The Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University has released Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function, the 11th publication in its Working Paper Series. Executive functioning skills are likened to the brain’s air traffic control system as these mechanisms help individuals focus on multiple streams of information simultaneously and to revise plans as necessary.
Acquiring the building blocks of executive function skills is an important and challenging task in the early childhood years. This new joint paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs explains how these skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them pays off in school and life. The paper shows that executive function skills are built over time (starting as early as the first year of life), with more complex skills building on the simpler skills that came before. It also shares examples of how interrelated executive function skills develop when children have the proper scaffolding by adult caregivers.
