Ever since Every Child Ready to Read focused children’s librarianship on scientific research and empowered librarians to see themselves as experts who can speak to parents, our field has increasingly looked to brain development to support our practices and inform what we do. Early literacy, however, is not the only growth going on in the brains of our early childhood customers. Executive Functioning skills start to develop at around 7-8 months and peak between ages 3-5. Can librarians help with this development as well?
Tag: executive functioning skills
Fostering the Growth of Executive Functioning Skills in Children
The term executive functioning refers to an important set of skills that allow people to successfully navigate life. These skills include the ability to plan, self-evaluate, self-control, retain information, manage time, and organize thoughts and information. According to a useful infographic published by Harvard, these abilities are not innate to anyone, but may be learned by nearly everyone. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old tend to develop these skills rather rapidly, and this development is significantly bolstered by early childhood education and care (ECEC). An exploratory report was published in May of this year, examining the effect of ECEC on children’s executive functioning skills at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to these important skills, the study also examined the effect of this care on language, and the difference socioeconomic status may make on the development of vocabulary and executive functioning. The study looked…