Leading the Charge in Executive Functioning: An Interview with Isaac Van Wesep, CEO of Reflection Sciences

At the forefront of educational innovation, Reflection Sciences is reshaping how we understand and support executive function skills. We recently spoke with CEO, Isaac Van Wesep, who joined last year. He shared his personal connection to the mission and Reflection Sciences’ vision for advancing early childhood education. Read on to explore Isaac’s insights on current challenges and the exciting future of executive function assessment and support.

What motivated you to join Reflection Sciences as the CEO?

Reflection Sciences represents the best of what education innovation can be: deeply rooted in science and focused on helping communities grow stronger through education. The opportunity to work with two of the leading scientists in the field, and with many of the world’s major academic institutions, is pretty cool too. Both Philip Zelazo and Stephanie Carlson are highly respected in this field. But at the end of the day, I connected with the mission. When I was growing up I struggled in school and with social relationships. I still have a hard time finishing a conversation without putting my foot in my mouth! I’m proud to be part of something that makes life better for kids like me.

What specific gaps or challenges in executive function assessment do you observe today?

I would like to see more use of direct, scientifically validated measures of EF, especially in early childhood. Observational measures, especially self-observation, play an important role in EF support. However, direct objective measures should be the gold standard and the starting point for measuring EF as early as possible when the impact of intervention and support is highest. Also, while technology innovations are often built English-first, and attuned to a narrow range of cultural contexts, we need to make sure our solutions actually work for and are accessible to all people.

What do you think the next milestone for Reflection Sciences will be after the completion of the accelerator program?

We are excited to be working with several new education partners this school year. I’m looking forward to helping them reach their goals, whether that is identifying kids who would benefit from EF support, enabling EF support at home, improving classroom behavior, increasing readiness to learn in kindergarten and beyond, and even learning outcomes and achievement.

How do your methodologies for addressing executive function stand out from others?

Our measure of EF, the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS) is the measure of choice for many in the scientific community. I don’t know of any other classroom or home measure of EF that can say the same. The easy-to-use MEFS is being utilized in over 40 active studies around the world and has been repeatedly validated in peer-reviewed research in major journals. To improve EF, we offer both play-based practice activities and digital games, both of which have been shown to improve EF in early childhood. Our research into these interventions is ongoing and includes partners at Mt. Sinai Parenting Center in New York and the Learning Informatics Lab at the University of Minnesota, with funding from The National Institutes of Health, the Venn Foundation, and the Learning Agency.

Can you discuss any challenges or resistance you’ve faced in introducing new methods for assessing executive function?

Awareness around the importance of early intervention, and the fact that most kids benefit from EF support, has increased dramatically in the last couple of years. Educators and parents are learning that EF challenges in adolescence — when they start to interfere with kids’ ability to thrive — have their roots in early childhood. Now people know that if you want to improve adolescent and adult EF, your highest impact comes from addressing EF by the age of 5.

How do you see the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning evolving in the assessment and development of executive function skills?

We are using AI and machine learning to create games that measure and build skills at the same time. These games provide large datasets we use to further understand individual differences and responses to interventions. Our work with Caitlin Mills at the Learning Informatics Lab at the University of Minnesota is part of this focus. That collaboration is also supported by the Transform Award we recently received from the Tools Competition.

Learn more at Reflection Sciences’ website here.