Executive Function is like the air traffic controller of your brain. These skills are the cognitive processes that help to regulate behavior, make decisions, and set and achieve goals. Dr. Peg Dawson and Dr. Richard Guare list 11 mental capacaties, which include:

-Metacognition
-Planning/Prioritizing
-Organization
-Time Management
-Task Initiation
-Sustained Attention
-Working Memory
-Goal-Directed Persistence
-Response Inhibition
-Emotional Control
-Flexibility

These Executive Function skills grow and change over time and not everyone’s skills develop at the same rate. For example, children who are struggling in the Executive Function areas of sustained attention and inhibitory control may look like kids who aren’t paying attention/following the rules, however it truly is a skill deficit that they need to learn. A takeaway quote to emphasize this was “brains are built not born”. “