[Music] science tells us that brains minds are built not born and at the center of this Dynamic architecture are a set of skills called executive function and self-regulation children's self-regulation and executive function are key ingredients in their lifetime performance great it's not just about learning language or learning numbers or learning colors we have to be able to work effectively with others with distractions with multiple demands these actually are skills that contribute to the productivity of the American Workforce don't do that do that just look at your shapes what should you have done next Educators I
think are looking for just this sort of thing and when we describe what we mean by executive function they say yes that's it that's exactly you know the problem these kids they can tell me these rules but they can't actually use them what's this A toolbx A toolbx what is executive function safety goggles safety goggles probably the best way to think about it is sort of like an air traffic control system in the brain 523 just like an air traffic control system has to manage lots of airplanes going on lots of runways and really Exquisite
timing and so on a child has to manage a lot of information and avoid distractions we really think of it as involving working memory and inhibitory control and mental flexibility take a situation where a child is having to take turns so first of all the child has to have inhibitory control the child has to be able to stop whatever he or she's doing and let the other child take a turn C but when it's your turn again you also have to remember what it is you're supposed to be doing so that pulls on working memory
if the children who are taking the turns after you do something unpredictable you have to be able to adjust what you're going to do next and that requires mental flexibility that was children who are struggling with these capacities um often look like children who just aren't paying attention or children who are deliberately not controlling themselves if you don't have self-regulation you act out and the teacher puts you in time out and so then you miss part of the learning that's going on and then you are more upset because you're behind and so you act out
and so you get this downward spiral do how does executive function develop and plus 4 in little children and even you know in the infant and toddler years you begin to see the roots of executive functioning skills what's going on in our brains is unbelievably intricate and complicated the prefrontal cortex or the front third of the brain is important for executive function but it's more than just prefrontal cortex this region doesn't act alone it's involved in controlling your behavior through its interactions with all other parts of the brain the brain goes from a situation where
you've got nearest neurons communicating very strongly with each other and ignoring the rest of the brain two these wide spread networks that are connecting these different areas executive function changes over the life course it improves radically over the first few years uh it continues to improve throughout adolescence it's not until early adulthood that you have the adult type networks that're very strongly activated that connect different brain regions together let's take notes also we believe that executive functions can be trained it's just like going to the gym so the more you practice in these areas the
stronger the capacity is likely to become because you're hoping to strengthen those neural connections you're at 24 slowly but surely you're going to be able to step back and that child's going to go into the world with these skills where they can get along with other people change rules and they can be flexible and they can accomplish new things and they're unafraid I got bit by my dog in my arm oh dear if we don't learn these skills during the childhood and Adolescent years when they're coming online we are really ill equipped as an adult
to hold a job to maintain a marriage to raise children to get along with each other to basically be part of a civil society you're [Music] okay
