Individuals hold different mindsets encompassing beliefs about trait stability (stable vs. malleable) and goal orientations (performance vs. mastery). These motivational beliefs affect behavioral self-regulation, which is an important predictor of school success and includes both executive functions (EF) and classroom behavioral self-regulation…

Emerging evidence suggests that executive function plays an important role in adult readers' understanding of text. This study examined the contribution of executive function to comprehension of expository science text among adult readers, as well as the role of vocabulary ability in the relation between executive function and text comprehension.…

A wealth of developmental research suggests that preschoolers are capable of reporting, imitating, and performing sequential actions they engage in routinely. However, few studies have explored the developmental and cognitive mechanisms required for learning how to perform such routines. A previous computational model of routines argued that a…

The primary aim of this study was to examine associations between executive functioning (EF) and child weight status (categorized from body mass index [BMI] percentiles) in a sample of preschool children. Participants included 80 preschool children (mean age = 4.17 years, female = 52%). Hierarchical regression analyses as well as analysis of…

This study examined the relationship between executive function and externalizing behaviors within a student population that was assessed for special education services. Executive function was measured by using the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory (CEFI). Externalizing behaviors and school problems was measured using the Behavior…

There is significant overlap between reading and writing, but no known standardized measure assesses these jointly. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the properties of a novel measure, the Assessment of Writing, Self-Monitoring, and Reading (AWSM Reader), that simultaneously evaluates both reading comprehension and writing. In doing so,…

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…

Research Findings: The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of student-teacher ethnoracial matching in early elementary school by exploring two executive function outcomes -- working memory and cognitive flexibility. Drawing on nationally-representative, longitudinal sample of kindergartners (N = 18,170) from the Early Childhood…

Objective: Children with ADHD often experience functional impairments across various aspects of daily life. This study addresses the dearth of longitudinal research on functional impairment trajectories from preschool to school age in children with symptoms of ADHD and comorbid disorders. Methods: We investigated the extent to which functional…

Social Stories (also known as social narratives) help individuals participate in and understand social situations. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes social narrative research targeting behavior change in individuals with ASD. Using the following questions as a guide: (a) What is the scope of social narrative interventions used for…

Despite the adaptive strengths and unique problem-solving skills demonstrated by neurodivergent (ND) individuals, they remain marginalized in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. High unemployment rates among individuals with disabilities emphasize the need for addressing barriers to entry and persistence in the…

Despite global demand, the large-scale effects of social-emotional learning (SEL) programming in developing countries remain underexplored. Using a randomized control trial, this study examined the effectiveness of a school-wide SEL intervention--"Programa Compasso" (PC)--among 3,018 sociodemographically diverse, Portuguese-speaking…

A major controversy facing the field of gifted education is the underrepresentation of low income, minority, and dual language students. Strategies for addressing this challenge have been to use universal screening and local norms; however, these useful recommendations continue to focus on traditional testing procedures that measure what students…

The diagnostic utility of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Clinical Clusters was assessed in a sample of 52 children (26 Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disordered (ADHD) and 26 matched controls). Multivariate analysis of variance followed by post-hoc testing and d-ratios yielded some statistically significant and…

The present study aims to examine the contribution of cognitive flexibility to metalinguistic skills and reading comprehension during primary school years. Forty-nine third-grade primary school children completed the measures of cognitive flexibility, metalinguistic skills including syntactic awareness (word order knowledge), morphosyntactic skill…