Exploring the relationship between executive functioning and academics
Do executive functioning skills impact academic performance?
Historically, we’ve been told that IQ is what matters most for academic performance. “You’re so smart!” is a compliment given in admiration. But that doesn’t always match up with observations if one thinks about people they’ve known in their lives.
What about the classmate who never had to study but set the curve every time, and still couldn’t seem to turn in any homework? What about the coworker that can do equations or memorize an entire text but is unable to focus and finish their projects? Like many people you may have known in your life, your child may be very bright and capable but still struggle with certain aspects of school.
When considering these examples, it makes sense that research has shown that executive functioning skills are more related to academic performance than innate intelligence. As a reminder, executive functioning skills include the skills of inhibition (the ability to ignore distractors, or focus), working memory (recalling and retaining information), cognitive flexibility, and planning and problem-solving.
In general, challenges with executive functioning will impact task initiation, time management, and perseverance, which will also impact performance across all areas. But the impact of executive functioning on academic performance, not surprisingly, changes as children grow, given that the development of executive functions changes as children grow.
Through the age of seven, inhibition is the best predictor of academic performance. After that age, working memory becomes the most important through age 11. For those older than 11, research shows that cognitive flexibility is the most important predictor of academic performance. Digging deeper into each of these areas will help further illustrate what we’re talking about.
Inhibition
The impact of inhibition on executive functioning is pretty straightforward to understand. If we can’t inhibit (i.e., choose to ignore) certain things around us (and certain thoughts), we’ll never be able to focus on one thing. If we can’t focus and ignore distractors around us, how can we learn? Learning by its very nature requires focus, as we need to be able to focus on and correctly capture external stimuli while also ignoring irrelevant internal stimuli.
Developmental researchers have found that children are able to focus for 2-5 minutes per year of age as is illustrated below. More typically, children will focus for 2-3 minutes per year of age. As such, a 2-year-old would be able to focus anywhere from 4 -10 minutes. That’s a large range as they get older!
4 years old: 8 -12 up to 20 minutes
6 years old: 12 – 18 up to 30 minutes
8 years old: 16 – 24 up to 40 minutes
10 years old: 20 – 30 up to 50 minutes
12 years old: 24 – 36 up to 60 minutes
14 years old: 28 – 42 up to 70 minutes
16 years old: 32 – 48 up to 80 minutes
Attention span is also impacted by the interest, difficulty, and novelty of an activity and the presence of another person.
Inhibition and planning skills were found to be the strongest predictors of mathematical calculation in early elementary years, while in later years, inhibition skills are related to performance in mathematics and science.
In early primary years, students are exposed to the foundational skills that all later learning is built from. It is when we learn letter and sound recognition, early writing skills, number recognition and early calculation skills. It takes repetition and focus to move those early skills from working memory to long-term memory. If a student is unable to ignore distractors (inhibition), they will miss those opportunities for learning.
I saw this often with my students in middle school. When they struggled to pull together more complex math problems, it wasn’t because they were incapable of understanding the material. At the heart of it, it was clear their struggles to ignore distractions when they were younger meant that there were many gaps in their learning and lost opportunities of practice that were now showing up in their academic performance.
Research has shown that executive functioning skills are more related to academic performance than innate intelligence.
Working Memory
Working memory is a predictor of reading comprehension. This is because there is a relationship between the auditory-verbal aspect of reading and the task of storage and symbolic recall. Consider when you’re reading a novel: if you cannot hold in your working memory who the different characters are, how can you comprehend the plot or larger themes of the novel?
In addition, visual working memory predicts performance in math, particularly with mathematical reasoning. Again, consider solving multi-variable equations: you have to be able to hold in your head what both x and y stand for and hold on to that as you follow the steps to solving the equation. We also use mental math when solving equations, which is a task of working memory.
Difficulties with working memory could impact retention of material, which may impact performance on tests. For writing tasks, working memory can impact the ability to hold new ideas in the brain at the same time.
Cognitive Flexibility
For children 11-16 years old, cognitive flexibility has been shown to be predictive of performance in reading, science and social studies. Primarily, challenges with cognitive flexibility may mean a child struggles to try new strategies when something doesn’t make sense.The following are all examples of the impact of difficulties with cognitive flexibility on academic tasks:
difficulties coming up with new hypotheses in science
challenges finding and interpreting new themes or seeing character decisions from different points of view in reading.
struggles analyzing different causes or explanations for historical events in social studies
inability to evaluate progress and try new approach to solving problems in math
These all rely on cognitive flexibility and relate to problem solving, creativity, and coming up with novel solutions
Planning and Problem Solving
Finally, in academics overall, if we have challenges with planning and problem-solving, that will negatively affect completion of starting work on time, long-term projects, turning in work, and studying early enough for tests. In addition, it is helpful to be able to keep an organized system to help accomplish work.
In writing, planning challenges can impact pre-writing steps of outlining a plan before writing and keeping research organized. In addition, planning skills are needed to develop cohesive writing.
If you’re noticing academic performance challenges like these and want to hire an executive functioning coach, drop us a line to schedule your free consultation! If you want more information on your child’s skills and needs, check out our executive functioning assessment!
About the author:
Tulin S. Akin is a certified school psychologist who has been working as a tutor and Executive Function coach with Chicago Home Tutor for since 2015. Prior to CHT, she worked in public schools (elementary and high school) for eight years, after getting her specialist degree in school psychology for Illinois State University. Tulin works with students in all academic areas but has chosen to specialize in EFs after observing the affects of poorly functioning EF skills on student performance and long-term functioning. Her articles are based on reviews of current research literature, texts for practitioners, and hands-on supports for students through college age.
