Speech Therapy Language Activities To Target Executive Functioning Skills (in adolescents and adults)

Gina Britt
3 days ago
10 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

After 14+ years of cognitive rehabilitation work, I've learned that the best executive function activities don't feel like therapy exercises. They feel like life skills that happen to rebuild your brain's project management system.

This post is all about language-based activities that actually transfer to daily life—the ones I use with my adolescent and adult clients who need to function in the real world, not just ace a therapy task.

Want more done-for-you support? Grab my free deep breathing resource, speech therapy humor and tips you can start using today.

This post is all about speech therapy language activities

Recipe Modification and Meal Planning

This is my go-to activity because it hits literally every executive function skill and everyone has to eat (even if you currently survive on DoorDash and protein bars).

Executive Functioning Skills Targeted:

✔️ Planning: Deciding what to cook for the week based on schedule, dietary needs, and what's already in your fridge

✔️ Organization: Creating a shopping list categorized by store section

✔️ Problem-solving: Substituting ingredients you don't have or adapting recipes for dietary restrictions

✔️ Working memory: Following multi-step directions while tracking multiple pots/timers

✔️ Flexible thinking: Adjusting when something burns or you're missing an ingredient

How to implement this: Start with one meal. Pick a recipe with 5-7 steps. Before you start, have the person:

✔️ Read through the entire recipe

✔️ Identify what ingredients they have vs. need

✔️ Estimate how long each step takes

✔️ Plan the order of operations (what needs to start first?)

Then actually cook it. The magic happens when things go wrong—that's where executive function gets practiced.

Pro tip: This works even better if you're cooking for someone else or on a deadline (guests arriving, lunch break ending). Real-world pressure = real-world executive function practice.

Planning a Trip or Event (With Actual Research)

Not a pretend trip. An actual event they need to plan - focus on something fun like an upcoming vacation they would like to take.

Executive function skills you're building:

✔️ Initiation: Actually starting the planning process instead of avoiding it

✔️ Organization: Breaking a big project into smaller steps

✔️ Time management: Estimating how long tasks take and working backward from deadlines

✔️ Decision-making: Comparing options with multiple variables (cost, time, preferences)

✔️ Prioritization: Figuring out what MUST happen vs. what's nice-to-have

✈️ Click here to purchase the worksheet above to target this exact strategy here!!

Why people love it?

♥️ Easy-to-follow

♥️ No Prep

♥️ Real-world training

♥️ Motivating

♥️ Higher Level Education

How to structure this: Give them a real scenario with constraints:

"You need to plan your vacation for 2 people. Budget: $450. You can pick road trip or flight. You have 4 weeks."

Why this works: The stakes are real. If they don't follow through, there are actual consequences. Plus, you're practicing executive function while accomplishing something meaningful and positive.

Analyzing News Articles or Podcast Episodes

This targets higher-level language and executive function skills that adults actually need for work and social situations.

Executive Functioning Skills You're Building:

✔️ Attention and focus: Following complex information over time

✔️ Working memory: Holding multiple pieces of information to compare and contrast

✔️ Inference and reasoning: Reading between the lines and identifying bias

✔️ Organization of thought: Summarizing key points coherently

✔️ Perspective-taking: Understanding different viewpoints

How to do this:

Pick a current event or topic they care about. Have them:

✔️ Read/listen to 2-3 sources covering the same story

✔️ Identify main points and supporting details from each

✔️ Compare how each source frames the information

✔️ Summarize the key takeaways in their own words

✔️ Form and defend their own opinion

Advanced version: Have them explain the topic to someone unfamiliar with it (you, a family member, a friend). Teaching requires organizing information clearly—peak executive function.

Fixing Daily Routines (That Aren't Working)

Instead of creating a perfect routine from scratch (which never works), troubleshoot the systems they already have.

Executive functioning skills you're building:

✔️ Self-monitoring: Identifying where breakdowns happen

✔️ Problem-solving: Figuring out why the current system fails

✔️ Flexible thinking: Adapting strategies instead of abandoning them entirely

✔️ Planning: Creating realistic solutions based on actual behavior patterns

The process: Pick one daily struggle (getting out the door on time, remembering medications, managing email, whatever).

Together:

✔️ Map out what currently happens step-by-step

✔️ Identify exactly where it falls apart

✔️ Brainstorm 3-5 potential solutions

✔️ Test ONE solution for a week

✔️ Evaluate and adjust

Example: "I'm always late to work because I can't find my keys."

✔️ Current system: Keys go... somewhere? Kitchen counter? Coat pocket? Who knows.

✔️ Breakdown point: Keys get put down randomly when coming home because hands are full

✔️ Solutions to test: Hook by door, bowl on entry table, always leave keys in bag

✔️ Trial: Hook by door for one week

✔️ Evaluation: Did it work? If not, why? Adjust accordingly.

Why this matters: You're teaching metacognition—thinking about your own thinking and systematically solving problems. This transfers to literally every life challenge.

Managing a Multi-Step Project With a Deadline

This is where we separate "doing therapy tasks" from "actually functioning independently." Pick a real project with real stakes.

Executive function skills you're building:

✔️ Task initiation: Getting started when there's no external pressure

✔️ Planning: Breaking a complex project into manageable steps

✔️ Time estimation: Figuring out how long things actually take (spoiler: always longer than you think)

✔️ Prioritization: Deciding what to do first when everything feels urgent

✔️ Sustained attention: Working on something over multiple sessions

✔️ Self-monitoring: Checking your own work and knowing when you're off-track

Good options:

✔️ Applying for a job or college program

✔️ Completing required paperwork (insurance forms, financial aid, disability accommodations)

✔️ Home improvement project (organizing a room, fixing something broken)

✔️ Creating something (video, presentation, written piece)

Your role as the SLP: You're not doing it for them. You're teaching them to:

✔️ Create a project timeline

✔️ Identify dependencies (what has to happen before what)

✔️ Set up external reminders and accountability

✔️ Break big tasks into 20-minute chunks

✔️ Build in buffer time for inevitable setbacks

The secret sauce: Review after each session what went well, what didn't, and what they'll do differently next time. This reflection is where executive function growth actually happens.

Following Complex Instructions With Competing Information

This simulates real-world cognitive load—when you're trying to follow directions while multiple things are happening.

Executive function skills you're building:

✔️ Divided attention: Tracking multiple information sources

✔️ Working memory: Holding steps in mind while executing them

✔️ Inhibition: Ignoring irrelevant information

✔️ Cognitive flexibility: Switching between tasks without losing your place

Examples that work:

✔️ Following a new route while someone gives you verbal directions and the GPS is saying something different

✔️ Assembling furniture with instructions while someone asks you questions

✔️ Following a recipe while also helping someone else in the kitchen

✔️ Taking notes during a meeting while participating in the discussion

How to practice this safely: Start simple and gradually increase complexity:

Level 1: Follow written instructions with no distractions

Level 2: Follow instructions while music plays

Level 3: Follow instructions while someone asks occasional questions

Level 4: Follow instructions while managing competing information sources

Real-world application: This is exactly what happens in work meetings, family conversations, and basically any situation where life doesn't pause while you process information.

Problem-Solving Real Situations (Not Hypotheticals)

Forget "what would you do if you found a wallet on the ground?" Those hypotheticals are useless. Use actual problems from their life.

What makes this effective: When the problem is real, the motivation to solve it is real. And motivation is half the battle with executive function challenges.

Executive function skills you're building:

Problem Identification & Definition

✔️Self-awareness / Metacognition: Recognizing there is a problem and describing it accurately.

✔️Attention to detail: Identifying what specifically is going wrong.

✔️Emotional regulation: Staying calm enough to analyze the situation instead of reacting impulsively.

Goal Setting

✔️Planning and organization: Determining what success looks like.

✔️Task initiation: Taking the first step toward change.

✔️Future thinking: Visualizing desired outcomes and long-term effects.

Generating Solutions

✔️Cognitive flexibility: Thinking of multiple possible strategies, even creative or “silly” ones.

✔️Ideation / creativity: Producing diverse solutions instead of fixating on one idea.

✔️ Working memory: Holding different options in mind to compare later.

Evaluating Options

✔️Critical thinking: Weighing pros, cons, and feasibility.

✔️Impulse control: Pausing to reflect before acting.

✔️Decision-making: Selecting the best solution based on reasoning rather than emotion.

Implementation

✔️Planning and prioritization: Organizing steps and resources to put the plan into action.

✔️Time management: Scheduling tasks and sticking to a timeline.

✔️Sustained attention: Following through without getting distracted or giving up midway.

How to structure problem-solving: Use a consistent framework:

Define the problem clearly (what exactly is wrong?)
Identify the goal (what would success look like?)
Brainstorm solutions (at least 5—yes, even the silly ones)
Evaluate each option (pros, cons, feasibility)
Choose and implement one solution
Set a time to evaluate (did it work? What needs adjusting?)

Real problems to tackle:

✔️"I keep missing assignment deadlines even though I write them down"

✔️"I can't focus on work when I'm working from home"

✔️"I forget important conversations minutes after they happen"

✔️ "I start projects but never finish them"

Why this beats hypotheticals: They're learning a problem-solving process they can apply to any future situation. Plus, you're solving an actual problem that's making their life harder right now. Two birds, one activity.

Managing Digital Organization Systems

Your phone and computer are executive function tools. If they're a disaster, everything else gets harder.

Executive Functioning Skills You're Targeting:

✔️ Organization: Creating folder systems that make sense for their brain

✔️ Maintenance: Deleting, archiving, and updating information regularly

✔️ Retrieval: Finding information quickly when needed

✔️ Systems thinking: Creating sustainable routines instead of one-time cleanups

Practical applications:

Organizing email with folders and filters (not just letting 3,847 unread emails haunt you)

Setting up phone reminders that actually work (with context, not just "appointment")

Creating a system for important documents (passwords, insurance info, receipts)

Managing photos and files so you can actually find them later

Start here: Pick ONE digital space that's causing the most stress. Don't try to organize everything at once—that's how people end up giving up entirely.

Work through:

✔️ What do they actually need to access regularly?

✔️ What's currently making retrieval difficult?

✔️ What system would match their natural thinking patterns?

✔️ How can we make maintenance take under 5 minutes a day?

Brutal honesty: If a system requires more than 5 minutes of daily maintenance, they won't do it. Design for their actual energy levels, not their aspirational ones.

Conversation Navigation in Complex Social Situations

Executive function isn't just about tasks—it's also about managing the cognitive demands of social interaction.

Executive Function Skills You're Targeting:

✔️ Working memory: Tracking multiple conversation threads

✔️ Attention shifting: Following who's talking and what they're saying

✔️ Inhibition: Not interrupting or saying everything that pops into your head

✔️ Theory of mind: Understanding what others know vs. what you know

✔️ Pragmatic language: Reading social cues and adjusting communication

How to practice:

✔️ Analyze recorded conversations (podcast discussions, interviews, group meetings)

✔️ Identify conversational breakdowns and repair strategies

✔️ Practice summarizing complex discussions

✔️ Role-play challenging social scenarios (disagreements, asking for help, advocating for needs)

Level up: Practice in increasingly complex settings:

⬆️ One-on-one conversation

⬆️ Small group discussion

⬆️ Meeting with an agenda

⬆️ Social gathering with competing noise

⬆️ Video calls (extra executive function demands from technical issues and lag)

Why this matters: Social isolation often happens because the cognitive load of conversation becomes exhausting. Building these skills makes relationships possible again.

Metacognitive Reflection and Self-Advocacy

This is the skill that makes everything else stick. If you can't monitor your own thinking and ask for what you need, all the strategies in the world won't help.

Executive Functioning Skills You're Targeting:

✔️ Self-awareness: Recognizing when you're struggling and why

✔️ Self-monitoring: Catching errors and knowing when to ask for help

✔️ Self-advocacy: Communicating your needs clearly

✔️ Strategy generalization: Knowing which strategies to use when

How to integrate this into every session: End each activity with reflection questions:

✔️ What was hard about that? What was easier than expected?

✔️ What strategies did you use? Which ones helped?

✔️ When else in your life could you use this strategy?

✔️ What would you do differently next time?

✔️ What support do you need to actually implement this?

Teach self-advocacy language:

✔️ "I need written instructions for multi-step tasks"

✔️ "Can you send that in an email so I can reference it later?"

✔️ "I focus better in the morning—can we schedule this earlier?"

✔️ "I'm going to take notes so I don't miss anything"

The game-changer: When clients can identify their own executive function patterns and advocate for accommodations, they stop needing you. That's the goal.

Making These Speech Therapy Language Activities For Executive Functioning Actually Work

A few non-negotiables:

✅ Use real-world contexts. If it doesn't transfer to their actual life, it's not worth doing.

✅ Start where they are. Remember, age doesn’t determine cognitive ability. Conditions like brain injuries, ADHD, and other cognitive changes can affect adults too, so it’s important not to assume they can manage complex tasks without support.

✅ Build in reflection. The learning happens when they think about their own thinking, not just when they complete the task.

✅ Expect mistakes. Executive function practice involves failure, frustration, and lots of trial and error. That's not a bug - that's the whole point.

✅ Collaborate, don't dictate. They know their life better than you do. Your job is to teach strategies, not impose systems. Ask about what prior systems were working beforehand (if they have had an injury) and try to implement similar ones.

✈️ Vacation Planning Task For Executive Functioning

Executive Functioning Activity | Vacation Planning Task| Higher Education | No Prep | Easy-to-Follow

🚗 Click to purchase this executive functioning task here created by Gina Britt | Speech Therapist M.Ed. CCC-SLP

✔️No prep

✔️Easy-to-follow

✔️Higher Education

✔️Motivating and Engaging

✔️45 minutes

✔️Great for coverage notes

The Bottom Line

These language-based activities work because they're functional, they're meaningful, and they practice executive function in contexts that actually matter. Practice managing your schedule, follow through on commitments, and problem-solve when life throws you curveballs.

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