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A Day in the Life of Executive Functions
 

Let’s meet Nico, a 14-year-old teenager on a school day. Through his everyday actions, we observe how executive functions manifest at different moments.

 

☀️ 7:15 – Inhibition

While serving breakfast, the cereal bowl spills onto his shirt. Nico holds back, avoids shouting, and calmly decides to change clothes. This response reflects his ability to regulate emotional impulses in a frustrating situation.

🎒 8:00 – Working Memory

Before leaving home, he remembers to bring his calculator for the exam, hand in a signed form, and review a specific topic. He keeps several instructions in mind while organizing his backpack, actively using his working memory.

🏫 10:30 – Cognitive Flexibility

In language class, Nico has prepared an oral presentation, but the teacher asks him to work in a group on a written activity. Nico reorganizes his ideas, collaborates with classmates, and adapts his approach. This ability to modify strategy in response to a task change reflects cognitive flexibility.

🍝 14:00 – Planning

During lunch, Nico mentally organizes how to distribute his time in the afternoon: review history, prepare a presentation, and watch a series as motivational reinforcement. This sequence shows conscious planning of tasks and time.

🤔 17:00 – Reasoning

While studying history, Nico compares two similar events from different periods. He analyzes causes, consequences, and contextual differences. This process involves general reasoning, based on comparative analysis, inference, and logical organization of information.

🔧 19:00 – Problem Solving

When trying to print his work, the printer fails. Nico tries different alternatives: restarting the device, changing the cable, sending the file by email, and finally printing at a neighbor’s house. This sequence reflects an effective problem-solving strategy..

 

Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that allow us to self-regulate behavior, plan actions, make decisions, and adapt to new situations. They are essential for learning, autonomy, and social life, and develop progressively from birth to around age 25, with significant maturation during adolescence and early adulthood (Best & Miller, 2010).

 

Although there is no absolute consensus on how many executive functions exist, the model proposed by Adele Diamond (2013) is widely accepted in neuropsychology and education. It identifies three core functions:

🔸 Inhibition: the ability to control impulses, resist distractions, and maintain attention.

🔸 Working Memory: the ability to retain and manipulate information temporarily to carry out complex tasks.

🔸 Cognitive Flexibility: the ability to adapt to changes, think from different perspectives, and modify strategies.

 

These core functions support other higher-level executive skills, such as:

🔸 Planning: organizing steps to achieve a goal.

🔸 Reasoning: analyzing situations and making logical decisions.

🔸 Problem Solving: identifying obstacles and finding effective alternatives.

 

Understanding how these functions appear in daily life helps families and educators better support child and adolescent development, identify difficulties, and strengthen abilities. In multicultural or migrant contexts, where young people face constant changes, these skills are especially relevant for fostering resilience and well-being.

 

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