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In recent decades, the utility of cognitive tele-assessment has increasingly been highlighted, both in adults and in children. The present study aimed to present TeleFE, a new tool for the tele-assessment of EF in children aged 6–13. TeleFE consists of a web platform including four tasks based on robust neuropsychological paradigms to evaluate inhibition, interference suppression, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. It also includes questionnaires on EF for teachers and parents, to obtain information on the everyday functioning of the children. As TeleFE allows the assessment of EF both remotely and in-person, a comparison of the two modalities was conducted by administering TeleFE to 1288 Italian primary school children. A series of ANOVA was conducted, showing no significant effect of assessment modality (p > 0.05 for all the measures). In addition, significant differences by class emerged for all the measures (p < 0.001 for all the measures except p = 0.008 for planning). Finally, a significant sex effect emerged for inhibition (p < 0.001) and for the reaction times in both interference control (p = 0.013) and cognitive flexibility (p < 0.001), with boys showing a lower inhibition and faster reaction times. The implications of these results along with the indications for the choice of remote assessment are discussed.

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In the present-day knowledge society, people need to critically comprehend information across multiple sources that express diverse and contradictory viewpoints. Due to the complexity associated with this process, an important role can be played by Executive Functions, that is, cognitive control processes used to regulate mental functioning and behavior when automatized elaborations are not sufficient. The aim of this article is to review existing research on the roles of executive functions when reading from multiple texts. To identify the appropriate studies, we conducted a search in the following databases: Web of science, Scopus, PsycInfo, Eric. The search string was created by combining the terms used in past literature reviews on executive functions and multiple-texts comprehension. From the total number of 4,877 records identified, seven articles met all the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Given the scarcity of studies on the topic, we decided to examine also eight articles reporting indirect evidence about the association between executive functions and multiple-text comprehension. Our review revealed that the study of the association between executive functions and multiple-texts comprehension is underdeveloped. The results seem to suggest that working memory is involved in surface comprehension, whereas results about sourcing and intertextual integration processes are mixed. Indirect evidence suggests that other executive functions, such as planning or monitoring, may be involved when learning from multiple texts. More research on this topic is needed given the increasing complexity of the contexts in which reading activities take place.

Executive Functions are a set of interrelated, top-down processes essential for adaptive goal-directed behaviour, frequently impaired across different neurodevelopmental disorders with variable degrees of severity. Many executive-function-training studies in children with neurodevelopmental disorders have focused on near effects, investigating post-treatment improvements on directly trained processes, while enhancements of skills not directly trained, defined as far effects, are less considered, albeit these could be extremely relevant for reducing the negative impact of a disorder’s core symptomatology. This systematic review and metanalysis aims to investigate the far effect outcomes after EF training in children with different types of neurodevelopmental disorders. 17 studies met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review, while 15 studies were selected in the metanalysis. An overall statistically significant effect size was found in the majority of far effect outcome measures considered in the studies. In particular, trainings on executive functions determine significant far effects on daily life functioning (0.46, 95% CI: [0.05–0.87]) and clinical symptoms (0.33, 95% CI: [0.15–0.51]). Despite a high variability of the results, intensity, frequency and the laboratory/life contexts dimension seem to be the most influential variables in determining far effects. This systematic review and metanalysis highlights the need to measure far effects of executive function training in neurodevelopmental disorders, selecting treatments not only on directly targeted processes, but also according to far impacts on the functional weakness of the disorder.

Preschool age is a golden period for the emergence of executive functions (EFs) that, in turn, predict learning and adaptive behavior throughout all life. The study was aimed to identify which EFs measures significantly explained the learning prerequisites and the mediation role of self-regulatory and executive behavior recorded in structured or free settings. One hundred and twenty-seven preschoolers were remotely assessed by standardized tests of response inhibition, working memory, control of interference, and cognitive flexibility. Teachers provided a global measure of learning prerequisites by an observational questionnaire. Self-regulatory behavior during the assessment was evaluated by a rating scale filled by the examiners. Executive function behavior in daily life was measured by a questionnaire filled by parents. Accuracy in tasks of response inhibition and working memory explained about 48% of the variability in learning prerequisites while response speed and accuracy in the control of interference and in cognitive flexibility were not significant. EFs also had indirect effects, mediated by the child’s self-regulatory behavior evaluated during the assessment but not in daily life. The results are interpreted with respect to the contribution of the main EF components to school readiness and the mediation of the child behavior as measured in structure contexts.

Among the interventions recently developed to enhance Executive Functions (EFs) in preschoolers, Quincey Quokka’s Quest (QQQ) is an illustrated book proposing EF activities embedded within a shared reading framework (Howard et al., 2017). In the present study, the Italian version of QQQ (QQQIT) was tested in 20 typical developing 4–5 year old children. Standardized tests were used to assess EFs pre- and post- intervention. QQQIT was conducted once a week for 8 weeks in small groups. A positive trend was registered in QQQIT performances from the first to the last sessions and a significant improvement, in comparison to the control condition, was obtained in the Color and Form Game test. These results, supporting the feasibility of the QQQIT intervention and its efficacy in increasing shifting abilities, confirm the usefulness of ecological interventions to empower specific EF components in preschool contexts.

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