20+ Executive Functioning Activities to Boost Cognitive Skills: A Free Guide with Practical Exercises for Kids and Adults

Everyday life is full of tasks we juggle. For most adults, this isn’t too hard, thanks to a set of skills known as executive function—like attention, planning, memory, organization, and time management—that help us get things done.

But if you or your child struggle with daily tasks, it could point to challenges with executive function. This might look like missed deadlines, distractions, difficulty transitioning between tasks (especially for kids), or trouble managing emotions – showing tantrums or acting out on frustrations.The good news? You can strengthen these skills through activities and meaningful interactions. In this guide, we provide practical exercises for different age groups to boost executive functioning, plus you’ll learn how Soundsory® exercises can support cognitive development.

What Are Executive Functioning Activities and Why Do They Matter?

Our brains don’t fully mature until adulthood, and during this time, we develop our executive function skills through everyday interactions and experiences.

Executive functioning activities are anything that require you to manage information, behavior, and emotions to achieve goals. These require you to use skills to take in, retain, and use information (working memory), adjust your response based on the situation (cognitive flexibility), and resisting temptations or acting impulsively (impulse control)—all of which help you achieve a goal.

It’s crucial to develop executive function early, as these skills grow rapidly in childhood and lay the foundation for future success in school and beyond [1].

Fortunately, everyday activities, including fine motor activities and gross motor activities for preschoolers, can support executive function development. Formal interventions, like occupational therapy, incorporate occupational therapy activities and techniques such as cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to address executive dysfunction and further enhance these essential skills.

Programs like Soundsory® offer multi-sensory training to help children process sensory information more effectively, enabling them to respond appropriately. As sensory processing improves, children are better able to focus, engage with their surroundings, and learn, all of which are essential for developing executive function skills.

What Can Cause Executive Dysfunction?

Since executive functions are supported by different areas of the brain, they can be affected by a wide range of neurologic, medical, and psychiatric conditions that cause brain injury or alter brain circuitry [2].

For example, individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and autism often face executive function challenges. In fact, one study found that 89% of children with ADHD have impairments in at least one executive function skill [3]. 

But just as executive function activities can help neurotypical adults and children, research shows that targeted activities and physical exercises can help improve executive function in these kids as well [4].

Here are executive function activities that can help boost executive function, categorized into different age groups.

20+ Executive Functioning Activities for Children and Adults

Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers (Ages 3-5)

Children experience rapid brain development at this age, and their skills can vary greatly. It’s important to adapt activities to their individual level and understanding, while offering “just right challenges” that push their skills without overwhelming them.

Some children may need more structure and guidance from grown-ups, while older children can be given more freedom and flexibility. But the goal for both is to learn self-regulation and rely less on your support and structure.

 

Storytelling

Most kids are chatterboxes— they love sharing what happened at the park, recounting a book they just read, or inventing their own tales. Encourage your child to tell you a story—it’s a fun way to build creativity, communication, and organization skills.

 

Adaptations and tips:

• Incorporate drawing: If your child enjoys drawing, invite them to create a storybook. For younger kids, start with their doodles or ask them to draw simple scenes. Use prompts like, “Who’s this?” “What’s she doing?” or “Where are we?” to spark storytelling.
• Recall shows and books: If creating a story feels overwhelming, ask them to retell a recent show, book, or even their day. This strengthens working memory and helps them practice organizing their thoughts.
• Make it a group activity: Take turns with parents, siblings, or friends to add new details or plot twists. This encourages your child to pay attention and stay flexible as the story evolves.

 

Dancing

Dancing is a fun way to develop skills by engaging multiple senses. Following beats, listening to lyrics, and copying movements require executive functions like attention, impulse control, and planning. Additionally, research also found that aerobic exercise enhances executive functions [5].

Additionally, since dancing routines are great proprioceptive activities and often also excellent vestibular exercises, they also help children regulate their emotions,  develop better body awareness, and improve their posture, stability, and balance.

Adaptations and tips:

• Use action songs: Dancing to songs like “If You’re Happy and You Know It” encourages kids to listen and move in sync with the music. These make for excellent auditory processing activities as they require attention to both the lyrics and the timing of their movements.
• Try primitive reflex integration movement activities: Persistent reflexes can sometimes interfere with development. Engaging in exercises that target primitive reflex integration—such as those offered by Soundsory®—can help resolve retained reflexes, promoting smoother developmental progress.

 

 

Sorting Games

Sorting activities help build organizational skills, cognitive flexibility, and attention to detail. You’ll never run out of things to sort—your child’s toys, everyday household items like utensils, socks, or even clothing. These materials provide endless opportunities for sorting by categories such as color, size, shape, or type. Plus, they’re easy to adapt to your child’s level, making everyday chores fun and educational.

Adaptations and tips:

• Use different rules: Challenge your child by having them sort items in various ways, such as by color, shape, size, or type (e.g., adult socks vs. kiddie socks). Gradually increase complexity: Start simple, like grouping utensils. Then, add a layer of difficulty—ask them to “set the table” with a spoon, fork, and knife.

Follow The Leader

Form a group of at least three, select one person as the leader, and have the others follow their movements. This game is excellent for developing imitation, attention, and the ability to follow instructions. Bonus: You can incorporate gross motor skills activities like running, jumping, and galloping for extra fun.

Adaptations and tips:

• Begin from simple to complex: Start with easy movements or focus on one body part (like just the arms) before combining multiple parts. 
• Progress from static to dynamic: Begin by practicing movements in place, then progress to the classic “Follow the Leader” game, moving around like a train.

Memory Match

Memory Match is a fun and effective way to build working memory, concentration, and cognitive flexibility in young children. It challenges them to retain and recall information and improve attention to detail and pattern recognition.

Adaptations and tips:

• Start simple: Use a smaller set of cards (e.g., 4-6 pairs) for younger children and gradually increase the number as they improve.
• Try group play: Take turns with siblings or friends to encourage social interaction, patience, and turn-taking. This helps kids practice waiting and following rules, essential self-regulation skills.

Activities for School-Aged Children (Ages 6-12)

School-age children thrive with rule-based games and games that require cooperation with peers. For this age range, focus on increasing the complexity. 

Guessing Games

Guessing games build quick thinking, cognitive flexibility, and strategic planning. For instance, games like Charades and Guesstures require children to act out words without speaking, learning to switch their strategy if their current one doesn’t work. Headbanz challenges kids to describe objects, people, or situations, encouraging attention and problem-solving.

 

Adaptations and tips:

• Use categories: Start with simple categories like colors or animals, then introduce more complex ones as they improve.
• Add a timer: Incorporate time limits to encourage focus and enhance decision-making under pressure.

 

Join a Choir or Singing Group

Musical training—including singing, music theory, rhythmic activities, and role-playing (like turn-taking or choral singing)—enhances control, working memory, behavior regulation, and flexibility. A Chinese study found that a 12-week program improved executive function in young children, with the benefits lasting even after the training ended [6].

Adaptations and tips:

• Prepare ahead: Before singing sessions, have the child do oral motor exercises to ensure they have the oral motor coordination they need for singing. Additionally, auditory motor activities can enhance attention and focus, benefiting not only their musical skills but also everyday activities.
• Start simple: Begin with easy songs and gradually introduce more complex rhythms or harmonies as the child gains confidence and skills.

 

Mindfulness Training

Studies show that mindfulness training helps improve school-aged children’s executive function by teaching them to purposefully pay attention in the present moment [7]. Doing so can help improve focus, mental processing, and self-regulation. This ultimately translates to better behavior and academic performance.

Adaptations and tips:

• Make it interactive: Use apps or videos designed for children to guide mindfulness sessions and keep them engaged.
• Use engaging exercises: Incorporate fun activities like mindful listening (focusing on sounds in their environment) or body scans to help children connect with their senses.

 

Simple meal preparation

Preparing meals helps children practice sequencing, planning, and following instructions. For instance, making a sandwich teaches them to organize tasks step-by-step, while keeping every step in their working memory.

Adaptations and tips:

• Increase complexity: Start with simple meals, then progress to those with more steps or instructions.
• Incorporate precise tasks: Add elements like mixing or following steps exactly to build focus and attention to detail. You can also add individual preferences for them to take note of.

 

Grocery shopping

Grocery shopping is a practical way to develop budgeting, planning, and organizational skills. You can have a grocery list ready or let your child create their own list based on a goal (e.g., ingredients for making Smores)

Adaptations and tips:

• Introduce a budget challenge: Give them a small budget to manage, to target their decision-making and problem-solving.

 

Logic and puzzle-solving games

Logic games like Traffic Jam, Mastermind, and brain teasers improve pattern recognition, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These games encourage persistence and flexible thinking as children experiment with different solutions.

Adaptations and tips:

• Increase difficulty: Use puzzles with varying levels of complexity to keep kids engaged. 
• Promote teamwork: Solve puzzles with siblings or friends to enhance collaboration and communication skills.

 

Story sequencing

Story sequencing activities help children develop creativity, organization, and problem-solving skills. It involves a series of pictures that the child has to arrange in a sequential order.

Adaptations and tips:

• Start with simple sequences: Use short stories or fewer images for younger children
• Ask the child to create a story: Make the child create a story based on the sequence of pictures they arranged

Looking for exercises your student or child can do at home? Download our free PDF worksheet designed to boost executive function skills for school-age children!

Activities for Teens and Young Adults (Ages 13-18)

As teens establish more autonomy and independence, they face similar demands to those expected of adults, juggling multiple tasks with less help from their parents. They now need to make moment-by-moment adjustment and learn to rely on more mature, complex executive functions to deal with the challenges.

These activities target a wide range of executive function skills, including judgment, problem-solving, time management, and self-regulation.

Start a Personal Journal

Journaling promotes self-awareness and helps teens explore their thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, enhancing metacognition—the ability to think about one’s own thinking. Writing regularly allows them to reflect on experiences, set personal goals, and track their emotional growth over time.

Create a Weekly Schedule

Creating a weekly schedule helps teens practice time management by estimating how long tasks will take and breaking them into smaller, achievable parts. This process requires planning, prioritization, and organization—key executive functions that help them balance schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and downtime effectively.

Join Team Sports

Competitive sports help teens develop key executive function skills like planning, strategic thinking, and quick decision-making. They also enhance self-regulation as teens monitor their own performance and adapt to teammates’ actions.

Sports are also great for developing social skills through collaboration, communication, and handling challenges under pressure. Sports incorporate both aerobic exercise and resistance training, both of which have been shown to enhance executive function [8].

For teens with ADHD or executive dysfunction, Soundsory® exercises offer additional support. Explore Soundsory’s video series for multisensory training to improve coordination, focus, and executive function.

Plan a Social Event

Planning meaningful social events, like a surprise party, helps teens develop goal-setting skills and execute complex plans. For instance, organizing a party involves private communication with friends, delegating tasks, ordering supplies, and anticipating potential issues.

Managing these elements fosters strategic thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving while helping teens build social connections and confidence.

 

Play Computer Games

Depending on the type, computer games can enhance attention, inhibition, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. RPGs, for example, develop planning, strategy, and working memory. 

Online multiplayer games also foster teamwork, communication, and adaptability as players collaborate, make quick decisions, and manage unexpected challenges.

A study found that playing a game that targets a particular executive function was effective when played for a particular time and with increasing difficulty [9].

Activities for Adults

Exercising executive function isn’t limited to young people—it’s never too late to strengthen these skills as an adult. Improved executive function can enhance work productivity, support success in parenting, and foster meaningful participation in the community.

Soundsory® exercises can also benefit adults, especially those with executive dysfunction, ADHD or autism.

Take a Nature Walk

In addition to the physical benefits of walking, studies show that being in natural environments reduces the brain’s need to filter out distractions typically found in “mentally fatiguing” settings. 

A study found that nature walks have a restorative effect, restoring mental resources depleted by cognitively demanding tasks [10].

Learn a New Language

Learning a new language isn’t easy—it requires you to use skills like memory, pattern recognition, logical reasoning and creativity. A Dutch study even found that language learners showed significant improvements in cognitive flexibility and episodic memory, comparable to the benefits seen with music training [11].

Use Productivity Strategies

Productivity strategies enhance executive function by improving focus, organization, and time management. Techniques like the Pomodoro method (focused work intervals with breaks) and the Eisenhower matrix (prioritizing tasks by urgency and importance) streamline workflows.  

Other helpful tools include mind mapping for organizing ideas, to-do lists for tracking progress, and time blocking, which allocates specific times for tasks. Additionally, habit trackers help build consistency, while calendar apps keep schedules organized and manageable.

 

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Final Thoughts: Helping Yourself or Your Child Thrive with Better Executive Functioning

Executive function skills are essential for success and cognitive well-being, helping everyone—regardless of age—to manage tasks, emotions, and decisions effectively. Strengthening these skills early provides children with a solid foundation for learning, social interactions, and future achievements. Even for adults, improving executive function enhances productivity, parenting, and community involvement.

Using Soundsory’s auditory-motor exercises can boost the impact of everyday activities in developing executive function skills. Explore both free and paid Soundsory® resources to start enhancing executive function.

FAQs : Executive Functioning Activities for Kids and Adults

The 30% Rule for ADHD: What Does it Mean and How to Manage Executive Dysfunction?

The 30% Rule for ADHD, developed by Dr. Russell Barkley, suggests that children with ADHD lag 30% behind their neurotypical peers in executive functions, meaning their emotional and behavioral maturity is 30% below their actual age.

Strategies for managing executive dysfunction include establishing routines, breaking tasks into smaller steps, using rewards to encourage positive behaviors, and utilizing time management tools like timers, to-do lists, and planners.

Soundsory’s auditory and movement-based exercises are ideal for individuals with ADHD. These activities strengthen neural connections essential for developing executive functions, helping the brain more effectively integrate multisensory information. 

Can You Reverse Executive Dysfunction?

No, executive dysfunction is not typically “reversed” in the sense that it can be permanently cured, especially if linked to or caused by ADHD or neurological disorders like brain tumors. However, the right strategies and interventions can help improve it.

 

What are the 12 executive function skills?

These are the 12 commonly mentioned executive function skills:

1. Impulse control/Self-regulation
2. Attention
3. Working memory
4. Task initiation
5. Planning
6. Organization
7. Time management
8. Emotion control
9. Goal persistence
10. Flexibility
11. Metacognition
12. Stress tolerance

References

1. Blair C. (2016). Executive function and early childhood education. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 10, 102–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.05.009
2. Rabinovici, G. D., Stephens, M. L., & Possin, K. L. (2015). Executive dysfunction. Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.), 21(3 Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry), 646–659. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.CON.0000466658.05156.54
3. Kofler, M. J., Irwin, L. N., Soto, E. F., Groves, N. B., Harmon, S. L., & Sarver, D. E. (2019). Executive Functioning Heterogeneity in Pediatric ADHD. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 47(2), 273–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-018-0438-2
4. Benallie, K. J., McClain, M. B., Bakner, K. E., Roanhorse, T., & Ha, J. (2021). Executive functioning in children with ASD + ADHD and ASD + ID: A systematic review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 86, 101807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2021.101807
5. Tsuk, S., Netz, Y., Dunsky, A., Zeev, A., Carasso, R., Dwolatzky, T., Salem, R., Behar, S., & Rotstein, A. (2019). The Acute Effect of Exercise on Executive Function and Attention: Resistance Versus Aerobic Exercise. Advances in cognitive psychology, 15(3), 208–215. https://doi.org/10.5709/acp-0269-7
6. Shen, Y., Lin, Y., Liu, S., Fang, L., & Liu, G. (2019). Sustained effect of music training on the enhancement of executive function in preschool children. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01910
7. Ritter, A., & Alvarez, I. (2020). Mindfulness and Executive Functions: Making the Case for Elementary School Practice. European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education, 10(1), 544–553. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe10010039
8. Tsuk, S., Netz, Y., Dunsky, A., Zeev, A., Carasso, R., Dwolatzky, T., Salem, R., Behar, S., & Rotstein, A. (2019). The Acute Effect of Exercise on Executive Function and Attention: Resistance Versus Aerobic Exercise. Advances in cognitive psychology, 15(3), 208–215. https://doi.org/10.5709/acp-0269-7
9. Parong, J., Mayer, R. E., Fiorella, L., MacNamara, A., Homer, B. D., & Plass, J. L. (2017). Learning executive function skills by playing focused video games. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 51, 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2017.07.002
10. Beil, K. (2024). Walking in Nature Improves Executive Function and Attention. https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/walking-in-nature-improves-executive-function-and-attention
11. Grossmann, J. A., Koelsch, V. M., Degirmenci, M. G., Aschenbrenner, S., Teichmann, B., & Meyer, P. (2021). Effects of foreign language learning on executive functions in healthy older adults: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMC Geriatrics, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02051-x