More Ways to Practice Executive Functioning Skills This Summer!
School’s out for summer! We had a lot of positive feedback on our founder’s article covering how to practice executive functioning skills over the summer, so we’re excited to share another perspective on this topic!
Summer can be a relief after the busyness and stress of the school year for many kids. But we can still work on executive functioning skills in our everyday lives as we're having fun. We’re always here if your child needs an executive functioning coach, but the activities below are ways you can build these important skills on your own or between our sessions!
If you need a refresher on the components of executive functioning discussed throughout this article, check out our articles on cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibition.
Take the summer to establish some routines you didn’t have time to work on during the school year.
Working on routines will address planning, focus, cognitive flexibility, and working memory
Does your child have a consistent, efficient morning routine?
Break down the steps your child needs to take to get the day started like get dressed, eat breakfast, put your dishes in the sink, brush your teeth. Make a list of the steps, make sure your child knows how to do each one. Take the summer to practice and build independence with the routine when there’s less pressure to meet the morning bell.
Do they have chores?
Chores can be a great way to build independence and responsibility. You can work together to determine what steps they need to do to complete the assigned tasks, figure out the best time of day or week to complete those tasks, and practice doing one thing at a time (e.g. put the phone away and turn off the TV during chore time).
Does your child already have a designated space to complete their schoolwork?
If not, summer is a great time to set one up. Decide together:
What does the space need to look like?
What spaces in the house could be dedicated to schoolwork? (hint: try to find a place with limited distractions!)
What equipment or materials do they need available to them?
Make a list, buy your supplies if needed, and set it up!
Use mealtime to build skills and independence!
Consider setting up a system where each member of the house is responsible for one meal per week. Learning to cook is a great way to practice reading comprehension skills, breaking a task down into multiple steps, and managing time. It is also a great practical skill that everyone needs as adults. Work with your child to:
Decide what the family will eat.
List needed ingredients.
Schedule a grocery store trip to make sure the ingredients are available.
Plan when to start cooking or preparing the meal.
Do they only need 30 minutes or is it a slow cooker recipe that needs to be started earlier in the day?
Work backwards from when dinner typically occurs and then have them decide what time they need to start prep.
Learning to cook is a great way to practice reading comprehension skills, breaking a task down into multiple steps, and managing time.
Create a family summer calendar and put your child in charge of making it!
This will work on the skills of planning, prioritizing, cognitive flexibility, and response inhibition.
They can’t do everything or go everywhere, so how will they choose? Some questions to address are:
Will they lump locations or types of activities together?
How will they plan for rainy days?
How will they plan for all family members getting their needs and interests met?
And once they know what is on the summer bucket list, what planning does each activity or trip need?
How long will it take to get places, so what time will everyone need to be ready to leave the house?
How much money will be needed?
Are there bags or lunches or equipment that will need to be packed?
This could be an overwhelming task if a child has never done this before, so it can also start with “plan a day” or “plan a week.”
Take advantage of summer camps and sport camps
This is a prime opportunity to work on planning, response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility!
Have them read the list that identifies what they should bring and have them pack their bag each evening and make their lunch, if required.
What equipment will they need? Does it change based on the day, for example, swimming on Wednesdays but movies on Fridays require different clothes and equipment. Have them help or do the laundry so their uniforms or clothes are clean. Do they need permission slips signed? Help them learn it is their responsibility to bring it to you and put it in their bag to bring back to camp or the team.
Make sure to tackle any summer assignments from school, such as an English summer reading list.
Accomplishing this goal will require planning, prioritizing, organizing, working memory, focus, and emotional regulation.
A key to making sure this task is completed with as little stress as possible is to start by working backwards: how many books and pages need to be read, and by when? Are there any written assignments associated with the readings? How many pages do they need to read per day to finish in time?
Once they know those things, they can create a calendar with a daily reading and writing goal. Check it out and decide together: is the goal reasonable and achievable? Does it factor in family vacations, taking a break from the assignments, and leaving a little room for ‘just in case’?
Consider special projects!
Passion projects are ideal ways to work on the underlying skills of planning, organizing, prioritizing, response inhibition, and emotional regulation.
Maybe they’d like to redesign their room? Maybe you’d like them to clean out the garage, their closet, or their old toys? Anything they’ve been thinking about creatively, such as creating a YouTube or TikTok channel, a hobby they’d like to spend more time on, a language or skill they are curious about?
They’ll need to make a plan and use checklists, break projects up into small steps. You can provide cues, prompts and assistance as appropriate, and support them further by increasing positive praise as they accomplish steps of the goal.
Dream about the future: Plan for post high school.
This takes cognitive flexibility, planning, organizing, prioritizing, and emotional regulation.
They’ll first need to do some thinking: do they want to work, go to school, or take a year off? Whatever their choice (and maybe it’s more than one they want to explore), work backwards from the long-term “end” goal, and figure out how they’ll get there. This will involve research and talking to others.
If they want to travel: where will they go, how much will it cost, how will they get the funds, how will they plan their trip?
If they want to go to school: what type of school, where are they interested in attending, what are the requirements to apply?
If they want to work: what kind of work are they interested in, do they need an apprenticeship, how much will that kind of job pay in the beginning, is there someone that they’d like to talk to to learn more about the career?
Don’t forget the praise
The great thing about these activities, and many others you can do over the summer, is that they don’t even have to know they’re learning and working on skills!
As with all skills, it’s helpful to provide specific and immediate feedback and praise. When your child packs their bag for camp, you can say “thank you for following your plan and prepping your bag for camp tomorrow.”
As they become more consistent, you can reduce your praise to every week or even longer and let them know “I appreciate how independent you’ve been with always having your bag and lunch ready for camp this summer. I’m proud of you.”
In the fall, when they return to school, you can then reference their success over the summer and help support them in applying those same skills to the school year.
Whatever activity you choose, we hope you have a wonderful summer!
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 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.
