() Lessons for Successful Cognitive Developmental Science in Educational Settings: The Case of Executive Functions: Journal of Cognition and Development: Vol 20, No 2 (Journal Article)
- Executive function
Beck, S. et al. (2006) Children's Thinking About Counterfactuals and Future Hypotheticals as Possibilities (Journal Article)
Two experiments explored whether children's correct answers to counterfactual and future hypothetical questions were based on an understanding of possibilities. Children played a game in which a toy mouse could run down either 1 of 2 slides. Children found it difficult to mark physically both possible outcomes, compared to reporting a single hypothetical future event, “What if next time he goes the other way …” (Experiment 1: 3–4-year-olds and 4–5-year-olds), or a single counterfactual event, “What if he had gone the other way …?” (Experiment 2: 3–4-year-olds and 5–6-year-olds). An open counterfactual question, “Could he have gone anywhere else?,” which required thinking about the counterfactual as an alternative possibility, was also relatively difficult.
- Developmental outcomes
- Experimental
Becker, B. (2014) How Often Do You Play with Your Child? The Influence of Parents' Cultural Capital on the Frequency of Familial Activities from Age Three to Six (Journal Article)
Many studies have demonstrated a positive association between familial activities (e.g. reading to the child) and children's development in different domains. It is also well-known that social and ethnic differences exist regarding the frequencies of such activities. However, the mechanism behind these differences is less clear. This article analyses the role of parents' cultural capital as a mediating factor between families' social and ethnic background and the frequency of stimulating familial activities in early childhood. Using the data from the German longitudinal study "Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children", it is shown that parents' cultural capital completely mediates the effect of mother's education and part of the ethnic origin effect. Additional longitudinal analyses reveal that the influence of parents' cultural capital changes over time and is most pronounced at the earliest measurement.
- Games with rules
- Longitudinal
- Parent/Guardian play
- Play with Mother
- Socio-economic background
Bernier, A. et al. (2010) From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting Precursors of Young Children’s Executive Functioning (Journal Article)
In keeping with proposals emphasizing the role of early experience in infant brain development, this study investigated the prospective links between quality of parent–infant interactions and subsequent child executive functioning (EF), including working memory, impulse control, and set shifting. Maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness and autonomy support were assessed when children were 12 to 15 months old (N = 80). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months. All three parenting dimensions were found to relate to child EF. Autonomy support was the strongest predictor of EF at each age, independent of general cognitive ability and maternal education. These findings add to previous results on child stress-response systems in suggesting that parent–child relationships may play an important role in children’s developing self-regulatory capacities.
- Developmental outcomes
- Longitudinal
- Parent/Guardian play
- Play with other adult
- Self-regulation
- Executive function
Blair, C. et al. (2007) Relating Effortful Control, Executive Function, and False Belief Understanding to Emerging Math and Literacy Ability in Kindergarten (Journal Article)
This study examined the role of self-regulation in emerging academic ability in one hundred and forty-one 3- to 5-year-old children from low-income homes. Measures of effortful control, false belief understanding, and the inhibitory control and attention-shifting aspects of executive function in preschool were related to measures of math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Results indicated that the various aspects of child self-regulation accounted for unique variance in the academic outcomes independent of general intelligence and that the inhibitory control aspect of executive function was a prominent correlate of both early math and reading ability. Findings suggest that curricula designed to improve self-regulation skills as well as enhance early academic abilities may be most effective in helping children succeed in school.
- Academic outcomes
- Developmental outcomes
- Literacy
- Longitudinal
- Numeracy
- Pre-academic skills
- Socio-economic background
- Executive function
Bleeker, M. et al. (4/17) Findings from a Randomized Experiment of Playworks: Selected Results from Cohort 1 (Book)
- Academic achievement
Borriello, G. et al. (2018) Encouraging Maternal Guidance of Preschoolers’ Spatial Thinking During Block Play (Journal Article)
Spatial thinking, an important component of cognition, supports academic achievement and daily activities (e.g., learning science and math; using maps). Better spatial skills are correlated with more spatial play and more parental attention to spatial concepts. Tested here was whether informing mothers about spatial thinking and ways to encourage it would increase the spatial guidance they provide to their preschool children (N = 41; M = 5.23 years) during dyadic block play. Mothers given such instructions indeed produced more spatial language and spatial guidance than mothers asked to play as usual. In instructed dyads, children also used more spatial language; both mothers and children engaged in less pretend play. Findings offer support for designing interventions to encourage parents to foster their children's spatial skills.
Cabrera, N. et al. (2006) Parental Interactions With Latino Infants: Variation by Country of Origin and English Proficiency (Journal Article)
Clark, K. et al. (2000) Connectedness and autonomy support in parent-child relationships: links to children's socioemotional orientation and peer relationships (Journal Article)
- Female
- Male