Executive functions emerge from a number of regions in the brain’s frontal lobes working in concert with several subcortical structures. To the eye, this tissue may appear undifferentiated. The superordinate construct called “executive functions” refers to a diverse suite of skills that subserve two primary goals: to enable us to manage ourselves and to engage with the environment. Knowledge of these neural systems and how they develop in the brain and emerge in behavior is under active examination. Like many constructs associated with learning and behavior, executive functions have no universal definition. Irrespective of which definition one ascribes to, executive functions are how the brain uses natural capacities to set, manage, and attain goals. In general, the important task at hand is to determine how executive functions emerge and comingle with general (i.e., inhibitory control) and specific (i.e., language) cognitive processes in early life to promote competence across life and to determine the extent to which plasticity can be beneficially modified through training [150/150].