Supporting Executive Function Development Through Play: An Early Intervention Perspective

Play is a cornerstone of many early intervention approaches. Educational and Allied Health professionals have long recognised the importance of play for children's learning and development. In line with this, play also provides some of the richest opportunities for executive function development in young children. 

Executive function skills (which include working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, attention, planning, and self-regulation), are not skills that children simply acquire through instruction. Rather, they develop gradually from birth through exposure to different experiences, relationships, and opportunities.

How Executive Function Skills Develop in Young Children

Executive functioning is often described as the brain's management system. Executive function abilities are the skills which help us remember information, manage distractions, control impulses, adapt to changing situations, regulate emotions, and work toward goals.  

While we often talk about and measure each executive function skill separately (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, attention, planning, and self-regulation), we almost never use them just one at a time. Think about a child building a tower with blocks. They need to focus their attention, be flexible and adjust their approach when something goes wrong, and manage the frustration that comes when the tower collapses. (That’s at least three or four executive functions already!).

Or during a board game, a child practises remembering rules while playing, waits for their turn, inhibits impulses, adapts to unexpected outcomes, and may need to cope with losing. (That’s at least five executive functions right there!).

During pretend play with others, executive function demands can be even greater. A child needs to remember their role, follow a shared storyline, stay in character, negotiate and adapt when others introduce new ideas, and consider different perspectives. (That’s exercising the executive function skills of flexibility, inhibition, self-regulation, working memory, planning/problem solving… and you thought they were “just” playing dress-ups!).

Play is much more than something children do. It provides meaningful opportunities to practise the skills that underpin participation in everyday life.

Why Social Play Is Especially Powerful

Executive function demands are often embedded within play activities, and this is where skill practice and development happens.  This means that many of the moments we see during play are actually moments of executive function practice. 

In particular, research has found that social play is especially important in the development of executive functioning.  Consider the following: 

• When children negotiate who gets to be the doctor and who gets to be the patient, they are practising flexible thinking and perspective-taking.

• When they work through disagreements during a game, they are practising emotional regulation and problem-solving.

• When they wait for a turn, or follow rules they are exercising executive function skills of inhibition and working memory

• When they adapt to changing circumstances, or persist after a setback they are strengthening their flexibility and emotional regulation.  

For this reason, activities such as role play, cooperative games, partner activities, storytelling, singing, construction activities, and team games can provide rich opportunities for executive function development.

How Adults Can Support Executive Function Development Through Play

While play creates opportunities to practise executive function skills, play alone is not always enough to build these skills. 

Many children, particularly those with ADHD, autism, acquired brain injury, or other executive function differences, may find aspects of play challenging. Joining a game, coping with losing, adapting to another child's ideas, waiting for a turn, or persisting when something becomes difficult can require executive functioning skills which are beyond some children’s current developmental level. 

This is where the role of adults becomes so important. Adults can provide scaffolding to support children through challenging experiences, before gradually stepping back as skills develop.

Adult scaffolding or support may involve:

• Simplifying the rules of a game 

• Providing visual supports as reminders 

• Modelling flexible thinking: “We don’t have the lego piece we needed. Hmmm..let’s try a different one and see if that still works” 

• Encouraging self-talk in young children by broadcasting what you observe: “I see you are trying to fit the truck under the sand bridge. It got stuck! You try again and it still doesn’t fit. You dig more sound out under  the bridge. The truck goes through!” 

• Supporting emotional regulation

• Providing a structure to help children to problem-solve 

• Encouraging reflection on what worked and what could be tried next time

When a parent or professional supports a child to adapt when a plan changes, negotiate roles in pretend play, manage disappointment after losing a game, or persist when a construction project falls apart, they are delivering executive function intervention.

These supports are not separate from intervention. They are often the intervention in promoting the development of executive functioning in young children.  The key to adult support is to make sure we reduce the scaffolding over time, allowing the child to take on more of the executive functioning when they are ready and able.

Because when it comes to executive function early intervention, play often provides the opportunity for skill development, while intentional adult support and scaffolding help turn those opportunities into learning.

Where to Next?

Curious about when executive functions develop in young children? 

Visit the Dandelion Hub Resource Library to download our Executive Function Development table, which includes typical developmental milestones for four key executive function abilities. 

You can also explore our free courses designed for parents and carers, or educators and allied health professionals who want to better understand and support executive functioning in everyday life.

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Written by: Dr. Ruth Tesselaar, Neuropsychologist and Founder of Dandelion Hub