Early Development of Executive Functions in the Everyday Life

Cintia Rodríguez

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Towards the end of the first year, children begin to intentionally control their behavior to pursue significant goals. This intentional control implies an organization of action often referred to as self-regulation or Executive Functions.

Despite extensive research, the origins of EF remain largely elusive, particularly prior to the age of 3, when language has not yet consolidated as the main tool for communication and behavior control. Increasingly, researchers claim that EFs begin at the end of the first year of life through forms of pre-verbal semiotic mediation.

Grounded in these ideas, we have focused on studying the construction and development of EFs through a pragmatic lens. We have conducted longitudinal studies focusing on children’s actions (between 8 and 18 months) in their everyday contexts at early-years-school. These investigations show that children set goals of increasing complexity for themselves from the end of the first year of life, employing creative strategies to achieve them. To focus on children’s own goals supposes a shift from the traditional study of EFs, which typically involves researcher-defined objectives.

Children’s primary goals largely revolve around being able to use objects by their function. Mastering these uses is not obvious; they entail varying levels of difficulty, posing genuine challenges for children. To achieve these, children must persist in their actions, inhibit distractions and irrelevant behaviors, flexibly switch between strategies, and sometimes plan and evaluate their own performance. Children self-regulate through (1) their own action, when they use objects and tools, and (2) their gestures, when they produce private gestures as ways of reflecting on their actions.

Cintia Rodríguez is a professor of Developmental Psychology at, University Autónoma of Madrid, Spain. She studied in the School of Geneva, where she also worked as an assistant on Inhelder’s team. Professor Rodríguez has been a leading figure in early socio-cognitive development with a focus on the Pragmatics of the Object. Recently she studies the early manifestations of executive functions from the end of the first year of life in everyday school situations. She examines the challenges that the children give to themselves as active agents and the educative action by teachers. Rodríguez work is international in scope. She spent two sabbatical years abroad: 1997-1998 academic year at Clark University, USA, and 2004-2005, Portsmouth University, UK. She has had several stays in Mexico, Brazil, Chili, Colombia and Argentina. Cintia has authored or co-authored 6 books and edited volumes, book chapters, and journal articles in prestigious outlets such as Cognitive Development, Human Development, New Ideas in Psychology. Springer has published her last coedited book, The Social life of Objects in early development, 2025. She is President Elect at the Jean Piaget Society.