood — to emphasize the value of using positive language (for example, "walking feet in the house" rather than "don't run").

The presenter pointed parents to online resources for further reading, naming Pathway to Success and Child Mind Institute as sites with additional tips on executive functioning.

The session ran for about 48 minutes and ended with a reminder to stay pragmatic and persistent: identify a child’s specific struggles, model desired skills, build simple routines and adjust systems with the child when they are not working.