Boo! Halloween, trick-or-treating, and costume planning offer fun ways to promote executive function at home.
Categorizing
Many students don’t like to organize, which isn’t news to most parents and teachers. We can make organizing more appealing by helping students understand the role that organization plays in adults’ lives and using pictures to visualize how to keep materials organized.
At Halloween time, treats offer a fun (and tasty!) way for kids to practice sorting items into categories—an important part of building organizational skills. What different categories can they come up with for their treats? See if they can sort into groups like chocolates, sour candies, gummies, lollipops, caramels, and more.
Planning
The month leading up to Halloween is a great time to plan what costume kids will wear. When creating a homemade Halloween costume, kids can think about the materials they will need and break down the steps they will take to create the look.
As Halloween nears, encourage kids to think about their trick-or-treating route. What’s the most efficient way to maximize treats in the shortest amount of time? Are there certain neighborhoods or buildings where they would like to trick or treat? They can draw on their past experiences to inform their plan.
Inhibition
When we think of self-control (a behavior that relies on executive function), we may think of the marshmallow test, a classic experiment that measures a child’s ability to delay gratification. In this test, a young child is put in a room and given a marshmallow and a choice: to eat the marshmallow immediately or to wait until the researcher returns and receive a second marshmallow. The child is left alone so that they can choose whether to give in to temptation or stick it out and double the reward. Children who wait are considered to have stronger self-control than others.
Consider trying your own version of this test when it comes to eating Halloween candy! Encourage children to set a goal: to have two treats rather than one if they wait. They will have to remember the rules (working memory), think flexibly, and use inhibitory control to stop themselves from grabbing the treat right away.
- Caitlin Vanderberg, M.Ed., SMARTS Associate
SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org
Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org
The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org
