Building adolescent executive functioning through a play-based curriculum

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) are critical skills that impact all aspects of a persons’ life and are more predictive of life success than academic achievement (Alloway & Alloway, 2010). While there are different perspectives on how to categorize EF, herein we focus on the three distinct, yet interrelated behaviors of inhibition (the ability to withhold a response), working memory (the ability to keep in mind and manipulate information; Diamond, 2013), and cognitive flexibility (the ability to move from one frame of reference to another; Best & Miller, 2010). Of particular interest is the development of EF during adolescence as this is currently a large gap in the research. Adolescence is a dynamic and fundamental period of growth and change for the brain, during which EF matures (Gee & Casey, 2015). If an environment is not optimal for EF maturation, individuals may have poorer life outcomes (Tooley et al., 2021; Zysset et al., 2018). Therefore, the current study outlines a detailed and accessible play-based intervention that shows promise in helping adolescents build EF and hypothesizes that participants will see improvements in inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. While significant results are seen in the post-test results, they appear to be limited to the domain of inhibition or inhibitory control.