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1.
Early Child Res Q ; 53: 425-440, 2020.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33149375

RESUMEN

The effectiveness of Educare, a center-based early education program, in improving child outcomes at age 3 was evaluated in a randomized clinical trial. Educare programs serve children from birth to age 5 and are designed to reduce the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more advantaged peers. This study began following 239 children from low-income families who were randomly assigned as infants (<19 months) to Educare or a business-as-usual control group. At age 3, assessments of the skills of 202 children remaining in the study revealed significant differences in favor of children in the treatment group on auditory language skills, early math skills, and parent-reported problem behaviors. Effect sizes were in the modest range, although not as strong as the previously reported age 2 findings. No effects were found for observations of parent-child interactions, observer-rated child behaviors, or parent-rated social competence. For English-language skills, children who were dual language learners (DLLs) benefitted more from treatment than non-DLLs. Analyses of outcomes by child care type, regardless of treatment group assignment, showed that children in Educare had better language, math, and behavioral scores than children in less formal care, whereas children in other center-based care only had higher language scores than children in less formal care. Differences in outcomes between Educare and other center-based care were not significant.

2.
Child Dev ; 90(6): 2001-2018, 2019 11.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29707764

RESUMEN

This article examined longitudinal relations among socioeconomic risk, maternal language input, child vocabulary, and child executive function (EF) in a large sample (N = 1,009) recruited for a prospective longitudinal study. Two measures of maternal language input derived from a parent-child picture book task, vocabulary diversity (VOCD), and language complexity, showed variation by socioeconomic risk at child ages 15, 24, and 36 months. Maternal VOCD at child age 24 months and maternal language complexity at child age 36 months mediated the relation between socioeconomic risk and 48-month child EF, independent of parenting sensitivity. Moreover, 36-month child vocabulary mediated the relation between maternal language input and child EF. These findings provide novel evidence about mechanisms linking socioeconomic risk and child executive function.


Asunto(s)
Desarrollo Infantil/fisiología , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Conducta Materna , Clase Social , Vocabulario , Adulto , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino
3.
J Exp Child Psychol ; 170: 30-44, 2018 06.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29407186

RESUMEN

Early childhood represents a period of rapid cognitive developmental change in executive function (EF) skills along with a variety of related cognitive processes, including processing speed. This leads to interpretational challenges in that children's performance on EF tasks reflects more than EF skills per se. We tested whether the inclusion of a brief measure of simple reaction time (SRT) during EF assessments could help to partially address this challenge. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional convenience sample of 830 preschool-aged children. Individual differences in SRT were significantly associated with performance on all tasks (R2s = .09-.26); slower performance on the SRT task was associated with poorer performance on each EF task. Age-related differences in individual EF tasks were reduced by approximately one half after accounting for age-related differences in SRT, and EF task scores were less coherent (i.e., less strongly intercorrelated with each other) after the removal of SRT. Age-related differences in EF were smaller (Cohen ds = 1.36 vs. 0.78), and poverty-related differences in EF were larger (Cohen ds = 0.30 vs. 0.46) after accounting for SRT-related variation. Finally, consistent with previous studies, SRT-related differences in fluid reasoning were mediated by EF skills. Results are discussed with respect to using a brief measure of SRT to partially address the problem of measurement impurity at the level of individual EF tasks.


Asunto(s)
Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiología , Preescolar , Cognición/fisiología , Estudios Transversales , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Test de Stroop , Tacto/fisiología , Escala de Memoria de Wechsler
4.
J Exp Child Psychol ; 148: 20-34, 2016 08.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27101154

RESUMEN

To investigate whether children's early language skills support the development of executive functions (EFs), the current study used an epidemiological sample (N=1121) to determine whether two key language indicators, vocabulary and language complexity, were predictive of EF abilities over the preschool years. We examined vocabulary and language complexity both as time-varying covariates that predicted time-specific indicators of EF at 36 and 60 months of age and as time-invariant covariates that predicted children's EF at 60 months and change in EF from 36 to 60 months. We found that the rate of change in children's vocabulary between 15 and 36 months was associated with both the trajectory of EF from 36 to 60 months and the resulting abilities at 60 months. In contrast, children's language complexity had a time-specific association with EF only at 60 months. These findings suggest that children's early gains in vocabulary may be particularly relevant for emerging EF abilities.


Asunto(s)
Lenguaje Infantil , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Vocabulario , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Estudios Prospectivos , Instituciones Académicas , Test de Stroop , Pensamiento/fisiología
5.
Child Dev ; 85(5): 1898-914, 2014.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24773289

RESUMEN

Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φs ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language. In contrast, language had significant direct and indirect effects on later EF. Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results was comparable for low- and not-low-income families. The results were consistent with theoretical accounts of language as a precursor of EF ability, and highlighted gesture as an early indicator of EF.


Asunto(s)
Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Gestos , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Preescolar , Humanos , Lactante , Estudios Prospectivos
6.
Children (Basel) ; 11(7)2024 Jul 02.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39062260

RESUMEN

There is great interest in the development of executive function (EF) in the preschool period. Accordingly, multiple performance-based measures of EF have been developed for this age group, yet little is known about how they compare to one another. This study used a large and diverse sample of 3-to-5-year-old children (N = 846), who completed subtests of the National Institutes of Health's Toolbox Cognition Battery (NTCB), the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV), and the EF Touch battery. Scores across the three batteries were compared and associations with age, income, and race/ethnicity were examined. Results revealed that (1) the three tasks were moderately correlated (r = 0.44-0.51, all p < 0.001), but children had higher mean accuracy scores on EF Touch than on the NTCB or the WPPSI-IV. (2) Mean accuracy scores on all batteries were linearly associated with child age (all F > 32.68, all p < 0.0001). (3) Comparisons by income and race/ethnicity showed lower accuracy for low-income children on the WPPSI-IV and lower accuracy for White children on the NTCB. Across all batteries, there was consistently lower accuracy for Hispanic children. In conclusion, the three batteries we examined performed similarly across several metrics. EF Touch may be more appropriate for younger children, while the NTCB performed well with older children.

7.
Sch Psychol ; 37(1): 26-36, 2022 Jan.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35130006

RESUMEN

This study investigated the utility of including teacher-reported callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors in the assessment of disruptive behaviors in school-based research. Participants included 138 first- and second-grade children (68% male; 76% eligible for free or reduced-price lunch; 61% Black, 9% Latinx, 23% White, and 7% multiracial) who completed assessments during the baseline assessment of an intervention study. Results indicated that teachers could distinguish CU from traditional indicators of disruptive behavior, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviors and conduct problems (CP). When considered alone, there was mixed evidence for the utility of CU behaviors. Although higher levels of CU behaviors explained unique variation in teacher-reported social competence and global impairment, CU behaviors did not explain unique variation in disciplinary infractions, classroom behavior, or academic functioning after accounting for ADHD and CP behaviors. A different pattern of results was evident when CU was considered in conjunction with ADHD and CP behaviors. Latent profile analyses identified three subgroups of participants (i.e., a nondisruptive group, an ADHD group, and a comorbid group, who exhibited elevated levels of ADHD, CP, and CU). Compared to the nondisruptive group, the ADHD group exhibited higher rates of off-task classroom behavior and worse academic functioning. The comorbid group exhibited moderate-to-large differences from both groups on teacher-reported and objective outcomes. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the potential value of incorporating CU behaviors, which are becoming prominent in clinical psychology and psychiatry, into school-based research and for school psychology practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Asunto(s)
Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad , Trastorno de la Conducta , Problema de Conducta , Niño , Trastorno de la Conducta/psicología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Instituciones Académicas
8.
Assessment ; 26(7): 1296-1306, 2019 10.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29126345

RESUMEN

Efforts to improve children's executive function are often hampered by the lack of measures that are optimized for use during the transition from preschool to elementary school. Whereas preschool-based measures often emphasize response accuracy, elementary school-based measures emphasize reaction time (RT)-especially for measures inhibitory control (IC) tasks that typically have a speeded component. The primary objective of this study was to test in a preschool-aged sample whether the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT data resulted in improved scoring for three IC tasks relative to scores derived from accuracy data alone. Generally, the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT data resulted in modest improvements in the measurement precision of IC abilities. Moreover, the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT helped eliminate floor and ceiling effects that occurred when accuracy data were considered alone. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of scoring IC tasks in ways that are maximally informative for program evaluation and longitudinal modeling.


Asunto(s)
Conducta Infantil/fisiología , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Psicología Infantil/métodos , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiología , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Inhibición Psicológica , Masculino , New York , North Carolina , Psicometría , Análisis y Desempeño de Tareas
9.
Child Neuropsychol ; 24(3): 322-337, 2018 04.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27841094

RESUMEN

This study tests the factor structure, measurement invariance, and correlates of the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI) with a large and diverse sample of 3- to 5-year-olds (n = 844). Consistent with previous studies, a two-factor model that distinguishes working memory from inhibition provides the best fit to the observed data. This two-factor model has been shown to demonstrate strong measurement invariance for different subgroups of children (boys vs. girls, high vs. low income). Whereas boys tend to have greater working memory and inhibition difficulties (Cohen's d = 0.15 and 0.20, respectively), children from low-income households tend to have more working memory problems than their peers from high-income households (Cohen's d = 0.25). Finally, correlations between CHEXI scores, examiner reports of child behavior, and child performance on a battery of executive function (EF) tasks were investigated. CHEXI scores were found to be more consistently related to examiner reports of child behavior than child performance on EF tasks. Tthe strengths and weaknesses of the CHEXI as a questionnaire measure of EF are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.


Asunto(s)
Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Psicometría/estadística & datos numéricos , Encuestas y Cuestionarios/normas , Análisis y Desempeño de Tareas , Conducta Infantil/psicología , Preescolar , Análisis Factorial , Femenino , Humanos , Inhibición Psicológica , Masculino , New York , North Carolina , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados
10.
J Autism Dev Disord ; 47(8): 2586-2594, 2017 08.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28577276

RESUMEN

Performance-based assessments of EF for use with young children who have or are at risk for disabilities are lacking. The current study investigates the use of a computerized battery for children with subclinical behaviors (N = 846) across a variety of developmental disabilities and evaluates practical information about feasibility of task administration. Results reveal that children with disabilities performed similarly to their typically developing peers across a variety of metrics for evaluating the battery, ranging from percent correct scores to administrator quality ratings. Thus, the battery may be considered an easy-to-administer, performance-based assessment tool in which children with disabilities do not perform systemically worse than typically developing peers.


Asunto(s)
Discapacidades del Desarrollo/diagnóstico , Función Ejecutiva , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Niño , Preescolar , Discapacidades del Desarrollo/psicología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas/normas
11.
Child Neuropsychol ; 23(7): 822-837, 2017 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27468789

RESUMEN

This study investigates the test-retest reliability of a battery of executive function (EF) tasks with a specific interest in testing whether the method that is used to create a battery-wide score would result in differences in the apparent test-retest reliability of children's performance. A total of 188 4-year-olds completed a battery of computerized EF tasks twice across a period of approximately two weeks. Two different approaches were used to create a score that indexed children's overall performance on the battery-i.e., (1) the mean score of all completed tasks and (2) a factor score estimate which used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Pearson and intra-class correlations were used to investigate the test-retest reliability of individual EF tasks, as well as an overall battery score. Consistent with previous studies, the test-retest reliability of individual tasks was modest (rs ≈ .60). The test-retest reliability of the overall battery scores differed depending on the scoring approach (rmean = .72; rfactor_score = .99). It is concluded that the children's performance on individual EF tasks exhibit modest levels of test-retest reliability. This underscores the importance of administering multiple tasks and aggregating performance across these tasks in order to improve precision of measurement. However, the specific strategy that is used has a large impact on the apparent test-retest reliability of the overall score. These results replicate our earlier findings and provide additional cautionary evidence against the routine use of factor analytic approaches for representing individual performance across a battery of EF tasks.


Asunto(s)
Atención/fisiología , Desarrollo Infantil/fisiología , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Preescolar , Análisis Factorial , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Psicometría , Tiempo de Reacción , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados
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