Executive Function Computerized Training in Very Preterm-Born Children: A Pilot Study

Aarnoudse-Moens, Cornelieke S.H.; Twilhaar, E. Sabrina; Oosterlaan, Jaap; Veen, Heske G. Van; Prins, Pier J. M.; Kaam, A.H.L.C. van; Wassenaer-Leemhuis, Aleid G. van

doi:10.1089/g4h.2017.0038

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…However, this literature is based on solely training working memory, while other executive functions, such as inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, are also impaired in this population and may benefit from computerized interventions. Given the fact that executive function remains a vulnerable area of cognitive function in the population born preterm, future studies should be conducted on which type of interventions may be effective to diminish the encountered difficulties in executive function …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aarnoudse-Moens et al 103 Anderson et al 104 Brumgaugh et al 105 Crotty et al 90 Delande et al 107 Wong et al 111 Rose et al 24 Murray et al 110 Hodel et al 62 Hitzert et al 109 Giordano et al 108 Cserjesi et al 105 Mulder et al 18…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the fact that executive function remains a vulnerable area of cognitive function in the population born preterm, future studies should be conducted on which type of interventions may be effective to diminish the encountered difficulties in executive function. 103,[105][106][107][108][109][110] LIMITATIONS First, because of the limited number of studies on executive function in children born moderate-to-late preterm/low birthweight (i.e. >32wks gestational age), analyses for working memory included only one study within this gestational age range.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Executive function deficits in children born preterm or at low birthweight: a meta‐analysis

Houdt

Oosterlaan

Wassenaer-Leemhuis

et al. 2019

Develop Med Child Neuro

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AimTo investigate the magnitude of executive function deficits and their dependency on gestational age, sex, age at assessment, and year of birth for children born preterm and/or at low birthweight.MethodPubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and ERIC were searched for studies reporting on executive functions in children born preterm/low birthweight and term controls born in 1990 and later, assessed at a mean age of 4 years or higher. Studies were included if five or more studies reported on the same executive function measures.ResultsThirty‐five studies (3360 children born preterm/low birthweight, 2812 controls) were included. Children born preterm/low birthweight performed 0.5 standardized mean difference (SMD) lower on working memory and cognitive flexibility and 0.4 SMD lower on inhibition. SMDs for these executive functions did not significantly differ from each other. Meta‐regression showed that heterogeneity in SMDs for working memory and inhibition could not be explained by study differences in gestational age, sex, age at assessment, or year of birth.InterpretationChildren born preterm/low birthweight since 1990 perform half a SMD below term‐born peers on executive function, which does not seem to improve with more recent advances in medical care or with increasing age.What this paper adds Children born preterm/low birthweight perform below term‐born children on core executive functions.Lower gestational age or male sex are not risk factors for poorer executive functions.Executive function difficulties in children born preterm/low birthweight remain stable across childhood.Executive function difficulties are similar for children born recently and children born in earlier eras.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Executive function deficits in children born preterm or at low birthweight: a meta‐analysis

Houdt

Oosterlaan

Wassenaer-Leemhuis

et al. 2019

Develop Med Child Neuro

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“…These interventions mostly focus on the home environment, parent-infant relationships, and parenting skills, but few focus on infant development alone. Computerised cognitive training programmes have been tested among pre-and school-age children who were born before term [1,49], but not with younger preterm children. Furthermore, few studies have reported on the use of eye-tracking methods to examine preterm infants' attention abilities [21,36,59,66].…”

Section: Aims Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Training attention control of very preterm infants: protocol for a feasibility study of the Attention Control Training (ACT)

Perra

Wass

McNulty³

et al. 2020

Pilot Feasibility Stud

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Background: Children born preterm may display cognitive, learning, and behaviour difficulties as they grow up. In particular, very premature birth (gestation age between 28 and less than 32 weeks) may put infants at increased risk of intellectual deficits and attention deficit disorder. Evidence suggests that the basis of these problems may lie in difficulties in the development of executive functions. One of the earliest executive functions to emerge around 1 year of age is the ability to control attention. An eye-tracking-based cognitive training programme to support this emerging ability, the Attention Control Training (ACT), has been developed and tested with typically developing infants. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using the ACT with healthy very preterm (VP) infants when they are 12 months of age (corrected age). The ACT has the potential to address the need for supporting emerging cognitive abilities of VP infants with an early intervention, which may capitalise on infants' neural plasticity. Methods/design: The feasibility study is designed to investigate whether it is possible to recruit and retain VP infants and their families in a randomised trial that compares attention and social attention of trained infants against those that are exposed to a control procedure. Feasibility issues include the referral/recruitment pathway, attendance, and engagement with testing and training sessions, completion of tasks, retention in the study, acceptability of outcome measures, quality of data collected (particularly, eye-tracking data). The results of the study will inform the development of a larger randomised trial.Discussion: Several lines of evidence emphasise the need to support emerging cognitive and learning abilities of preterm infants using early interventions. However, early interventions with preterm infants, and particularly very preterm ones, face difficulties in recruiting and retaining participants. These problems are also augmented by the health vulnerability of this population. This feasibility study will provide the basis for informing the implementation of an early cognitive intervention for very preterm infants. Trial registration: Registered Registration ID: NCT03896490. Retrospectively registered at Clinical Trials Protocol Registration and Results System (clinicaltrials.gov).

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“…Several studies have been conducted in the last few years to test the contribution of early intervention on the development of EFs (Liu et al, 2015;Traverso et al, 2015;Howard et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019). Other studies have explored the efficacy of ad hoc EF training programs (Kronenberger et al, 2011;Espinet et al, 2013;Grunewaldt et al, 2013;Hardy et al, 2016;Aarnoudse-Moens et al, 2018;Boivin et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019). For a review of intervention programs, see Diamond and Ling (2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coding in Primary Grades Boosts Children’s Executive Functions

et al. 2019

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Several programs have been developed worldwide to improve children's executive functions (EFs). Yet, the role played in EF development by learning activities embedded in the school curriculum has received scarce attention. With two studies, we recently tested the effects of computational thinking (CT) and coding-a new element of the primary school curriculum-on the development of children's EFs. CT stimulates the ability to define a clear and orderly sequence of simple and well-specified steps to solve a complex problem. We conjecture that CT skills are associated to such EF processes as response inhibition and planning. In a first between-group cluster-randomized controlled trial, we tested the effects of 1-month coding activities on 76 first graders' planning and response inhibition against those of 1-month standard STEM activities of a control group. In a second study, we tested the effects of 1-month coding activities of 17 second graders in two ways: within group (longitudinally), against 7 months of standard activities experienced by the same children (experimental group); and between groups, in comparison to the effects of standard STEM activities in a control group of 19 second graders. The results of the two studies show significant benefits of learning to code: children exposed to coding improved significantly more in planning and inhibition tasks than control children did. The longitudinal data showed that improvements in planning and inhibition skills after 1 month of coding activities (eight lessons) were equivalent to or greater than the improvement attained after 7 months of standard activities. These findings support the hypothesis that learning CT via coding can significantly boost children's spontaneous development of EFs.

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Executive Function Computerized Training in Very Preterm-Born Children: A Pilot Study

Abstract: BrainGame Brian is a feasible intervention for very preterm-born children with attention problems.

Cited by 17 publications

References 38 publications

Executive function deficits in children born preterm or at low birthweight: a meta‐analysis

Executive function deficits in children born preterm or at low birthweight: a meta‐analysis

Training attention control of very preterm infants: protocol for a feasibility study of the Attention Control Training (ACT)

Coding in Primary Grades Boosts Children’s Executive Functions

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