A new report by the Institute of Education Sciences suggests executive function—the collective term for cognitive abilities related to attention, focus, and self-control—is integral to children’s academic and social development throughout their school careers and beyond. And to at least some extent, research shows executive function can be improved.
But researchers at the National Center for Education Research and the National Center for Special Education Research cautioned that what we don’t know far exceeds what we do know about how executive function relates to learning, and how much intervention can boost abilities.
“Continued work on the longitudinal measurement of [executive function] is needed so that benchmarks will be available against which to gauge the relative effect of novel educational approaches,” the report states.
