An after-school intervention targeting executive function and visuospatial skills also improves classroom behavior

Abstract

Executive function (EF) describes a complex set of skills, including flexible attention, inhibitory control, and working memory, that coordinate to achieve behavioral regulation. Visuospatial skills (VS) describe the capacity to visually perceive and understand spatial relationships among objects. Emerging research suggests VS skills are associated with classroom functioning, including behavioral adjustment. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to enter school with EF and VS deficits, with consequences for classroom adjustment. In response, we developed and experimentally tested an after-school intervention that incorporates fine and gross motor activities targeting EF and VS skills in a sample of 87 kindergarten and first-grade students from low-income communities. The aim of the present study was to preliminarily explore whether EF and VS skills were bolstered by the intervention and subsequently whether EF and VS skills mediate or moderate intervention impacts on learning-related and problem behaviors in the classroom. Intent-to-treat analyses confirm intervention effects for EF and VS skills. Using full information maximum likelihood and bias-corrected bootstrapping, results indicate that improvements in EF mediated the impact of assignment to the treatment condition on improvements in learning-related behaviors and reductions in problem behavior. Taken together, findings suggest out-of-school contexts are a reasonable point of intervention for improving daytime classroom behavior.

Who Benefits from An Intervention Program on Foundational Skills for Handwriting Addressed to Kindergarten Children and First Graders?

“…Studies on the effectiveness of handwriting intervention programs found improvements in fine motor and visual-motor skills in children receiving direct occupational therapy lasting seven or more months [33][34][35][36]. Nevertheless, research has suggested that even short-term interventions targeting fine motor performances in children of lower elementary school ages can lead to significant changes in individuals with or without disabilities [37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

Popularizing Visuo-Spatial Training for Reading Challenges: A Call to Experts in Support of Language and Non-language-based Cognitive Skills Strengthening

“…Non-language-based training was also shown to be highly beneficial with special school age groups such as students with Down Syndrome, autism, ADHD, and others, showing significant and sustained improvement in academic skills (Bennett et al, 2013;Brock et al, 2018). Connections were also made between executive function skills, VS skills and school achievement, especially in at-risk populations.…”

Portable Screen Time and Kindergarteners’ Attention with Content as a Potential Moderator

“…Kindergarten-aged children, or children about ages five or six, are also an important population to discuss in and of themselves, as they are developmentally unique. First, because executive function is closely linked to emergent literacy and math skills (Brock et al, 2018a;Brock et al, 2018b), differences in executive function skills translates into differing levels of school readiness (Cuevas & Bell, 2014;Huber, Yeates, Meyer, Fleckhammer, & Kaufman, 2018;Nathanson et al, 2014;Wagner Fuhs & Day, 2011). As such, as children enter kindergarten, they present with a multitude of variances in executive function skills, thus school readiness.…”

“…Interactive screen time in which the user interacts with the interface can potentially increase children's number sense, basic math skills, and even problem solving and geometric skills (Lieberman, Bates, & So, 2009). Additionally, further emergent research has indicated that Visuomotor Integration (VMI), or a child's ability to comprehend and manipulate visual input, including letters and numbers and hands-on learning materials, paired with executive function, are important in developing children's reading and math skills (Brock et al, 2018a;Brock et al, 2018b).…”