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New procedures to assess executive functions in preschool children
K A Espy1, P M Kaufmann, M L Glisky
1Department of Psychiatry, Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine, Carbondale, IL 62901-6503, USA. kespy@siumed.edu
Insights
Assessing executive functions in preschoolers is challenging but crucial for brain development. New tasks show performance strongly correlates with age, offering potential for identifying cognitive profiles in developmental disorders.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Preschool years are critical for developing executive functions and brain structures like the prefrontal cortex.
- Assessing executive functions in young children presents significant challenges.
- Early identification of cognitive profiles is vital for intervention in developmental disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To adapt and validate executive function tasks for preschool-aged children.
- To investigate the relationship between executive function performance, age, sex, and intelligence in this age group.
- To determine the utility of these tasks in differentiating cognitive profiles in children with neurological and developmental disorders.
Main Methods:
- Adapted several executive function tasks from existing developmental and neuroscience literature.
- Administered tasks to 98 preschool children across five age groups (30, 36, 42, 48, and 60 months).
- Analyzed task performance in relation to age, sex, and intelligence.
Main Results:
- Executive function task performance demonstrated a strong correlation with age group.
- Performance was not significantly related to sex or general intelligence.
- The adapted tasks proved sensitive to developmental changes within the preschool age range.
Conclusions:
- The developed executive function tasks are suitable for assessing preschoolers.
- These tasks can help identify distinct cognitive profiles in preschool children.
- Findings support the use of these tasks for research and clinical applications in early childhood development.
Abstract:
Executive functions are difficult to assess in preschool children, yet the preschool period is particularly important, both in the development of behavioral control and of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex. Several tasks were adapted from developmental and neuroscience literature and then administered to 98 preschool children (30-, 36-, 42-, 48- and 60-month age groups). Executive function task performance was related largely to age group, but not to sex or intelligence. These tasks, then, were sensitive in this age range and may be useful to delineate distinct cognitive profiles among preschool children with various neurological and developmental disorders.