Executive skills
Executive skills, which help us manage our thoughts, emotions, and actions, are unconstrained skills. They help coordinate other skills to support reading, writing, and mathematics.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about skill type and the science of skill building to support the improvement of PK-12 reading, writing, and mathematics. Despite important differences, all reading, writing, and math skills can be boiled down to two types–constrained and unconstrained. This post is part of a series that provides an overview of both types of skills. This specific post focuses on executive function skills. Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Footnotes and citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
First posted: March 7, 2025
Last updated: April 21, 2026
Three big ideas
Executive skills help us control and shift our attention, manage distractions, and use and organize information. Self-regulation skills help us manage our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Longitudinal studies of reading, writing, and mathematics show executive skills support the development of reading and math skills. Some studies show the relative contributions of executive function skills are on par with those of domain-specific reading and math component skills.
Early gaps in executive skills by household socioeconomic status do not appear to close through elementary school.
About these data
The data in these charts come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). The ECLS-K:2011 data were collected between Fall 2010 and Spring 2016. The ECLS-K:2011 tracked a statistically representative group of about 18,000 children in the U.S. from kindergarten (fall 2010) through fifth grade (spring 2016). It’s the best dataset I’ve found to dig deep into executive function skills. The data are organized by household socioeconomic status.
Executive skills
Executive skills are like the “air traffic control” in our brain. They help us control and shift our attention, manage distractions, and use and organize information (Dawson and Guare, 2018). Executive skills help us coordinate the use of other skills to achieve goals and take intentional actions. There is plenty of research that shows executive skills directly and indirectly support the development of reading, writing, and math skills (Sowinski et al., 2015; Cragg et al., 2017; Kim, 2020; Kim & Graham, 2022; Graham & Aitken, 2025).
Although precise definitions vary, researchers often describe a core group of three foundational executive skills: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition control (Cuevas et al., 2018). Like some researchers, I prefer to break these out into four skills and describe them in more plain language:1
Attention control: the ability to focus attention and override the desire to pay attention to distractions
Attention shifting: the ability to shift attention while ignoring distracting information
Impulse control: the ability to override automatic responses
Working memory: the ability to maintain and manipulate information over a relatively short period of time
This core group provides the foundation for more advanced executive skills like metacognition, reasoning, and perspective taking. Researchers sometimes distinguish between “cool” executive skills that are used in emotionally neutral situations like reading and math, and “hot” executive skills that involve effortful control (e.g., social regulation, social understanding). Collectively, these foundational executive skills also lay the foundation for more advanced thinking and reasoning skills (i.e. “durable skills”) like collaboration, critical thinking, communication, creativity, adaptability, and leadership.
Working memory
Working memory is the ability to hold and process information in our minds while performing complex tasks (Dawson & Guare, 2018). There are two types of working memory – visual and verbal. Working memory helps us to do a wide range of daily tasks. Working memory has been shown to have an indirect effect on reading and math achievement (Cragg et al., 2017; Kim, 2020). The environments in which children grow up – positive and negative – can significantly shape the development of their working memory.
This first chart shows the percentage of kids by household income with average or higher scores for verbal working memory from kindergarten through fifth grade.2 The chart shows a staggering 46 point gap (32% to 78%) for working memory at the start of kindergarten between the lowest and highest household socioeconomic groups at the start of elementary school. Although the gap closes by two-third by the end of elementary school, a significant disparity remains. (Mouse over the chart.) Throughout this period working memory is having a direct and indirect effect on the development of reading and math skills (Cragg et al., 2017; Kim, 2020).
Cognitive flexibility (attention shifting)
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to consider multiple pieces of information or ideas at one time and switch between them while engaging in a task (Cartwright, 2023). This ability helps us to adjust our plans or actions in the face of obstacles or changing conditions (Dawson & Guare, 2018).
“Cognitive flexibility—the ability to juggle multiple aspects of reading—is as close as comprehension has to a secret sauce.” Nell Duke, University of Michigan
Cognitive flexibility is developed through consistent practice in everyday routines and experiences. Differences in children’s environments and experiences affect their ability to adjust their thought patterns, look at issues from alternative perspectives, and learn to adapt to change. In reading, cognitive flexibility is thought to help, for example, in actively shifting our attention back and forth between sounds and meanings of printed words (Duke & Cartwright, 2021; Cartwright, 2023). Cognitive flexibility can also help students evaluate different strategies and approaches for solving math problems.
This next chart shows the percentage of kids by household socioeconomic status with passing scores on an assessment of their cognitive flexibility from kindergarten through fifth grade.3 The chart shows an astounding 27 point gap (22% vs. 49%) for cognitive flexibility at the start of kindergarten between the lowest and highest household socioeconomic groups at the start of elementary school. Although the spread of the gap is cut roughly in half by fifth grade, like working memory it doesn’t fully close by the end of elementary school.
There are real consequences for these differences in cognitive flexibility. In reading, cognitive flexibility is thought to help, for example, in actively shifting our attention back and forth between sounds and meanings of printed words (Duke & Cartwright, 2021; Cartwright, 2023). Cognitive flexibility can also help students evaluate different strategies and approaches for solving math problems.
Impulse (inhibition) control
Researchers describe inhibition control in different ways. Inhibition control involves the ability to ignore distractions (Cartwright, 2023). Inhibition control is the capacity to think before you act. It is the ability to override or delay a dominant response in order to achieve a goal (Dawson & Guare, 2018). Inhibition control develops from infancy over the course of a lifetime. Children’s experiences starting from birth affect their capacity to manage distractions and control emotional impulses.
This next chart shows the percentage of kids by household socioeconomic status with average or higher scores for inhibition control between in fourth and fifth grade.4 The chart shows a roughly 20 point gap for inhibition control in fourth and fifth grade between the lowest and highest household socioeconomic groups. (Mouse over the chart.)
These differences in children’s ability to manage distractions have real consequences for their reading and math achievement. Inhibition control assists readers to stay focused on a reading task (e.g. ignore distractions, avoid daydreaming) and inhibit or suppress irrelevant details in the text while reading for understanding (Cartwright, 2023).
Inhibition control has also been found to support math achievement through its connection to factual knowledge and procedural skills (Cragg et al., 2017). Math procedural knowledge has an interactive relationship with math conceptual knowledge, which supports mathematical thinking and problem solving.
Although data for working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibition control are presented separately, in reality all three skills are highly interactive and co-dependent with each other (Dawson & Gaure, 2018). The ECLS-K:2011 provides a unique window into the development of this important set of unconstrained skills.
But wait, there’s more
If you’d like to see more data about constrained and unconstrained skills, check out these other posts on Unconstrained Kids:
Works Cited
Cartwright, K. B. (2023). Executive skills and reading comprehension: A guide for educators. New York: The Guilford Press.
Cragg, L., Keeble, S., Richardson, S., Roome, H. E., & Gilmore, C. (2017). Direct and indirect influences of executive functions on mathematics achievement. Cognition, 162, 12-26.
Cuevas, K., Rajan, V., & Bryant, L. J. (2017). Emergence of executive function in infancy. In S. A. Wiebe and J. Karbach (Eds.), Executive function: Development across the life span. (pp. 11-28). New York: Routledge.
Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2018). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide to assessment and intervention. New York: The Guilford Press.
Duke, N. K., & Cartwright, K. B. (2021). The science of reading progresses: Communicating advances beyond the simple view of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 56, S25-S44.
Graham, S., & Aitken, A. (2025). The Writer(s)-within-Community Model. In C. A. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (Third). The Guilford Press.
Jacob, R., & Parkinson, J. (2015). The Potential for School-Based Interventions That Target Executive Function to Improve Academic Achievement: A Review. Review of Educational Research, 85(4), 512–552.
Kim, Y. S. G. (2020). Hierarchical and dynamic relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension: Testing the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER). Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(4), 667.
Kim, Y. S. G., & Graham, S. (2022). Expanding the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (DIEW): Reading–writing relations, and dynamic relations as a function of measurement/ dimensions of written composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(2), 215.
Najarian, M., Tourangeau, K., Nord, C., & Wallner-Allen, K. (2018). Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K: 2011), first-and second-grade psychometric report (NCES 2018-183). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education
Slotkin, J., Kallen, M., Griffith, J., Magasi, S., Salsman, J., & Nowinski, C. (2012). NIH toolbox. Technical Manual.
Sowinski, C., LeFevre, J. A., Skwarchuk, S. L., Kamawar, D., Bisanz, J., & Smith-Chant, B. (2015). Refining the quantitative pathway of the Pathways to Mathematics model. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 131, 73-93.
Stafford-Brizard, K. B. (2016). Nonacademic skills are the necessary foundation for learning. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/07/21/nonacademic-skills-are-the-necessary-foundation-for.html.
Different researchers gravitate to different definitions and conceptions of executive skills. These descriptions mirror those in Jacob and Parkinson (2015).
Working Memory was assessed using the Numbers Reversed task from the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. I followed guidance to compute the percentage of kids who received average or higher scores (25th percentile and higher) in kindergarten, second grade, and fifth grade (Najarian, et al., 2018).
Cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Dimensional Change Card Sort Test (DCCS) task. In the task, children must sort cards based on one rule (e.g., color) and then switch to sort based on another rule (e.g., shape), requiring them to shift attention and suppress previously relevant information. The paper-based version was used in Grades K-1 and the computer-based version in Grades 2-5. I followed guidance for both versions of the DCCS to compute minimum passing scores across K-5 (Slotkin et al., 2012; Najarian, et al. 2018).
These are the only grade levels in which this skill was assessed in the ECLSK:2011 study. Inhibition control was assessed using the Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test. I followed guidance to compute the percentage of kids who received average or higher scores (25th percentile or higher) in fourth and fifth grade (Slotkin et al., 2012).