In recent years awareness of the importance of executive function (EF) skills for students' academic growth has increased. Research suggests that experience in school promotes EF development; however, recommendations regarding evidence-based practices that educators can use to support EF in their classrooms are limited. Here we outline two main…

Despite decades of prior research, the mechanisms of skilled reading development remain elusive. Numerous studies have identified word recognition and oral language ability as key components to explain later reading comprehension performance. However, these components alone do not fully explain differences in reading achievement. There is ongoing…

This study aimed to investigate the differential relationship between Temperament, Executive Functioning (EF) and Media Use Motivations and the frequency of two kinds of Media Multitasking (MM) in early adolescence. Results showed differential roles of temperamental Effortful Control, Negative Affectivity and Affiliativeness in predicting academic…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the "Parent-child Brain Camp," a 4-week video-based executive functions (EFs) training program for children ages 5-6, through a randomized controlled trial with a pre- and post-test design with 173 Hong Kong children (intervention "ni" = 79, 48.7% girls, M[subscript age] = 69.16 months;…

This study explored how caregiver-reported executive functioning domains, assessed by the BRIEF2 at baseline, predicted behavioral challenges reported by caregivers using the CBCL six months later. The sample included 94 youth with Down syndrome, aged 6 to 18 years. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for…

Executive function (EF) is frequently an area of vulnerability in conditions associated with intellectual disability, like Down syndrome (DS). However, current EF evaluation approaches are not designed for children with underlying neurodevelopmental conditions and may not demonstrate construct validity due to interpretational confounds. The…

This systematic review synthesized current literature regarding the effect of physical activity (PA) interventions on brain structure (BS) and brain function (BF) in healthy children. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews protocols and used the Rayyan web for data extraction. Eleven experimental studies were…

The beneficial effects of nature and natural environments have been extensively researched and the findings generally support that nature and natural environments can reduce stress and improve cognitive function. To evaluate if self-reported stress levels are reduced, or if cognitive functions are enhanced among adult learners in the presence of a…

Previous studies have confirmed that money scarcity can impede individuals' cognitive control; however, it remains unclear how this effect occurs. This study created a virtual shopping game that can vividly simulate individuals' shopping-related thought processes in daily life to systematically investigate how money scarcity influences cognitive…

This exploratory study examines the relationship between executive functioning (EF) skills and the development of first (L1) and second language (L2) skills of preschool students. The participants of this study are enrolled in a French immersion program offered at an inclusion school combining students with disabilities (special needs) and those…

The present study explored whether poor executive functions (EF) underlying the difficulties of individuals with ADHD in reading comprehension (RC) are general or specific to the textual content they regulate. To address this question, adolescents with and without ADHD answered questions following the reading of texts and completed a series of…

This longitudinal study modeled children's complex executive function (EF) development using the Groton Maze Learning Task (GMLT). Using a cohort-sequential design, 147 children (61 males, 5.5-11 years) were recruited from six multicultural primary schools in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Race/ethnicity data were not available. Children were…

Despite previous studies showing that children's development of executive function (EF) skills is associated with the differing contexts in which children live, evidence about the independent and synergistic effects of families and neighborhoods is limited. Using a sample from a two-cohort longitudinal study of preschoolers from low-income…

Preverbal infants spontaneously represent the number of objects in collections. Is this 'sense of number' (also referred to as Approximate Number System, ANS) part of the cognitive foundations of mathematical skills? Multiple studies reported a correlation between the ANS and mathematical achievement in children. However, some have suggested that…

Executive functions' (EF) role in adolescents' advanced theory of mind (aToM) was examined. In Study 1, adolescents (N = 189 in 2017, M[subscript age] = 13.1 years, 55.6% female from racially/ethnically diverse schools) completed the Flexibility and Automaticity of Social Cognition task (FASC), and shifting and inhibition measures. Study 2…