*Disclaimer first*: all kids are different. If you hear what I chose to say in this video and think my exact verbiage wouldn’t work for your kid, change it! This is an example made to fit social media video lengths, it’s not meant to be an exact script.
There is a huge overlap between mental labor and executive function; when we can find ways to illustrate this overlap and make these steps more concrete for kids, it can go a long way to building not only their executive functioning skills but also applying these skills to household labor.
We can start these conversations from early childhood! Packing for vacation is a great example, (see my other reposts about how to help kids learn to pack). Another great example is preparing to go to a birthday party. In education we call this “backwards design” “end in mind” or “ready-do-done” thinking, (or a mix of them all!).
Many aspects of this domestic labor seem magical and invisible to children (and to other adults, at times). And although these are learned and conditioned skills, they are often invisible, thus having us model the steps for our kids is crucial so they can learn the steps themselves.
As they get used to this, we can start asking them more things to prompt these skills, such as “hey, Dad’s birthday is next month. How about we check in next week to decide if we’re going to order something or go to the store?” or “do we have everything we need for the party? I see a wrapped gift, what’s missing?”
