Kids learn best through play.  This is a statement that professionals have been saying for decades.  All executive functioning skills can be built up during play.  Let your child play - alone, with you, with a friend or sibling.  But encourage them to play!  Make sure that much of this play is unplugged (no technology and no batteries) in order for them to rely on their own brain!

Does your child stand in a room full of toys and complain that they have nothing to play with?  It is because they actually have too many toys and are overloaded.  By limiting access to toys, kids are forced to dive deeper into play, which will grow and develop their executive functioning skills!

Board games are a great way to increase attention, teach emotional regulation, and many other executive functioning skills!  Choose a board game and sit down and play it with your child.  Can you child not last for the entire game?  No worries - just tweak the game.  Cover up half of Candy Land and start closer to the finish.  Use a timer for playing Uno and whoever has the least number of cards at the end wins!  End the game when your child is still engaged and wanting to play.  This will make it easier to convince them to play with you next time!

Use Visuals!  Do you find that you are constantly having to tell your child how to clean their room?  Take a picture of the clean room.  Next time you tell them to clean their room - remind them of the picture.  When the child says the room is clean ask them "Does your room look like this picture?"  If yes - celebrate.  If no - ask them "What do you need to do to make your room, look like this picture?" and let them figure it out!  This works for everything - loading the dishwasher, getting ready to leave the house, etc.  "Do you (or that) look like the picture?  If not - why not?"

Ask kids why!  This question creates an opportunity for kids to pause and think - which helps with many executive function skills.  Why questions are the hardest type of question to answer.  They require a high level of thought and reasoning.  So ask kids why - why did you choose that?  why do you want to go to the park?  Why is Suzie your new best friend?  Why? Why? Why?