One
Working memory
Holding information in mind and using it. Remembering a three-step instruction; keeping the rules of a game in view while playing it.
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Executive function
The mental control system that lets a child hold a plan in mind, resist the first impulse, and change tack when something doesn’t work. It matters more for school success than early reading does.
What executive function actually is
Think of it as air traffic control for the brain. At any moment a young child is managing competing information, impulses and goals. Executive function is the set of processes that keeps that traffic from colliding.
It is usually described in three parts, and all three are still under construction throughout the preschool years.
Two
Inhibitory control
Resisting the first impulse. Waiting for a turn, putting a hand down instead of grabbing, thinking before speaking.
Three
Cognitive flexibility
Switching approach when the current one fails. Seeing a problem from someone else’s side; adapting to a change of plan without falling apart.
What it looks like in a young child
Executive function is easiest to notice by its absence. A four-year-old with developing skills can put their shoes away when asked, wait a few minutes for a turn on the swing, and accept that today they are the shopkeeper and not the pirate. A child still building those skills finds each of these genuinely difficult — not naughty, just not yet able.
Why it matters more than early academics
A child who can focus, wait and adapt gets more out of every subsequent hour of teaching. That compounds. Reading ability at five is a much weaker predictor of how a child fares at nine than their capacity to sit with a hard problem without giving up.
It also shows up in the parts of school that nobody grades: making friends, handling a change of teacher, coping with losing.
How it gets built
Not through worksheets. Executive function develops when a child is asked to do something slightly harder than they can comfortably manage, with an adult nearby providing just enough support — and then gradually removing it.
Games are ideal for this, because rules are exactly the sort of arbitrary constraint that requires self-control to follow. So is complex pretend play, which demands that a child hold a role in mind, remember the shared story and negotiate changes to it in real time.
Try at home
Activities that build executive function
None of these require equipment or a curriculum.
Rule-switching games
Simon Says, freeze dance, or any game where the rule changes mid-way. Changing the rule is the whole exercise.
Complex pretend play
Shops, restaurants, hospitals — anything with roles to remember and a story to sustain across several minutes.
Cooking together
A recipe is a multi-step plan with a delayed reward. Ideal working-memory practice, and lunch at the end.
Card and board games
Turn-taking, remembering rules, and losing without it ruining the afternoon.
Obstacle courses
Physical sequencing with self-control built in. Add a rule (“backwards this time”) to raise the difficulty.
Storytelling turns
Take alternate sentences of a made-up story. Holding the thread while composing the next line is hard work.
At Shaws
Where it sits in our day
Executive function isn’t a lesson on the timetable. It is designed into the activities that are already there.
- Morning circle — waiting, listening, holding a turn in mind
- Sports coaching — rules, strategy and self-control under pressure
- Code Play — sequencing and debugging, without a screen
- Project work — plans that run across days, not minutes
- Free play outdoors — negotiating with other people who want the same swing
Come and watch
See what a well-run circle time looks like
It is a masterclass in twenty small children practising self-control at once.