Weak Executive Function Creates “Bad Kids” and Bad Behavior

This article provides helpful information on executive function and how poor cognitive development can lead to bad behavior. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

If you have ever become frustrated when a child understands something, but still can’t do the task consistently, you are likely seeing executive function at work.

Executive function is not about intelligence. It’s about how the brain manages tasks, behavior, and attention in real time. These skills are foundational for learning, emotional grounding, and independence. Executive function impacts children both at home and in the classroom every day.

What is Executive Function?

Executive function is a set of mental skills that help us do the following:

• Plan and stay organized
• Focus and attend
• Remember and retain information
• Regulate behavior
• Follow through with tasks and directions

As the brain develops, executive function becomes the central area of the body’s “control system.” In other words, executive function is a set of processes allowing us to direct our thoughts and actions toward a specific goal or achievement.

If the child has built a strong foundation in the lower levels of the brain, the child establishes executive function skills that include the following:

• Working memory (holding and storing information)
• Impulse control
• Cognitive flexibility (shifting attention, sustained attention and following multi-step directions)

A growing child will eventually use these higher-learning skills to adapt and pivot when problem solving and navigating through complex situations.

Executive function is often compared to an orchestra conductor. A good conductor not only has to direct music, but must coordinate all the different parts of thinking and behavior to work together efficiently.

Executive Function Essential for Learning

Early motor development and integration of Primitive reflexes is essential for supporting the role of executive function as a child grows older. If a child’s development is delayed, or if they missed critical milestones, you may start to see gaps in learning and executive function when the child begins learning more advanced concepts.

When executive function is fully developed with in the inner workings of the brain, a child can seamlessly do the following:

• Start tasks without constant prompting
• Stay focused long enough to complete their work
• Manage emotions and frustration
• Follow multi-step directions
• Adapt when things don’t go as planned

These skills develop over time and are strongly influenced by brain development, movement, environment, and experience.

Executive Function Disruptions

If neural connections in the brain fail to develop, executive function is one of the first areas where parents and teachers may see disruptions in learning. Kids are often thought of as a “behavior problem” or a “bad kid.” However, these are typically signs a child has to devote all their mental energy to keeping their body and emotions in check rather than being free to focus on learning in class.

Executive Function at Home

At home, children who experience a breakdown in executive function may do the following:

• Seems forgetful or disorganized
• Struggles to start simple tasks
• Has big emotional reactions
• Resists transitions (like getting ready for bed)
• Needs repeated reminders for routines

You may think these are signs of laziness, but the child’s cognitive ability is not full developed to manage and coordinate tasks on its own.

Executive Function in the Classroom

Teachers may become frustrated with the child because executive function plays a major role in academic success. Students who fall behind in executive function have trouble with focus and attention, and often bother their neighbors or disrupt the flow of the classroom.

As a result, executive function difficulties can impact learning just as much as academic ability.

When teachers meet with parents, they may tell parents the child struggles with a number of the following:

• Incomplete or missing assignments
• Difficulty planning and completing projects
• Trouble staying focused during lessons
• Struggles with reading comprehension
• Can’t organize thoughts on paper when writing
• Issues with solving math problems (multi-step problems)
• Falls behind despite understanding the material
• Increased anxiety or avoidance of schoolwork

Many of these higher learning skills come automatically to the child if executive function is fully developed in the brain. When there are disruptions in the brain, the child has trouble with goal-oriented tasks and has to work harder than other students to progress at similar grade levels.

Activities to Support Executive Function

There are a number of ways to support executive function if a child struggles in these areas. However, if the child experiences delays in neurological development, it’s important to bridge those gaps and build those foundational areas first before focusing on higher-learning concepts required in the classroom. Without this foundation, the child may continue to become frustrated and gaps may become wider with executive function.

Executive function is one of the most important, but often the most overlooked part of a child’s development. Many kids know what to do, but struggle to follow through when asked. For this reason, parents and teachers can strengthen the child’s executive function through a number of activities and tools that directly target these areas of learning.

For some ideas of activities and supports that directly focus on executive function, enter your information in the form below to download the Executive Function Activities and Supports List and we’ll send you the link.

Reference Materials

Diamond, A., & Lee, K. (2011). Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old. Science, 333(6045), 959–964. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1204529

Davis, C. L., Tomporowski, P. D., McDowell, J. E., Austin, B. P., Miller, P. H., Yanasak, N. E., & Naglieri, J. A. (2011). Exercise improves executive function and achievement and alters brain activation in overweight children: A randomized, controlled trial. Health Psychology, 30(1), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021766

Keller, A. S., Sydnor, V. J., Pines, A., Fair, D. A., Bassett, D. S., & Satterthwaite, T. D. (2023). Hierarchical functional system development supports executive function. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(2), 160–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.11.005

Fiske, A., & Holmboe, K. (2019). Neural substrates of early executive function development. Developmental Review, 52, 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2019.100866

Lane, S. J., Mailloux, Z., Schoen, S., Bundy, A., May-Benson, T., Parham, L. D., Roley, S. S., & Schaaf, R. C. (2019). Neural foundations of Ayres Sensory Integration®. Brain Sciences, 9(7), 153. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9070153

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