PRESS RELEASE: March 27, 2025
This momentous occasion is the second time such recognition has been granted, underscoring the growing awareness of the significance of teaching Executive Function, the cognitive and affective skills essential for students to be prepared for future college, career and life success.
Executive Function is a set of mental skills that allow people to persist to achieve goals and are the capabilities needed for managing tasks, solving problems, and regulating emotions, especially during times of stress, uncertainty, or change. Executive Function is linked to academic skills including literacy, math and science, and includes abilities such as focus, planning, organization, time management, selfcontrol, mental flexibility, perspective taking, collaboration, and empathy. While often overlooked in educational curriculum and professional development, these teachable skills are the foundation needed for our students to achieve success in school, work, community, and personal endeavors.
The adoption of these legislative resolutions not only acknowledges the importance of teaching Executive Function but also serves as a call to action for increased support for teaching all students these vital skills. By designating a day to honor Executive Function, Georgia is taking a proactive step towards fostering a culture of understanding and empowerment for all citizens, bringing together school leaders, teachers, mental health experts, researchers, policymakers, and change makers to address specific topics connected to Executive Function. Recognizing Executive Function Day highlights the interconnectedness of cognitive skills, mental health and overall well-being. In a world where the demands of daily life continue to grow, nurturing and explicitly teaching Executive Function abilities is essential for helping people navigate challenges and pursue goals effectively.
The support for this resolution in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate reflects a bipartisan commitment to promoting Executive Function skills including support for the role of Executive Function in teaching reading comprehension, literacy, math, and science. It sends a powerful message that investing in the cognitive skills of individuals of all ages is an investment in the future prosperity of Georgia.
“We’re advocating for a transformational change in the way we address systemic educational issues such as ongoing academic declines, ongoing mental health crisis, and increasing behavioral issues. In addition to reactive programs for those with diagnosed dysfunction, imagine the possibilities when we invest in proactive Executive Function training to teach ALL of our students the underlying Executive Function skills they need to build resiliency and emotional regulation,” shared Sucheta Kamath, Executive Function Specialist.
“There is also strong evidence showing that explicitly teaching students Executive Function skills improves learning capacity and reduces the lifelong consequences of mental health illness. Executive Function Skills are foundational to independence, self-sufficiency and self-management.
Well-developed Executive Function skills allow students to manage their goals, organize their tasks, persist when things are difficult, cope with the unexpected, and adapt with creativity so they can achieve their self-set goals and be their best in the face of learning barriers or life’s most difficult circumstances. Self-driven learners are sufficiently motivated to start a new career or business or to pursue further education without supervision from others and those who demonstrate such Executive Function proficiency and independence, positively influence their own academic and nonacademic outcomes.”
For more information on Executive Function Day and initiatives to support cognitive skill development, please visit here.
About Sucheta Kamath: Sucheta Kamath, an ed-tech entrepreneur, is an internationally known Executive Function Specialist, the Founder and CEO of ExQ®, a two-time TEDx speaker, an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a Podcast Host of Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function, and a Professor of Practice at the Amrita University in India where she teaches a graduate level course on “Impact of Executive Function Over the Lifespan.” Learn more about Sucheta Kamath here.