Executive Functions and Performance Academic in Primary Education from the Colombian Coast

Introduction: The Executive Functions (EF) are a set of supramodal functions that favor cognitive, emotional and social skills. In early childhood, EFs influence the performance of academic skills. The present research determined the relationship between executive functions and academic performance in an educational context. Method: A correlational study was conducted involving 195 students between 6 and 12 years of age, randomly selected from primary grades (from 1 to 5). The executive functions measured were: verbal fluency (phonological and semantic), selective attention, cognitive flexibility, planning and inhibition; for which, the Neuropsychological Evaluation of the executive functions in children (ENFEN) was used and the academic performance was evaluated from the cumulative academic average in the year. Results: According to Spearman's correlation analysis, the results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between academic performance and the components of executive functions: phonological fluency (p= 0.01) and cognitive flexibility (p= 0.01). On the other hand, the logistic regression showed that semantic fluency and inhibition are predictive factors for academic performance in 76.4%. Discussion or Conclusion: Which suggests that executive functions are associated and in turn predict academic performance in elementary school students, especially if this is low.