Executive function starts in infancy. Here are the 7 skills babies and toddlers build first, what each one looks like, and how the right environment strengthens them.
Executive function is the brain's management system. It is the set of mental skills that lets a person hold a goal in mind, ignore a distraction, wait a moment, and adjust when a plan falls apart. Researchers at Harvard's Center on the Developing Child call it the brain's air traffic control. Most parents assume it shows up in grade school. It starts in infancy.
The foundation is laid between birth and age 3, the exact years a child spends with us at ENLA Learning in Fishtown. You cannot drill executive function into a toddler with worksheets. It grows through daily routines, warm relationships, and an environment built to let a child practice. Here are the seven skills your infant or toddler is already building, what each one looks like, and how to support it.
Working memory is the ability to hold information in mind and use it. In infants it looks like searching for a toy after it disappears under a blanket, usually around 8 months. In toddlers it looks like remembering where the shape sorter lives, or following "get your shoes and bring them to the door."
Predictable routines are the best training. When the same steps happen in the same order every day, a child learns to hold a sequence in mind. Our Montessori-inspired materials work the same way, with a clear beginning, middle, and end that a child repeats until it sticks.
This is the ability to stop a first impulse and choose a better response. It is the hardest executive skill and the slowest to develop, so patience matters. In a toddler it looks like waiting a turn for the swing, or pausing before grabbing a cup after you say "hot," even if the pause lasts half a second.
Children build self-control when a calm adult holds a clear limit without heat. Low ratios make that possible. With 1 teacher for every 3 infants and 1 for every 4 toddlers, someone is always close enough to coach the pause in the moment it matters.
Flexible thinking is the ability to shift between ideas or rules. An infant practices it by moving attention from one toy to another. A toddler practices it by sorting blocks by color, then switching to sort the same blocks by shape, or by moving from one activity to the next without falling apart.
Open-ended materials and real choices strengthen this skill. When a child decides what to work on and how, the brain rehearses shifting and adjusting all day long.
Regulation is managing big feelings well enough to keep functioning. A baby cannot do this alone. She borrows a calm adult's nervous system first, then slowly learns to steady herself. A toddler shows progress by recovering from a meltdown faster, or by naming a feeling instead of only screaming it.
This is why a consistent, warm caregiver matters more than any curriculum in the early years. Calm is leadership. A child who is co-regulated by a trusted teacher is learning to regulate herself, one hard moment at a time.
Sustained attention is the ability to stay with something. In infancy it is locking onto a face or tracking a slow-moving object. In toddlerhood it is working a puzzle for several uninterrupted minutes, deep enough that the rest of the room falls away.
That kind of focus is fragile, and constant interruptions break it. We protect long, uninterrupted work cycles and keep the environment ordered and calm, so a child can practice concentrating instead of being pulled off it every few minutes.
Planning is thinking a few steps ahead and doing them in order. A toddler shows it by stacking rings largest to smallest, or by carrying a small pitcher, pouring water, then drinking, in the right sequence.
Practical life work is built for exactly this. When a child pours, folds, sorts, and cleans up with child-sized real tools, she rehearses holding a multi-step plan and carrying it out, which is planning in its earliest form.
Self-monitoring is noticing how you are doing and adjusting. A toddler checks your face for a reaction, notices a spill and reaches for a cloth, or feels that a puzzle piece is wrong and tries another.
The fastest way to build this is to let children catch and fix their own mistakes. Many Montessori materials are self-correcting by design, so a child sees the error herself and solves it, instead of waiting for an adult to point it out.
Executive function skills predict how ready a child is for school more reliably than early reading or counting do. They cannot be rushed, and they cannot be taught from a flashcard. They grow through hundreds of small daily reps inside a calm, predictable, relationship-rich environment.
That is the entire design of a Montessori-inspired day. We have served Philadelphia families since 2012, and our Fishtown center at 1942 N Front Street is built to give infants and toddlers those reps every day. Families come to us from Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Old City, Queen Village, Center City, Fitler Square, Graduate Hospital, and Rittenhouse.
Want to see how it works in the room? Book a private tour through enlalearning.com or call (800) 327-7674. Families enrolling for 2026 save $550, with the $50 application fee and $500 registration fee waived.
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1942 N Front Street Philadelphia, PA 19122
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