Executive Functions Differentially Contribute to Fourth Graders’ Mathematics, Reading, and Spelling Skills

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs; working memory [WM], inhibition, and shifting) are widely known to play a critical role in school achievement. Among these EFs, WM appears to be implicated in numeracy and literacy. The contribution of inhibition and shifting to school achievement is less clear. Given the existing divergences in the literature and the importance of the interindividual differences in these domains, it seems important to assess EFs and scholastic skills in the same elementary school children. However, studies providing such an assessment are scarce. We explored whether EFs differentially contribute to mathematics, reading, and spelling skills in fourth-grade children (N = 71). The results revealed that (a) WM and inhibition accounted for unique variance in mathematics skills, (b) WM and shifting accounted for unique variance in reading skills, and (c) only shifting accounted for unique variance in spelling skills. The implications of these findings for children and teachers are discussed.

The Role of Attention Shifting in Orthographic Competencies: Cross-Sectional Findings from 1st, 3rd, and 8th Grade Students

“…Our findings suggest that attention shifting skills might provide a potential explanation for individual differences in spelling among older students. This assumption is supported by previous work reporting that shifting abilities but not working memory and inhibition accounted for variance in fourth graders' spelling skills (Lubin et al, 2016 ). Although, our study is among the first to investigate the relation between attention shifting and spelling outcomes at different stages of spelling acquisition, longitudinal research following children from middle childhood into adolescence is needed to better understand the (possibly changing) role that attention shifting plays in word-level spelling.…”

“…One obvious hypothesis is that shifting abilities should be equally important for word-level spelling across different stages of spelling development. This is because word-level spelling requires shifting between several mental tasks, including “listening to the dictation, writing words either by retrieving their orthographic form from memory or by applying phoneme-grapheme correspondence rules […], and verifying their production” (Lubin et al, 2016 , p. 453) that should not differ between beginning and proficient spellers. In our study, attention shifting was related to general spelling among the third-grade and the eighth-grade students (though the associations among the eighth graders were only at the level of the grapheme).…”

“…Attention shifting, one core component of executive functions, is defined as the ability to flexibly shift “back and forth between multiple tasks, operations, or mental sets” (Miyake et al, 2000 , p. 55). Spelling mastery appears to require children to flexibly shift between multiple demands that are embedded in the process of transforming a spoken word into written symbols (Lubin et al, 2016 ). For example, recognizing smaller units of meaning and sound, retrieving the correct letter or letter combination for each sound, and finally writing the letter in the correct form requires the flexible shifting of attention (Aram et al, 2014 ; Blair and Raver, 2015 ).…”

“…As children grow older and enter formal schooling, attention shifting helps them to develop adaptive learning strategies and apply them flexibly to changing task demands. During the early elementary school years, children are increasingly confronted with non-alphabetic aspects of the writing system that require them to flexibly shift between several mental tasks, including retrieving the spelling of words from memory, applying orthographic patterns, or using phoneme-grapheme correspondence rules (Lubin et al, 2016 ). Although, various executive function components contribute to spelling acquisition, Lubin et al ( 2016 ) found that attention shifting seems to be particularly predictive of spelling outcomes among elementary school children.…”

“…During the early elementary school years, children are increasingly confronted with non-alphabetic aspects of the writing system that require them to flexibly shift between several mental tasks, including retrieving the spelling of words from memory, applying orthographic patterns, or using phoneme-grapheme correspondence rules (Lubin et al, 2016 ). Although, various executive function components contribute to spelling acquisition, Lubin et al ( 2016 ) found that attention shifting seems to be particularly predictive of spelling outcomes among elementary school children. Fourth-grade children were administered the Creature Counting subtest from the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (Manly et al, 1999 ) to measure attention shifting.…”