Executive Function


Youthcentrix develops, administers, and disseminates programs and direct pediatric therapy services to advance the social and emotional development of youth.  We believe youth potentials should exceed the resources and paradigms of generations past.


Executive Function Organization Critical Thinking Working Memory Setting Priorities
If we view the active mental processes of a human being as an internal operating system (Human  OS, if you will), we can consider Culture as the "code" that structures our operating system--the underlying unseen and oftentimes unspoken beliefs and habits transferred from person to person, group to group. We can further view Executive Function as the inner mental workings  that manifest as outward demonstrates of our beliefs, mental choices, habits. Together Culture and Executive Function greatly inform the way we execute (operate) our lives.   To what extent are we thoughtful, organized, open to negotiation, receptive to change?  Simplistically speaking, executive function manifests as the outward presentations of us and informs our personality--the way others experience our lives, choices, habits, and beliefs.

Executive Functions are the set of interrelated  mental processes that determine how and if we perceive, approach, and respond to the cognitive, social, emotional, and intellectual  demands of life.  Healthy Executive Function enables us to use previously learned information to make useful and adaptive direct and indirect connections to current situations, and to change our path when appropriate.   Executive Function influences how we manage time, prioritize activities, anticipate consequences for behavior based on previous experience, and respond to feedback.  In this, Human Development is individualized.   We all possess skills that are solid, skills that are soft and need reinforcement, and then there are the absent areas that emerge into our consciousness after introduction from an external source.

For many reasons, children and even adults require supports that further develop their Executive Function.  Youthcentrix supports the development of life skills in Executive Function for children,  youth, and young adults, including:

Organizing - understanding the demands of a task/expectation and developing a plan of action.  This includes appreciating the tools, skills, time, materials, and support needed to accomplish a task, finish a project, or accomplish a goal.

Prioritizing - determining the difference between urgent, important, and interesting.  We help children - youth - and young adults develop strategies to move past the distractions of immediate gratification.  Setting and responding to priorities is a necessary skill for initiation, processing, and completion of homework, delivering employment related assignments, and satisfying family obligations and expectations including chores, curfews, and all levels of self-care.

Cognitive Flexibility - being able to create, retrieve, and deliver various angles and measures of response to home, school, work, and social demands.  Flexible thinking includes the ability to appreciate the contexts and hidden meaning of an interaction or peer response. 

Working Memory - the ability to retrieve and recall previously learned information at the time of need.  Functional use of memory can be a significant challenge to solving both routine and novel problems.  It is not that children weren't listening or do not care.  Sometimes they simply need a targeted reminder such as a cue, prompt, visual aid, or mneumonic device.  These supports, and others, can trigger their memory recall and create new patterns of processing.

Metacognition - the ability to think about and analyze one's own thinking.  Metacognition is a highly skilled self-analytic process.  It is necessary for self-correction, refined social skill development, reflective problem solving, and self-improvement.

Critical Thinking - the ability to think analytically across a variety of subjects, interactions, situations, and with a variety of people.  Critical thinking is essential to making appropriate and best choices, distinguishing wants from needs, setting priorities, and developing responses rather than being led by impulse.