Cognition in context: Validating group-based executive function assessments in young children

Ahmed, Sammy F.; Grammer, Jennie K.; Morrison, Frederick D.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105131

Cited by 17 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Further, the assessments themselves could have stronger ecological validity. Direct assessments, such as the tablet-based tasks used here, are limited in their ability to assess more complex behaviors that integrate interpersonal dynamics or other social and emotional factors 20 , 27 . One less common method to assess EFs in children is naturalistic observation, where independent assessors rate children's behavior as they engage in an activity or task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One such approach is to directly assess EFs in group-based school settings rather than the typical individualized assessments conducted in a research lab or in school. Children spend a significant amount of time in school, and it is therefore essential to study their abilities in naturalistic settings to further our understanding of the classroom and more broadly, school, as a context for development 20 , 26 , 27 , 29 . Limited work in this area has begun to develop new methods for group-based EF assessments using digital cognitive tasks 20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contribution of sustained attention abilities to real-world academic skills in children

Gallen

Schaerlaeken

Younger

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Sustained attention is a critical cognitive ability that improves over the course of development and predicts important real-world outcomes, such as academic achievement. However, the majority of work demonstrating links between sustained attention and academic skills has been conducted in lab-based settings that lack the ecological validity of a more naturalistic environment, like school. Further, most studies focus on targeted academic measures of specific sub-skills and have not fully examined whether this relationship generalizes to broad measures of academic achievement that are used for important, real-world, academic advancement decisions, such as standardized test scores. To address this gap, we examined the role of sustained attention in predicting targeted and broad assessments of academic abilities, where all skills were assessed in group-based environments in schools. In a sample of over 700 students aged 9–14, we showed that attention was positively related to performance on targeted assessments (math fluency and reading comprehension), as well as broad academic measures (statewide standardized test scores). Moreover, we found that attention was more predictive of targeted math sub-skills compared to assessments of broad math abilities, but was equally predictive of reading for both types of measures. Our findings add to our understanding of how sustained attention is linked to academic skills assessed in more ‘real-world’, naturalistic school environments and have important implications for designing tools to support student’s academic success.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of sustained attention abilities to real-world academic skills in children

Gallen

Schaerlaeken

Younger

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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“…As a result, cognitive regulation is likely still best assessed using structured tasks designed to challenge it rather than using a purely observational approach. Recent work has demonstrated it is possible to conduct structured assessments in environments that more closely mirror a classroom setting, namely by observing children's behaviors as they complete game-like tasks along with their peers (e.g., Ahmed et al, 2021;Howard et al, 2019). These semi-structured observational tools will remain important for assessing behaviors that cannot easily be captured using naturalistic, unstructured observations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring children's behavioral regulation in the preschool classroom: An objective, sensor‐based approach

Koepp

Gershoff

Castelli

et al. 2021

Developmental Science

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Children's abilities to regulate their behaviors are critical for learning and development, yet researchers lack an objective, precise method for assessing children's behavioral regulation in their everyday environments such as their classrooms. This study tested a sensor‐based approach to assess preschool children's behavioral regulation objectively, precisely, and naturalistically. Children wore accelerometer devices as they engaged in center‐based play in their preschool classrooms for roughly 45 min (N = 50 children, 48% female, mean age = 4.5 years). Set to record data each second, these devices collected information about children's movement (N = 140,564 observations). From these data, the authors extracted concrete behaviors hypothesized to index behavioral regulation and compared them with teacher and observer ratings of the same. Initiating movement more frequently, staying seated in activities for shorter amounts of time, and spending a greater amount of time in motion were related to lower ratings of attention and inhibitory control by teachers and by observers of classroom group time, median r = .45, p < .01. These same objectively measured behaviors showed only weak associations with children's performance on assessments of cognitive regulation, median r = .11, p = .47. The findings indicate that ambulatory accelerometers can capture movement‐based indicators of children's behavioral regulation in the classroom setting and that performance on measures of cognitive regulation does not strongly predict children's behavior in the classroom. As an unobtrusive and objective measure, actigraphy may become an important tool for studying children's behavioral regulation in everyday contexts.

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“…Although there exist several approaches to measuring EF during early childhood (Ahmed et al, 2021a;McCoy, 2019), the most common are direct child assessments, adapted from standardized tasks developed by cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists (e.g., the National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessments of Neurological and Behavioral Functions; Bauer & Zelazo, 2014) and are designed to be administered face-to-face to individual children in relatively quiet spaces (e.g. Weintraub et al, 2013a).…”

Section: Measuring Executive Function During Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies, Recommendations, and Validation of Remote Executive Function Tasks for use with Young Children

Ahmed¹,

Skibbe²,

McRoy³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Research and development on remote assessments and services have been slowly progressing over the past decade in the areas of telehealth, telemedicine, and psychological e-Visits. However, much less research has focused on understanding whether neuropsychological and educational assessments can be converted for remote use with young children. In the present study, we tested the feasibility of administering a remote battery of executive function (EF) tasks to preschool students. These tasks were converted from widely used EF assessments and were administered to children in their homes remotely via Zoom Video Communications web conferencing services. Based on our experiences in the field, we described the task conversion process; highlighted the unique challenges and solutions to obtaining accurate and reliable data remotely; and presented psychometric findings from a preliminary study of 97 preschool students (Mage = 53.2 months; 53% Female; 55% Black, 33.7% White, 7.9% biracial, 2.2% "other", 1.1% Asian/Pacific Islander; 7.2% Latine). Results revealed that the remotely assessed Day/Night Stroop task, Dimensional Card Change Sort (DCCS) task, Revised Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS-R) task, and Digit Span Forward task demonstrated strong evidence of normality, were highly reliable, and were related to children’s academic achievement. Further, associations between our remote EF measures and standardized tests of academic achievement were stronger for math than for reading achievement. Overall, this study represents a first step towards developing a protocol for task conversion and remote administration of EF measures with young children.

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Cognition in context: Validating group-based executive function assessments in young children

Cited by 17 publications

References 67 publications

Contribution of sustained attention abilities to real-world academic skills in children

Contribution of sustained attention abilities to real-world academic skills in children

Measuring children's behavioral regulation in the preschool classroom: An objective, sensor‐based approach

Strategies, Recommendations, and Validation of Remote Executive Function Tasks for use with Young Children

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