The role of executive function skills and motivation in supporting children's academic achievement is well-documented, but the vast majority of evidence is from high-income countries. Classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be large, teacher-driven, and lecture-focused, which may provide extra challenges for children to stay engaged in the…

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…

The ubiquity of multitasking has led researchers to investigate its potential costs for reading and learning (Clinton-Lisell, 2021). While some studies have not shown detrimental effects of multitasking for reading comprehension (Bowman et al., 2010; Cho et al., 2015; Pashler et al., 2013), one particular study has found a benefit of multitasking…

Peer isolation poses risks to children's social-emotional and academic development, contributing to internalizing and externalizing problems and school adjustment difficulties. To deepen scholarly understandings of peer isolation in early classroom settings, the current study examined the co-occurrence of child characteristics associated with…

Objective: We investigated the right Superior Frontal Gyrus (right-SFG) and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) in children with ADHD and their clinical relevance with Executive Function (EF) and ADHD symptom severity. Methods: About 26 children with ADHD and 24 typically developing children (TDC; 7--16 years) underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging…

Every educator wants to know: "What has the greatest impact on student success?" The answer: executive function skills. They are crucial for students' academic success and personal growth, yet many of our students lack the skills required to engage in learning, such as organization, planning, time management, and self-regulation. This…

As children develop the abilities to engage in more sophisticated forms of play, play serves as a context in which children can practice and develop skills in various domains including adaptive behavior and executive functioning. StoryCarnival is a tool designed over 39 sessions at a preschool, working with two groups of 3-5-year-old children,…

The purpose of the mixed method explanatory-sequential study was to measure teacher confidence in instructing students with the specific learning disability of dyslexia and its related disorders of ADHD, anxiety, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, executive functioning, and speech and language disorders. Two surveys, the short form of the Teacher Sense of…

The study explores the effects of a hybrid instructional approach combining Situated Learning (SL) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) on the executive functions and cognitive abilities of fourth-grade students learning English as a second language (ESL). Method: An experimental design was employed, with students divided into control and…

Transition from primary to secondary school is an often challenging milestone in the lives of all students. Although existing research provides insight into transition for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research that considers transition from the perspective of students with ASD and concomitant intellectual giftedness (IG) appears…

Musical instrument training has been linked to improved academic and cognitive abilities in children, but it remains unclear why this occurs. Moreover, access to instrument training is not always feasible, thereby leaving less fortunate children without opportunity to benefit from such training. Although music-based video games may be more…

The purpose of the study was to analyze the historical patterns in the relationship between specific types of disabilities and frequency of drug abuse or weapon offenses in public schools in the United States using the U.S. Department of Education Open Data Platform's (n.d.) data sets from 2011-2012 through 2020-2021. The problem is that students…

Indigenous frameworks suggest environmental risk and protective factors for American Indian (AI) children's development can be understood in terms of connecting and disconnecting forces in five domains: spirituality, family, intergenerational ties, community, and environment/land. This study examined the prevalence of these forces among 156 urban…

Background: The term individual differences refers to the physical, behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional attributes that make each human unique. Late adolescence to young adulthood represents a time of significant neurobiological and cognitive transformations that contribute further to human variability. Those transformations include an…

Executive function is an umbrella term involving working memory, planning, organization, social inhibition, self-regulation, and cognitive flexibility. It is an area where many students with disabilities struggle. This column describes practical ways to enhance executive functioning in students with disabilities using the universal design for…