Search

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a fundamental skill for school and life. Much is known about how to effectively teach and support it in a classroom, though teachers often retreat to more structured, external learning regulation. Experts have identified the important role of pedagogical knowledge and personal self-regulated learning in helping teachers persevere with SRL teaching attempts. Teacher training programs target these specifically with pre-, post-, and concurrent learning experiences, and the act of carrying out regular SRL-oriented conversations with students itself fosters these insights and wisdom. In this article, the authors explore the way a structured, socially shared protocol for learning regulation support (SSLR) can increase teacher adherence to -- and learning from -- SRL-supportive teaching practices. They present qualitative interview data gathered from 12 users of an SSLR intervention to characterize the in-service learning and growth that the use of this approach may enable.

This study examined whether the assessment of executive function (EF) added a unique contribution to second language (L2) reading comprehension in children in French immersion. Participants were 8- to 9-year old children who completed a collection of measures assessing French reading (i.e., word reading, decoding, and reading comprehension ) and EF (working memory, inhibition, and shifting). After controlling for word-level reading, measures of shifting explained the most variance in reading comprehension compared to the variance accounted for by working memory and inhibition. The results add to the growing evidence of EF's contribution--especially shifting--to reading comprehension within the context of early literacy learning in the L2.

Executive function (EF) is critical to students' academic behaviors and well-being. Environmental influences, particularly teacher-student interaction (TSI), play a key role in enhancing EF development. Previous studies have linked TSI quality to children's EF, yet the relationships between subdimensions of TSI--such as closeness, conflict, dependency, emotional support, classroom management, and instructional support--and EF outcomes remain unclear. Moreover, it is unclear whether these relations hold true across different cultural contexts. From an initial pool of 14,915 articles, in this meta-analysis, we considered 84 empirical studies across 18 cultural regions, revealing that TSI subdimensions are consistently related to EF with small-to-medium effect sizes. The analysis also identified statistically significant moderating factors, such as individualism, power distance, EF type, EF instrument, and socioeconomic status. Notably, stronger TSI-EF correlations were found among children from cultures with low-individualism and high-power-distance, as well as among children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. These patterns were particularly pronounced in studies measuring hot EF through adult-reported data. This comprehensive meta-analysis bridges knowledge gaps in TSI-EF dynamics, and supporting theories, such as attachment theory, social learning theory, and socio-cultural theory within educational settings. Crucially, it provides cross-cultural perspectives showing how cultural and contextual factors may intertwine with TSI-EF interactions.

Research Findings: There are sparse data on children's use of executive function (EF) and spatial skills in block play. However, there are important implications for studying EF and spatial skills with blocks across cultures, especially regarding best practices for supporting social-cognitive development in under-resourced populations and consideration of culturally unique customs and practices. Therefore, the current study compared EF-based skills and spatial block building behaviors in Canadian and Tzotzil Maya children. Participants included 82 preschoolers (55% Canadian) ages 48-59 months (M age = 54.37 months, SD = 3.37) observed and coded during a group block play session with peers. Controlling for demographic covariates, a composite EF-based variable including six behaviors (intentional selection of blocks, taking time, response inhibition, replacing/moving blocks, stabilizing, aligning) was significantly and positively associated with spatial configurations in block structures (symmetry, [beta] = 0.34; tiered orientation, [beta] = 0.37). The associations did not vary by culture. Practice or Policy: Results provide new knowledge about use of EF-based skills and spatial skills in an ecologically valid context and implications for cross-cultural measurement and practice.

Studies show that executive functions and motor development are associated with each other and with learning ability. A more technological lifestyle combined with digital culture should be considered a viable alternative to stimulate children's development. Therefore, this study aimed to present a systematic mapping of the literature involving executive functions, motor development, and the use of digital games in intervention programs for elementary school children from 6 to 11 years old. Four databases were researched: PubMed, Scielo, Science Direct, and SCOPUS, including publications between 2012 and March 2021. The initial results indicated 4881 records. After the selection process, 15 manuscripts that presented the central theme of the study were selected. The main results indicated that intervention strategies are rather heterogeneous. Most of the studies demonstrated efficient results after intervention protocols, many of them were conducted in Europe, and 46% occurred in a school environment. No research was identified involving technological solutions using executive functions, motor development, and digital games in an integrated manner. Hence, this constitutes a field of future scientific research.

Few qualitative studies have focused on the experiences of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pursuing postsecondary education, and in particular, how their academic difficulties manifest themselves. This study provides a better understanding of how ADHD affects students in their studies. In-depth interviews were conducted with 29 college and university students with ADHD, their relatives (n = 26), and their counselors (n = 9). Participants reported significant academic impairment (e.g., difficulties related to attention, emotional regulation, motivation, time management, inhibition, working memory, organization, and planning) and a complex relationship with the ADHD label. The difficulties experienced by students seem to be closely related to deficits in executive functions. This interrelation complicates the understanding of functional impairment. Implications for practice provide recommendations based on the literature on how to improve the academic success of students with ADHD in postsecondary education.

To successfully navigate their social worlds, children must adapt their behaviors to diverse situations and do so in a fluid fashion. The current study explored preschool-aged children's sensitivity to a gameplay context (cooperative/competitive) and messages from another (fictional) player (team-oriented/self-oriented) while distributing gameplay resources. To understand children's approach to social behavior within these contexts, we focused on whether these factors affected (1) the number of resources children provided to the other player and (2) children's verbal responses to other players. Children (4 to 6 years-old, N = 118) first provided verbal responses to audio messages, then completed a resource distribution task. Children's verbal responses were influenced by both context and the other players' messages; however, there was a greater influence of players' messages in a competitive context. In contrast, children's resource distributions were influenced primarily by the context (greater sharing of resources in the cooperative context). Children with better ToM showed a greater shift in their distributive behavior across conditions, specifically, distributing more items to the other players within a cooperative context relative to a competitive context. Also, within a cooperative context, children with better EF generated more prosocial comments for the other player. Together, the findings highlight the interplay between contextual and interpersonal factors with children's cognitive skills for prosocial behavior.

This study aims to bridge a gap between Vygotsky's seminal framework on the importance of make-believe play and adult scaffolding in children's cognitive development (e.g. executive function [EFs]) and research in cognitive neuroscience. Kindergarten children (N = 160) and teachers (N = 12) took part in the study. EFs skills and make-believe play (Child and Teacher dimensions; e.g. adult' level of scaffolding) were assessed through observation with the "Executive Functions Observation Tool" and the "Mature Play Observation Tool." Results from stepwise polynomial regressions and mediation analysis showed a significant mediating effect of the context on the curvilinear relationship between teacher scaffolding of play and the child's level of EFs. These results show the importance of observing each child and the context in which they learn and play to understand their EFs. Observation of EFs manifestations could allow for better planning of intentional interventions to support the child's skills in accordance with their developmental needs.

Background: Classroom engagement is key predictor of child academic success. Aim: The objective of the study was to examine how preschool cognitive control and the experience of family adversity predict developmental trajectories of classroom engagement through elementary school. Setting: Children were followed in the context of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development from birth to age 10.5 (N = 1589). Methods: Working memory was directly assessed when children were 3 years old and mothers reported child impulsivity, parenting characteristics, stress and social support when children were 4 years old. Elementary school teachers rated classroom engagement from kindergarten through Grade 4. Results: Growth mixture modelling identified three distinct trajectories of classroom engagement. Child working memory and impulsivity, and maternal hostility, social support and stress predicted greater odds of belonging to the low versus high engagement trajectory. Child impulsivity and maternal hostility and stress also distinguished between the low and moderate engagement trajectories. Conclusion: Our results suggest that targeting preschool cognitive control and buffering the effects of family adversity on children may facilitate academic success.

Several theories have been proposed to explain the presentation of intense interests in autism, including theories based on altered executive functioning, imbalanced reward sensitivity, and mitigating anxiety. These theories have yet to be examined in early childhood, yet knowledge of how intense interests emerge could provide insight into how best to manage intensity and support the many benefits of personal interests. Parents of 33 autistic and 42 non-autistic comparison children aged 3-6 years completed questionnaires to assess attention shifting and inhibitory control, responsiveness to rewards, and anxiety symptoms. Each behavior domain was examined for associations with parent-reported interest intensity. In autistic and comparison children, attention shifting was associated with interest intensity, where children with more difficulties showed more intense interests. In autistic children only, inhibitory control of attention also associated with interest intensity, where children with greater difficulties showed more intense interests. Reward and anxiety symptoms did not associate with interest intensity in either group, or across the sample. These findings suggest that, in early childhood, the presentation of intense interests is related to executive functioning regardless of diagnostic group. Helping children develop executive functioning skills may therefore be useful to assist with managing interest intensity in early childhood.

According to some accounts, the bilingual advantage is most pronounced in the domain of executive attention rather than inhibition and should therefore be more easily detected in conflict adaptation paradigms than in simple interference paradigms. We tested this idea using two conflict adaptation paradigms, one that elicits a list-wide proportion-congruent effect and one that elicits an item-specific proportion-congruent effect. In both cases, the relevant finding is that congruency effects are reduced when the proportion of congruent to incongruent items is smaller. These effects are validated measures of proactive and reactive control, respectively, and are aspects of executive attention known to be associated with individual differences in working memory capacity. We reasoned that if bilingualism affects executive attention in a similar way as does working memory capacity, indices of proactive and reactive control should be comparably associated with continuous variation in language status and working memory capacity. In two experiments, we replicated previous findings that working memory capacity is associated with variation in congruency effects (suggesting greater reliance on proactive control). In contrast, language status had no consistent association with performance, save for a hint that bilingualism may be associated with greater reliance on reactive control. Thus, the bilingual advantage may exist, but not in proactive control or any other aspects of executive attention that have been proposed thus far.

The ability to deceive is a key milestone in social cognitive development for typically developing individuals. In this scoping review, we systematically searched the literature to summarise research on deceptive behaviour in autism and identify gaps in knowledge. Across the 28 studies identified, three main themes were synthesised, with seven subthemes: (1) "Deception ability and prevalence" (1a) gameplay deception; (1b) naturalistic deception; (2) "Psychological correlates of deception" (2a) verbal, intellectual and social ability; (2b) theory of mind (ToM) behaviours; (2c) executive function; and (3) "Social learning" (3a) training; (3b) social contexts. The findings challenge common stereotypes, showing that autistic individuals can and do engage in deception. However, many do so less frequently and less adeptly than typically developing individuals. Emerging evidence also suggests that autistic individuals (without co-occurring intellectual disability) may use compensatory strategies when engaging in deception, and that more skilled deceptive behaviour may arise later in life. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Objective: The aim of the study is to design and evaluate the Strategy Awareness and Use Questionnaire to estimate students' awareness and use of strategies that optimize control of attention and/or compensate for stress on an executive system due to environmental and/or neurobiological influences. Participants: One hundred and forty-eight undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines at an urban Canadian university campus participated in the Spring 2019 semester. Methods: An item analysis was conducted that included an assessment of dimensionality and item trimming. Results: Findings from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a seven-factor solution is optimal; Comprehension Monitoring, Planning/Organization, Self-Reward, Self-Regulation, Organization with Mobile Phone Technology, Regulating Technology, and Organization of Materials. Conclusion: This measure is likely to benefit students, as well as counselors and coaches interested in improving EF strategy use among students in a university population.

Aggression in early childhood has been found to predict negative outcomes later in life, including delinquency and psychopathology. The present study explored associations between young children's language, self-regulation, and physical aggression. A community sample of 126 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years (M = 4.87 years, SD = 0.87; 59% boys) and their mothers participated in the study. Children's physical aggression and self-regulation were measured by the parents' report. Children completed measures of intelligence and language. Their language abilities negatively predicted physical aggression. Children's self-regulation--specifically, inhibitory self-control and emergent metacognition--mediated the relationship between language and physical aggression. The results suggest that, among young children, physical aggression is related to an understanding of language meaning and how that understanding is used to interpret and communicate. The specific language delays implicated may lead to physical aggression through a lag in inhibitory self-control and emergent metacognition. Implications of these findings for assessment and early intervention are highlighted.

Although students with stronger executive functions (EFs) tend to do better on math computation (MC) assessments than students with weaker EFs, stressful testing situations may lower or affect their mathematical ability. Rumination is one maladaptive coping strategy that can negatively affect EF processes, but little is known about how it impacts the relationship between EFs and MC. This study aimed to examine the relationship between students' performance on a standardized MC task and ratings of EF ability as a function of their level of rumination. In a sample of students from Grades 4 to 6 (n = 72, mean age = 10.74), there was an interaction between EF scores and rumination in predicting MC. Students with weaker EF scores demonstrated worse math performance than students with stronger EF scores. Interestingly, their level of rumination moderated this association. Specifically, EF difficulties were only associated with less proficient MC performance among high ruminators; this association was not observed among those students reporting low rumination levels. For school psychologists, these findings provide insight into the potential causes of poor MC performance among students with average or better EFs.

In contrast to research that examines the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on development by comparing clearly disparate groups, the present study investigated the role of subtle differences in these experiences for their joint impact on performance on a verbal fluency task and an executive function (EF) task. The study involved 234 6-year-old children who were assessed for nonverbal intelligence and English vocabulary; parents completed a questionnaire providing demographic information and details about children's language experiences. Children were assigned continuous scores for SES based on parents' education and for bilingualism based on experience with non-English languages. Both continuous scores were normally distributed, so median split calculations created binary groups indicating relative levels of SES (high vs. middle) and bilingualism (more monolingual vs. more bilingual). For verbal fluency, there were no group differences in semantic fluency but phonological fluency was performed better by children from higher SES backgrounds, both in between-group and continuous analyses. For EF, the between-group analysis revealed an interaction in which bilingual children in the higher SES group outperformed all other children; nonetheless, a positive relation between degree of bilingualism and EF was significant across the whole sample. Thus, both SES and bilingualism affected language and cognitive development with limiting conditions for each experience. The discussion considers the effect of these subtle differences in SES and bilingual experience on development of essential cognitive abilities, the relation between these results and previous research, and the importance of how groups are defined in research addressing individual differences.

There is now wide consensus that the quality of family relationships is involved in the development of child executive functioning (EF), a set of cognitive skills that bear critical importance for social and academic adjustment at school. This body of research has, however, focused almost exclusively on dyadic parent-child interactions and failed to consider higher-level family processes. Consequently, the current study focused on family alliance, that is, the degree of coordination that father, mother, and child achieve while interacting together, as a predictor of individual differences in children's EF. A community sample of 87 intact families (45 boys) participated in a triadic mother-father-child interaction when children were in kindergarten to assess family alliance. Children were assessed again when they were in Grade 4 with tasks of inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher-quality family alliance was predictive of better child performance on some cognitive flexibility and working memory tasks. These results indicate that some of the individual differences in child EF at school age may originate in the quality of the early family environment.

This study explores how music training impacts the development of inhibition control, phonological processing, and gross and fine motor skills in preschoolers. In a randomized controlled trial, 160 kindergarteners in a music programme, a motor programme, or a control group were examined. Children in the two experimental conditions took part in 19 weekly 40-minute sessions. At pretest and post-test, inhibition control and phonological processing were measured with two subtests from the NEPSY-II. Gross and fine motricity were assessed with the BOT-2 Short Form. Post-test results showed that children in the music condition improved significantly on automatic response inhibition. Phonological processing skills did not differ significantly between the two experimental conditions, but the music condition produced significant improvements over control. These findings corroborate previous evidence that music training contributes substantially to develop executive function and phonological awareness in preschoolers.

The current study is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of the activation--decision--construction model (Walczyk, Roper, Seemann, & Humphrey, 2003, 2009) in relation to young children's lie-telling and lie maintenance. Young children (3 to 4 years of age, N = 93) completed the temptation-resistance paradigm to elicit a transgression (peeking at a forbidden toy). Children were asked if they peeked at the toy (initial lie) and what they thought the toy was (lie maintenance). A battery of executive functioning tasks was administered (working memory, inhibitory control, planning). With increased inhibitory control on a response inhibition task, children were significantly more likely to lie. With increased inhibitory control on a conflict inhibition task and superior planning on a planning task, children were significantly more likely to maintain their lies. Support for the activation--decision--construction model in relation to young children's deception is discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine which of the components of executive functions (EF)--inhibition, shifting, and working memory--predict reading and mathematics achievement and if the effects of these components are the same across two cultures (Western and East Asian). One hundred twenty English-speaking Canadian (65 females, 55 males; M[subscript age] = 82.12 months) and 181 Mandarin-speaking Chinese (82 females, 99 males; M[subscript age] = 85.85 months) children were assessed on nonverbal IQ, speed of processing, rapid naming, inhibition (Color-Word Stroop), shifting (Planned Connections), working memory (Digit Span Forward and Backward), reading (word identification and reading comprehension), and mathematics (numerical operations and math reasoning). The results of structural equation modeling indicated first that among the EF components only working memory predicted reading and mathematics in the Canadian sample, while inhibition and working memory predicted reading and mathematics in the Chinese sample. The results also showed that inhibition was a stronger predictor of reading and mathematics in the Chinese sample. Taken together, these findings suggest that not all EF components are equally important for reading/mathematics and that culture may influence the relations between specific EF components and academic achievement.

The present study focused on examining how individuals make adaptations while reading non-linear graphic text by examining the role of executive functioning, as well as identifying and describing the reading processes individuals use while reading. Sixty-seven students in Grades 9 through 12 engaged in verbal reporting while reading graphic text, in addition to answering comprehension questions and engaging in tasks designed to measure executive functioning. Both planning ability and a comprehensive measure of executive functioning were significantly correlated with graphic text comprehension, and the comprehensive measure significantly predicted comprehension of graphic text. The researchers identified that reading the text using a process generalized from other types of text (left-to-right, top-to-bottom) was negatively related to comprehension, suggesting that taking a more dynamic and adaptive approach to reading non-linear text may be more effective. Reading processes used with graphic text are discussed and described using the language of participants, and implications for practice are discussed.

A number of factors have been identified in the research literature as being important for student success in university. However, the rather large body of literature contains few studies that have given students the opportunity to directly report what they believe contributes to their success as an undergraduate student. The primary purpose of this study is to explore students' descriptions of the personal resources that they use to succeed while attempting to reach their goals as well as those personal characteristics or obstacles that keep them from reaching their goals. Prominent themes supportive of student success included having a future orientation, persistence, and executive functioning skills such as time management and organization. Results also demonstrate that stress, inadequate academic skills, and distractions are detrimental to student success in university. This study is unique in that it gathers the content data directly from the population of interest; it is one of the few qualitative studies of undergraduate students' self-generated perceptions. Implications for university administrators and academic counsellors and directions for future research are discussed.

A debated question in the cognitive control field is whether cognitive control is best conceptualized as a collection of distinct control mechanisms or a single general purpose mechanism. In an attempt to answer this question, previous studies have dissociated two well-known effects related to cognitive control: sequential congruence and proportion congruent effects. In the present experiment, we pursued a similar goal by using a different strategy: to test whether proportion congruent effects can be present in conditions where sequential congruence effects are absent. We used a paradigm in which two conflict types are randomly intermixed (Simon and Spatial Stroop) and the proportion of congruency is manipulated for one conflict type and kept neutral for the other conflict type. Our results showed that in conflict type alternation trials, where sequential congruence effects were absent, proportion congruent effects were still present. It can be concluded that, at least under certain circumstances, sequential congruence and proportion congruent effects can be independent of each other and specific to the conflict type.

Metacognitive training is an emerging cognitive intervention for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) that teaches children to think about their thinking and use strategies to improve learning and regulation. We investigated how children with FASD acquired metacognitive strategies during a computerized intervention delivered in a school setting. The number, type, and process of strategy acquisition were recorded for seven children with FASD during the intervention. As an indication of strategy learning, we recorded prompted and spontaneous strategy use over time. Children with FASD were found to use a total of 26 different metacognitive strategies, with eight strategies used spontaneously by all participants. Participants demonstrated a significant decrease in the number of different prompted strategies and a significant increase in the number of spontaneous strategies used over the course of the intervention. Implications for the use of a metacognitive approach for students with FASD are discussed, emphasizing the value of a strength-based approach.

This study aimed to examine the unique and interactive contributions of the quality of mothers' and fathers' relationships with their toddlers to the prediction of children's subsequent executive functioning (EF). The sample included 46 low-risk middle-class families. The quality of mother-child and father-child interactions was assessed independently during separate interactive sequences at 18 months. Child EF problems were reported by teachers in kindergarten. The results indicated that only father-child interactions made a unique contribution to the prediction of children's EF, and no interaction effect was observed. Kindergarteners who benefited from higher quality interactions with their fathers in toddlerhood were considered by their teachers to present fewer EF problems in everyday school situations. These results appeared to be somewhat more pronounced in father-son than father-daughter dyads. Overall, the results suggest that fathering and father-child relationships may deserve more empirical attention than they have received thus far in the EF literature.

We evaluated the effects of TutorBright tutoring on the reading and mathematics skills of children in family foster care, examined several potential moderators of the impact of tutoring, and explored possible 'spill-over' effects on the children's executive functioning and behavioural difficulties and on their caregivers' level of involvement in schoolwork in the home. The sample consisted of 70 children in care in Ontario, Canada. At the pre-test, the children were aged 5-16 years (M = 10.41, SD = 2.94) and enrolled in school grades 1-11 (M = 5.53, SD = 2.90). Thirty-four children were randomly assigned to tutoring and 36 to a waiting list control condition. Seven subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) achievement test served as outcome measures. The tutored children made statistically greater gains than those in the control group on the WJ-III subtests of Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Calculation, but not on Word Reading, Spelling, Math Fluency, or Applied Math Problems. Age, executive functioning, caregiver controlling involvement in schoolwork, and self-reported post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were found to moderate the effectiveness of tutoring. There were no spill-over effects of tutoring. The implications of the results for improving foster children's reading and mathematics skills were discussed.

Being bilingual is advantageous in almost all aspects of life. Bilingualism positively and permanently alters the mind and the brain. Being bilingual is more rewarding than being monolingual due to superior communication skills, enhanced executive functions, a delayed onset of Alzheimer's disease, and contributions to the Canadian economy. Learning a second language is the doorway to a child's future, and encouraging our youth to sustain their bilingualism or become bilingual is a necessary investment in our nation's future.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to make inferences about mental states. Thus far, little research has examined ToM development in middle childhood. Importantly, recent studies have distinguished between making inferences about beliefs (cognitive ToM) and emotions (affective ToM). ToM has also been associated with executive functioning, though research on the differential relations between cognitive ToM and affective ToM and specific components of executive functioning is scarce. The current study examined advanced cognitive and affective ToM in 8- to 11-year-olds (N = 168). Working memory, inhibition, and set-shifting abilities were also assessed. Results showed that, in this age group, cognitive ToM increased significantly with age, and combined cognitive and affective ToM trendwise increased with age. All three domains of executive functioning (EF) showed age-related improvement. Inhibitory control and verbal IQ significantly predicted cognitive ToM, whereas verbal IQ predicted affective ToM. These results suggest that cognitive and affective components of ToM are distinguishable and may be differentially related to EF.

Previous studies have demonstrated that various psychosocial risks are associated with poor cognitive functioning in children, and these risks frequently cluster together. In the current longitudinal study, we tested a model in which it was hypothesized that cumulative psychosocial adversity of mothers would have deleterious effects on children's cognitive functioning by compromising socialization processes within families (i.e., parental competence). A prospective community birth cohort of 501 families was recruited when children were newborns. At this time, mothers reported on their current psychosocial circumstances (socioeconomic status, teen parenthood, depression, etc.), which were summed into a cumulative risk score. Families were followed up at 18 months and 3 years, at which point maternal reflective capacity and cognitive sensitivity were measured, respectively. Child cognition (executive functioning, theory of mind, and language ability) was assessed at age 4.5 using age-appropriate observational and standardized tasks. Analyses controlled for child age, gender, number of children in the home, number of years married, and mothers' history of adversity. The results revealed significant declines in child cognition as well as maternal reflective capacity and cognitive sensitivity as the number of psychosocial risks increased. Moreover, longitudinal path analysis showed significant indirect effects from cumulative risk to all three cognitive outcomes via reflective capacity and cognitive sensitivity. Findings suggest that cumulative risk of mothers may partially account for child cognitive difficulties in various domains by disrupting key parental socialization competencies.

Little is known about the relation between cognitive processes and imagination and whether this relation differs between neurotypically developing children and children with autism. To address this issue, we administered a cognitive task battery and Karmiloff-Smith's drawing task, which requires children to draw imaginative people and houses. For children with autism, executive function significantly predicted imaginative drawing. In neurotypically developing controls, executive function and cognitive-perceptual processing style predicted imaginative drawing, but these associations were moderated by mental age. In younger (neurotypically developing) children, better executive function and a local processing bias were associated with imagination; in older children, only a global bias was associated with imagination. These findings suggest that (a) with development there are changes in the type of cognitive processes involved in imagination and (b) children with autism employ a unique cognitive strategy in imaginative drawing.

Children frequently select learning sources based on epistemic cues, or cues pertaining to informants' knowledge. Previous research has shown that preschoolers preferentially learn from informants who have been accurate in the past, appear confident, or have had visual access to relevant information. The present series of studies aimed to investigate the relation between these 3 types of epistemic selective learning abilities in 176 children ages 3 years to 6 years. Results indicated that children's performance was mostly uncorrelated across the different selective learning tasks and tasks measuring theory of mind and executive function were not found to predict any selective learning skills. Implications for the reliability and current conceptual understanding of these selective learning tasks are discussed.

Purpose: The Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies (FAVRES; MacDonald, 2005) test was designed for use by speech-language pathologists to assess verbal reasoning, complex comprehension, discourse, and executive skills during performance on a set of challenging and ecologically valid functional tasks. A recent French version of this test was translated from English; however, it had not undergone standardization. The development of normative data that are linguistically and culturally sensitive to the target population is of importance. The present study aimed to establish normative data for the French version of the FAVRES, a commonly used test with native French-speaking patients with traumatic brain injury in Québec, Canada. Method: The normative sample consisted of 181 healthy French-speaking adults from various regions across the province of Québec. Age and years of education were factored into the normative model. Results: Results indicate that age was significantly associated with performance on time, accuracy, reasoning subskills, and rationale criteria, whereas the level of education was significantly associated with accuracy and rationale. Conclusion: Overall, mean scores on each criterion were relatively lower than in the original English version, which reinforces the importance of using the present normative data when interpreting performance of French speakers who have sustained a traumatic brain injury.

Morality is an evolved aspect of human nature, yet is heavily influenced by cultural environment. This developmental study adopted an integrative approach by combining measures of socioeconomic status (SES), executive function, affective sharing, empathic concern, theory of mind, and moral judgment in predicting sharing behavior in children (N = 999) from the age of 5 to 12 in five large-scale societies: Canada, China, Turkey, South Africa, and the USA. Results demonstrate that age, gender, SES, culture, and social cognitive mechanisms explain over 20% of the variance worldwide in children's resource allocation. These findings are discussed in reference to standard cultural comparisons (individualist/collectivist), as well as the degree of market integration, and highlight continuities and discontinuities in children's generosity across urban contexts.

Researchers have proposed that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized, at least in part, by executive function (EF) difficulties associated with the integrity of the frontal lobe. Given the paucity of research regarding EFs in young adults with high functioning ASD (HF-ASD), this research involves an examination of various indices of EF related to inhibition, planning, and generativity. Results indicate that although young adults with HF-ASD as a group met normative expectations on all measures of EF, they also exhibited considerable individual variability relative to their age- and sex-matched typically developing peers. These findings have important research and clinical implications, including the need to carefully consider the impact of the research comparison group, and to recognize individual variability in executive functioning among young adults with HF-ASD.

Young children often provide ambiguous referential statements. Thus, the ability to identify when miscommunication has occurred and subsequently repair messages is an essential component of communicative development. The present study examined the impact of listener feedback and children's executive functioning in influencing children's ability to repair their messages. Children (ages 4-6 years) completed a referential communication task, in which they described target pictures among an array of similar distractors for a confederate. Stimuli were designed such that children frequently provided ambiguous descriptions. Subsequently, the listener provided the children with feedback (detailed or vague) that they misunderstood the statement. Children also completed executive functioning tasks (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility). Children with larger working memory capacities and better cognitive flexibility provided more effective initial descriptions of the targets. Children with better cognitive flexibility were also more effective at repairing their statements in response to feedback. Although children provided more effective repairs following detailed feedback (vs. vague feedback), this effect did not significantly interact with the cognitive skills of children. However, limited evidence emerged suggesting that cognitive flexibility may be more important when the listener provides vague feedback.

Staff at campus-based counselling and disability centres in 15 of Ontario's 24 community colleges completed 3,536 surveys on 1,964 individual students querying the presence of mental illness and academic challenges as reported by students accessing these services. Survey data were analyzed to determine prevalence rates of mental disorders and investigate for the presence of a relationship between specific mental illnesses and any associated academic impacts. More than half of these students had diagnoses with mood and anxiety disorders being the most common individual and comorbid diagnoses. The academic challenges reported by students with mental illnesses occurred in particular patterns relative to specific diagnoses; alertness/attention challenges were associated with mood disorders, whereas memory/executive function problems were linked to anxiety disorders. Implications for training and service practices of counselling and disability staff are reviewed as are future research directions for accommodating the academic needs of students with mental illnesses.

A growing body of theoretical and empirical work has been attempting to answer the questions of how and how much of the effects of children's early experience may depend on their inner characteristics. Theory and evidence suggest that some children, notably those with difficult temperaments, are more susceptible to both negative and positive aspects of parenting. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether child temperament moderated the links between the quality of mother-infant interactions, observed when children were 1 year of age, and two components of child executive functioning (EF) at 3 years, namely impulse control and conflict EF, among 74 mother-child dyads. The results were consistent with the notion that children with more difficult temperaments may be more susceptible to maternal behaviors than children with less difficult temperaments, but only regarding the development of impulse control abilities. There was no clear evidence of such moderation for conflict EF. These results support the idea that distinct mechanisms may underlie the development of different dimensions of child EF.

Hala, Brown, McKay, and San Juan (2013) found that children as young as 2.5 years of age demonstrated high levels of accuracy when asked to recall whether they or the experimenter had carried out a particular action. In the research reported here, we examined the relation of early-emerging source monitoring to executive function abilities. Participants were children aged 2.5- to 3-years-old. For the source-monitoring procedure, we used the Hala et al. (2013) task in which children and the experimenter took turns placing a total of 20 items on a model farm (encoding phase). For the source memory test, children were asked who had placed each item (retrieval phase). Executive function measures included assessments of working memory, delay-inhibitory control, and conflict-inhibitory control. The main finding was that inhibitory control measures were significantly related to performance on the source-monitoring task. This relation held for the conflict-inhibitory control measures even when controlling for age and vocabulary. The findings of this research suggest that even at the early age of 2.5 years, development of executive control is linked to the emergence of source-monitoring ability.

A critical skill in emergent writing is the developing ability to take the perspective of different readers; however, the precursors of this skill have not yet been identified. In this longitudinal study, 105 children (90 after attrition) were tested at 3 time points: pre-kindergarten (3-4 years old, n = 105), kindergarten (5 years old, n = 97), and Grade 1 (6-7 years old, n = 90). Theory of mind (ToM) in pre-kindergarten significantly predicted children's awareness of a reader's epistemic state when they dictated letters in both kindergarten and Grade 1 even after controlling for language (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Task [PPVT]) and inhibitory control. In addition, ToM in pre-kindergarten remained a significant predictor of reader awareness in Grade 1 after further controlling for reader awareness in kindergarten. There was little relationship between higher-order ToM tasks in kindergarten and reader awareness, but higher-order ToM in Grade 1 concurrently predicted reader awareness. Receptive vocabulary (PPVT) was significantly related to reader awareness at all time points, longitudinally and concurrently. This study has both theoretical implications for the relationship between ToM and emergent literacy and practical implications for the early identification and remediation of children at risk for later writing difficulties.

Research Findings: Prior research indicates that shared book reading is an effective method for teaching biological concepts to young children. Adult questioning during reading enhances children's comprehension. We investigated whether adult prompting during the reading of an electronic book enhanced children's understanding of a biological concept. Ninety-one 4-year-olds read about camouflage in 3 conditions. We varied how prompts were provided: (a) read by the book, (b) read by a researcher, or (c) given face to face by the researcher. There was an interaction between children's initial vocabulary level and condition. Children with low vocabulary scores gave fewer camouflage responses than their high-vocabulary peers, and this effect was particularly pronounced in the book-read condition. Children's executive function was also measured and discussed. Practice or Policy: Our findings indicate that under some circumstances electronic prompts built into touchscreen books can be as effective at supporting conceptual development as the same prompts provided by a coreading adult. However, children with low vocabulary skills may be particularly supported by adult-led prompting. We suggest that adult prompting be used to motivate children to test and revise their own biological theories. Once children have learned strategies for updating their concepts, electronic prompting may be useful for scaffolding children's transition to using the strategies when reading alone.

To better understand the nature of impairment resulting from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for students in a post-secondary education (PSE) setting, the authors analyzed the symptoms and associated impairment of 135 students with a diagnosis of ADHD who were recruited via Student Disability Services in Canadian post-secondary institutions. The authors (a) developed a novel semistructured telephone interview based on the 6-item "Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Screener-Telephone Interview With Probes" (ASRS-TIPS) to elicit students' descriptions of their behavior for each symptom they endorsed, (b) administered standardized tests of executive functioning (EF) and academic fluency, and (c) obtained self-reports of grade point averages (GPAs), EF, cognitive failures, psychopathology, distress, and resilience. Qualitative analysis of the ASRS-TIPS revealed significant impairment relating to symptoms of ADHD in the PSE setting. Students reported clinically significant symptoms of ADHD, psychological distress, and impairment in EF (67%, severe range) and cognitive failure (62%, atypical range) in everyday life. By contrast, their GPAs and standardized scores of EF and academic fluency were in the average range. Standardized scores and GPAs did not capture the impairment that participants experienced in their PSE settings. The ASRS-TIPS may provide a useful tool to help document how these students' symptoms impair functioning in the PSE setting.

Executive functions (EFs) and intelligence were examined concurrently and longitudinally in 126 preschool children. EF was assessed using the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P). Children's intelligence was assessed using the Verbal and Performance subtests from Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Third Edition (WPPSI-III). Results showed a significant association between verbal and nonverbal intelligence with both the FIST and the BRIEF-P. The BRIEF-P working memory scale showed the strongest relation with EF and intelligence at both time points. Results are discussed in terms of differential association between intelligence and components of EF.

In light of emerging evidence suggesting that the affective quality of parent-child relationships may relate to individual differences in young children's executive functioning (EF) skills, the aim of this study was to investigate the prospective associations between attachment security in toddlerhood and children's EF skills in kindergarten. Mother-child dyads (N = 105) participated in 2 toddlerhood visits in their homes, when children were 15 months and 2 years of age. Mother-child attachment security was assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort during both these visits. When children were in kindergarten (ages 5-6), they were administered a battery of EF tasks, and their teachers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to assess children's EF problems. The results indicated that kindergarteners who were more securely attached to their mothers in toddlerhood showed better performance on all EF tasks, and were considered by their teachers to present fewer EF problems in everyday school situations. These results held above family socioeconomic status (SES) and child age, sex, and general cognitive functioning. The fact that early attachment security uniquely predicted both teacher reports and children's objective EF task performance suggests that parent-child attachment may be a promising factor to consider in the continuing search for the social antecedents of young children's EF.

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by intense changes, which impact the interaction between individuals and their environments. Moral reasoning (MR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions between right and wrong. Identifying the cognitive underpinnings of MR is essential to understanding the development of this function. The aim of this study was to explore predictors of MR in typically developing adolescents (n = 92, 33 males, M = 16.3 years, SD = 2.2 years) and the specific contribution of higher order cognitive processing using an innovative visual MR assessment tool and measures of executive functioning and intelligence. MR maturity was correlated with four executive functions (cognitive flexibility, feedback utilization, conceptual reasoning, verbal fluency) and was predicted by four variables: age, intelligence, nonverbal flexibility and verbal fluency. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of MR during adolescence and highlight the importance of using innovative tools to measure social cognition.

Children with specific learning disabilities (SLD) have deficits in the basic psychological processes that interfere with learning and academic achievement, and for some SLD subtypes, these deficits can also lead to emotional and/or behavior problems. This study examined psychosocial functioning in 123 students, aged 6 to 11, who underwent comprehensive evaluations for learning and/or behavior problems in two Pacific Northwest school districts. Using concordance-discordance model (C-DM) processing strengths and weaknesses SLD identification criteria, results revealed working memory SLD (n = 20), processing speed SLD (n = 30), executive SLD (n = 32), and no disability groups (n = 41). Of the SLD subtypes, repeated measures MANOVA results revealed the processing speed SLD subtype exhibited the greatest psychosocial and adaptive impairment according to teacher behavior ratings. Findings suggest processing speed deficits may be behind the cognitive and psychosocial disturbances found in what has been termed "nonverbal" SLD. Limitations, implications, and future research needs are addressed.

The current study tested 2 models of inhibition in 45 children with language impairment and 45 children with normally developing language; children were aged 7 to 12 years. Of interest was whether a model of inhibition as a mental-control process (i.e., executive function) or as a mental resource would more accurately reflect the relations among mental-attentional (M) capacity, inhibition, updating, shifting, and language competence. Children completed measures of M-capacity (in the verbal and nonverbal domains), inhibition, updating, shifting, and language. Path analyses showed the data provided a poor fit to the model of inhibition as a mental-control process but a good fit to the model of inhibition as a mental resource. Results are consistent with the theory of constructive operators and suggest inhibition is a mental resource rather than a mental-control process.

Communications studies and psychology offer analytical and methodological tools that when combined have the potential to bring novel perspectives on human interaction with technologies. In this study of children using simple and complex mathematics applications on tablet computers, cognitive load theory is used to answer the question: how successful are tablet computer educational applications at directing children's attention towards intrinsic and germane content? An eye tracker collected gaze data and cognitive tasks were performed to assess memory and attention. The results show that simple applications are able to direct a child's attention to intrinsic and germane content, regardless of the child's cognitive ability. Children assessed as high executive functioning found the germane content of the complex applications helpful whereas children assessed as lower executive functioning did not take advantage of the germane content. Claims that the cognitive structure of the individual is intimately linked to the forms or systems of communication used were partially supported. The research showed that tablet computers and their applications offer a learning experience that appears to be inherently highly interactive--thereby introducing challenges to the cognitive load of children as users.

The authors hypothesized that a social and emotional learning (SEL) program involving mindfulness and caring for others, designed for elementary school students, would enhance cognitive control, reduce stress, promote well-being and prosociality, and produce positive school outcomes. To test this hypothesis, 4 classes of combined 4th and 5th graders (N = 99) were randomly assigned to receive the SEL with mindfulness program versus a regular social responsibility program. Measures assessed executive functions (EFs), stress physiology via salivary cortisol, well-being (self-reports), prosociality and peer acceptance (peer reports), and math grades. Relative to children in the social responsibility program, children who received the SEL program with mindfulness (a) improved more in their cognitive control and stress physiology; (b) reported greater empathy, perspective-taking, emotional control, optimism, school self-concept, and mindfulness, (c) showed greater decreases in self-reported symptoms of depression and peer-rated aggression, (d) were rated by peers as more prosocial, and (e) increased in peer acceptance (or sociometric popularity). The results of this investigation suggest the promise of this SEL intervention and address a lacuna in the scientific literature--identifying strategies not only to ameliorate children's problems but also to cultivate their well-being and thriving. Directions for future research are discussed.

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of maternal behavior are among the few identified predictors of child executive functioning (EF), and they have often been found to have interactive rather than additive effects on other domains of child functioning. The purpose of this study was to explore their interactive effects in the prediction of child EF. We assessed maternal behavior at 1 year and two dimensions of child EF (Conflict EF and Impulse Control) at 3 years with 114 mother-child dyads. The analyses revealed that better child performance on Conflict EF was significantly related to higher-quality maternal behavior and to higher SES, but no interactions were found. In contrast, significant interactions were found with Impulse Control such that higher-quality maternal behavior was predictive of better performance only among children from lower-SES families. These results support the idea that distinct mechanisms may underlie the development of different dimensions of child EF.