Skills for 
Life Program 

A Teacher's Guide to Executive Functions 

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LEVEL: Preschool - Kindergarten
USED BY: Early education providers; preschool programs

A six-week comprehensive curriculum based program designed for early education providers.  This program is complete with lesson plans that are easy to integrate into already existing curriculum.

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Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

What is the connection between 
executive function skills and school readiness? 

Research has shown that well-developed executive functions are closely related to school readiness with Kindergarteners and academic success in school-aged children.  

What is Executive Function?

Executive functions can be described as a set of cognitive skills that require the orchestration of many cognitive functions and the use of more than one cognitive function simultaneously. Planning, Problem solving, Behavioral regulation, Emotional control, Organization of one’s thoughts & materials, Cognitive Flexibility, Working Memory and the ability to both initiate and complete tasks/projects all fall under the umbrella of executive function.  And, the benefit of these skills in teens will multiply during adolescence when their brain is more emotionally driven.  

To put it more simply – executive function has to do with one’s ability to take a variety of mental skills and put them together to do things, such as solve problems, change of plans, look at the bigger picture, focus, and take action.  

Do You Have Questions?
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​lilplanit@lilsproutpress.com

What child experts are saying about our 
Skills for Life Program!

"Fantastic program!  Finally, a program that delves into meat and bone of essential life skills for young children!"
- Dr. Charles Schaefer, Ph.D., RPT-S
  Professor Emeritus Psychology
  Fairleigh Dickinson University

School Readiness & Executive Functioning Skills

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Literature on child cognition states that children typically do not develop complex thinking skills such as problem solving until they are 8 or older. This is primarily because skills such as problem solving are governed by a region of the frontal lobe called the prefrontal cortex, which does not fully develop until young adulthood.

The prefrontal cortex governs many skills that we demand our children to master.



Specifically, this set of skills, called executive function, includes various types of behavioral regulation, such as :
  • Behavioral inhibition
  • Emotional control
  • Self-monitoring
  • Flexibility of shifting between activities and/or thoughts

Also included are abilities such as:
  • Working memory
  • Planning and organization
  • Organization of materials
  • Initiation of projects