Prompt 1: The reading states and videos demonstrate that executive function skills provide the basis upon which children are able to read, write, and do math. [The Marshmallow Study video does a particularly good job highlighting how each executive function skills is involved in planning and goal setting.] For this prompt choose either Option A or Option B to respond to.
Option A: Develop a scenario/example of how you would assess a child's ability to perform a specific elementary education content area skill (e.g, identify compound words in reading; identify order of operations in math). Then, identify how executive function skills (all three) are involved in demonstrating the skill through the assessment.
Option B: Develop a scenario/example where you describe how executive function skills (all three) are involved in the establishment and/or maintenance of a friendship.
Executives functions can be described as completing most tasks with successful orchestration of your working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive or mental flexibility. Working memory is the capacity to hold and manipulate information in our heads over a short period of time. Inhibitory control is a skill we use to master and filter our thoughts and impulses, so we can resist any temptations, distractions, and habits, and to think before speaking. Cognitive or mental flexibility is the capacity to switch gears and adjust your demands, priorities, or perspectives. To establish a friendship, you have to use your cognitive flexibility in order to change your priorities because people have different values than you do. That is important in establishing the friendship. You also need to use you working memory to remember the small conversations that you have establishing a friendship in order to remember someone’s name, and their small attributes. If a friendship is becoming a problem because of a disagreement, there needs to be an inhibitory control of each person before they speak to each other. This can be beneficial so that no one says something that they did not mean. There needs to be a use of these three executive functions so that a friendship can continue throughout problems and situations.