Over the past decades, environmental conditions, quality of life, and patterns of daily functioning have changed dramatically. Technology has become an unavoidable part of our lives, even for children in preschool. Children are developing under conditions of reduced, and in some cases absent, motor activity. School curricula are continuously changing, yet they often fail to provide adequate support for child development and to establish a solid foundation for lifelong learning. The changes that have occurred in our lives undoubtedly offer many advantages, but they also have negative consequences. For example, these altered conditions have contributed to dissociation associated with the functional immaturity of the cerebral cortex.During periods of developmental crises or increased functional demands, these dissociations become more apparent and limit the child’s psychological and social functioning. Through the widespread use of technology, even very young children have changed the way they communicate with one another, which has affected the development of their social skills. Today, an increasing number of children experience difficulties functioning at school, learning challenges, and emotional or behavioral dysfunctions.With the introduction of neuroimaging techniques, it has become possible to identify characteristics of nervous system maturation, thereby increasing the opportunities for the early detection of atypical developmental conditions. Impairments in executive functions have become an increasingly important topic among parents of children and adolescents.

Executive function is a concept that encompasses a variety of complex cognitive processes. Defining executive functions is challenging because they do not represent a single, unified construct. Rather, they are an evolutionary adaptation associated with survival, based on the ability to monitor ongoing behavior and modify it according to changing situational demands. Consequently, the abilities to formulate concepts, think abstractly, prioritize tasks, and determine the significance of different situations are all components of executive functioning. Executive functions also enable planning, organization, the use of information and previous experience to solve current problems, and adaptive decision-making. In other words, executive functions play a fundamental role in our everyday lives.

The term executive functions is used as an umbrella concept encompassing a variety of complex cognitive processes. Executive functions refer to the abilities that enable individuals to regulate their cognitive capacities and behavior. The ability to formulate concepts and engage in abstract thinking is closely associated with executive functioning; thus, executive functions represent higher-order cognitive processes that govern behavior. They enable individuals to select relevant information and assign significance to different situations.Executive functions are also related to the ability to analyze problems and develop effective strategies for solving them. They support planning, organization, prioritization, sustained attention during task performance, the use of information from previous experiences to address current problems, cognitive flexibility, and other higher-level cognitive abilities.

Furthermore, executive functions serve as psychological mechanisms for transforming knowledge and generating new conceptual meanings and mental representations.Three are the main cognitive operations that are most often discussed as the main components of executive functions:

• Storage and updating of significant information.
• Selection of significant events and suppression of impulsive reactions.
• Switching to another cognitive task.

Executive functions are not a single concept, but a series of processes. They are an inseparable part of the functions of the brain, especially with regard to goal setting, planning, goal-directed action, self-monitoring, attention, inhibitory control, and the effective performance of tasks. A decline in executive functions is observed in the process of normal aging. This has not been fully proven, but it is believed that they include inhibitory control, characteristics of attention, and the updating of information.

Executive functions and cognitive processes are related to the so-called metacognition. It is defined as a higher-order cognitive process that processes and regulates information. They are activated in certain situations and are classified as procedural metacognition and declarative metacognition. Metacognitive functions develop through feedback loops during different activities and through so-called metacognitive experience.

Executive functions are a general term used to describe the processes involved in unfamiliar and complex responses. Executive functions are involved in situations related to:

• Acquisition of new skills.
• Planning and decision-making.
• Correction of errors during the course of an activity.
• Difficulties in carrying out an activity.
• Initiation of an activity.
• Conscious control of behavior.

Executive functions participate in complex cognitions, such as solving new problems, changing behavior, generating strategies, or carrying out complex actions. Funahashi considers that executive functions are the product of the coordinated work of different processes to achieve a particular goal in a flexible way.

Traditionally, several key executive functions are described:

1.Working memory – functions on the basis of the ability to manipulate different parts of incoming information. It also allows a person to follow multi-step instructions and to use past experience. The ability to handle information and use it when necessary is related to the so-called working memory.

2.Emotional regulation

3.Internal speech and regulation of behavior – this is the child’s ability to monitor and evaluate their own performance, to assess whether the strategies are working, and to check their effectiveness.

4.Ability to reorganize information and behavioral responses – this is the child’s ability to change the order of the information being used at a given moment, that is, to understand the current information, create a plan, and choose a specific course of action, while being able to change the order if necessary.

Contemporary psychological science accepts that executive functions are related to:

1.Abstract thinking – a type of thinking in which a person abstracts from details and thinks in broad concepts, seeing the whole picture. This characteristic of the brain allows us to make new discoveries.

2.Distribution of attention – the appropriate shifting and maintaining of attention on the influencing objects, appropriate in terms of time, extent, and quality, distributing concentration, sustaining attention, and switching between objects according to the final goal – the adaptive response.

3.Decision-making – this is an important aspect of a child’s everyday life. Decision-making is the ability for complex planning and prediction, time organization, and behavior control.

4.Social functioning – this is a series of processes necessary for engaging in independent and goal-directed behavior. Social functioning represents the child’s appropriate behavior in society.

5.Inhibitory control – is related to the ability to determine priorities and control impulsive actions.

6.Working memory.

The ability to move from one activity to another in an appropriate way and to assimilate new information from past experience is called cognitive flexibility. Emotional control is related to the ability to regulate the emotional response and to change the response when the situation requires it. Inhibitory control is related to the ability to determine priorities and control impulsive actions. Executive functions and cognitive processes are related to the so-called metacognition. It is defined as higher-order cognitive processes that process and regulate information. Initiation is the child’s ability to begin performing a task, which is often related to planning and prioritizing. Planning, organization, management, and time control are the child’s ability to understand the information necessary to achieve a goal and to arrange and prioritize it. Goal achievement represents the sequence of carrying out specific steps that ensure the achievement of different goals.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS:

• Inhibitory response
• Achievable goals
• Task initiation
• Cognitive flexibility
• Time management
• Abstract thinking
• Working memory
• Attention control
• Emotional control
• Metacognition