In recent years, there has been a groundswell of chatter about the concept of executive function, fueled by a growing body of academic literature on the topic. To many, however, the concept remains unfamiliar. Executive function is actually an umbrella term, which refers to a variety of brain functions linked to planning and self-monitoring. These skills begin to develop in early childhood, as children gain a sense of self and the ability to defer gratification and work toward simple goals (e.g.eating vegetables now in order to get dessert later). They continue to develop throughout adolescence and into early adulthood (developing and implementing complex plans over extended periods to pursue long-term objectives).

Executive functions are an interlocking network of skills, which different researches have categorized in a variety of similar ways. Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, two of the most prominent researchers and authors at the point where executive function dovetails with academic performance, have outlined eleven distinct categories:

1. Working Memory: the ability to retain and use information relevant to a task. For example, a student who recalls specific guide-lines given by her teacher and keeps them in mind while completing a homework assignment is making use of her working memory.
2. Flexibility: the ability to adapt to new information or shift among modes of thinking. Astudent who expected a multiple-choice quiz but is instead confronted by an essay test can use flexibility skills to apply his knowledge to the unexpected format successfully.
3. Organization: the ability to create order from a variety of disorganized parts, understanding the big picture and the pieces that make it up. A student who keeps her class assignments in order throughout the school year and can readily find one when needed demonstrates her ability to stay organized.
4. Planning: the ability to consider and understand the steps needed to reach a goal before beginning work toward it. A student who looks ahead to resources and time required for researching and writing a paper when it is first assigned exhibits strong planning skills.
5. Focus: the ability to fix attention to a task and to maintain that attention until the task is complete. A student who sits down to write a two page paper and finishes the paper without straying into other activities demonstrates strong focus skills.
6. Initiation: the ability to begin tasks in a timely fashion without undue procrastination. A student who plans to do her homework Saturday afternoon and sits down to work immediately after lunch on Saturday demonstrates strong initiation skills.
7. Time Management: the ability to prioritize tasks and effectively budget the time necessary for their completion within deadlines. A student who balances her class schedule, athletic and extra-curricular activities, homework, and social life effectively and maintains satisfactory results in each area shows strong time management skills.
8. Perseverance: the capacity to remain focused on a goal over time till its completion in the face of competing interests or demands. A student who persists in getting help from teachers and other resources on a regular basis in order to improve her math grade from a C+ to an A- over the course of a semester shows strong perseverance.
9. Response Inhibition: the ability to resist immediate urges and consider likely outcomes before acting. A student who delays responding to an invitation to a party in order to consider other commitments demonstrates response inhibition skills.
10. Emotional Control: the ability to manage one’s emotional responses to complete tasks and guide behavior. A student who learns how to remain cool when a sibling borrows something without asking demonstrates growing emotional control skills.
11. Metacognition: the ability to take an objective view of one’s actions. A student who recognizes that writing a paper while watching a football game took far longer than it should have and yielded a product of poor quality is using metacognition skills.

The frontal lobes of our brains, which have been linked to the exercise of many executive functions, do not fully develop until our mid-twenties, so it is normal for students in middle school, high school, and even college to experience challenges with these as with any growing skill. Where executive function represents a significant hurdle to academic success, however, intervention may be appropriate. The extraordinary advances that have taken place in the field of brain science in the last 10–20 years have provided an invaluable tool kit for building these skills.