Everyone benefits when children have the opportunity to develop executive functioning skills. As we all know children are not born with these skills, just the ability to develop them. Home and school work together to assist in their development. This is usually done by establishing routines, modelling positive social behaviour and having reliable and supportive relationships. Over time, schools encourage greater responsibility and independence in their students. When we do this, we are really giving students more opportunity to exercise their executive functioning and self-regulation skills. Students can do this because right from infancy they should have received the scaffolding required to grow their skills incrementally.
According to the Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University, these skills require three types of brain function: working memory; mental flexibility; and self- control.
Working memory allows us to retain and use information.
Mental Flexibility helps us to sustain or shift attention in response to different rules, settings or demands.
Self-control enables us to set priorities and resist impulsive actions or responses.
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Those who coped best with online learning at home were those who were well and truly on their way to developing these skills.
Last week, I had the opportunity to walk around the Sports Precinct site in my pink St Margaret’s hard hat. It is a huge area and I am excited about so many things I saw there, but particularly, the rock-climbing wall. Below is a picture of me with said pink hard hat standing in the pool!
Ros Curtis