Parent Survey of Typical Child Time Spent in Less-Structured Activities

Barker, Jane E.; Semenov, Andrei D.; Michaelson, Laura; Provan, Lindsay S.; Snyder, Hannah; Munakata, Yuko

doi:10.1037/t36419-000

Cited by 2 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Practical research on support has been conducted, and certain effects have been obtained in relation to EF as being strongly influenced by the child-rearing environment (Barker et al, 2014;Diamond, Barnett, Thomas, & Munro, 2007;Klingberg, Forssberg, & Westerberg, 2002). Therefore, it is an urgent issue to provide a support method for promoting EF in difficult situations and for difficult children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of Prefrontal Cortex to Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood: An Exploratory Case Study for Childcare

Watanabe¹

2021

IJPS

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Executive function (EF) development is remarkable in early childhood. EF is an ability that provides a foundation for future success; accordingly, supporting children during their early childhood is crucial. So far, there have been many findings on EF in early childhood based on behavioral observation. This exploratory case study examines the measurement of prefrontal cortex activity during the performance of EF tasks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). This study aims to explore the following hypothesis. (1) The prefrontal cortex during early childhood becomes more active as a task becomes more difficult. (2) However, brain activity decreases and stabilizes as time progresses. (3) The evaluation can be easily measured with two-channel fNIRS. Experimental results showed that the preschooler and the child in lower elementary school displayed high levels of brain activity in the order of increasing difficulty in terms of behavioral indicators. Moreover, the preschooler showed higher levels of reaction than the child in lower elementary school. This result is useful and will broaden the perspectives of scholars in the fields of psychology, pedagogy, and neuroscience, those involved in child support.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of Prefrontal Cortex to Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood: An Exploratory Case Study for Childcare

Watanabe¹

2021

IJPS

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“…Although contemporaneous links between children's time use and their executive functioning in early childhood are intriguing (Barker et al, 2014;Stucke et al, 2021), correlational designs cannot address questions of causality. We have hypothesized that children's time use may shape their developing executive function, such that children who have more opportunities for self-directed behavior develop better skills for engaging such behaviors in the absence of external reminders (Barker & Munakata, 2015).…”

Section: Investigating Causal Links Between Environmental Structure and Developing Self-directed Ef In A Genetically Informative Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consistent with prior investigations of time use and executive function (Barker et al, 2014), we used semantic verbal fluency as our measure of self-directed executive function. Unlike most lab-based executive function tasks, experimenters provide few task rules and reminders in semantic verbal fluency.…”

Section: Investigating Causal Links Between Environmental Structure and Developing Self-directed Ef In A Genetically Informative Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In less-structured environments, adults allow children more latitude to determine on their own what goals they will pursue and how they will pursue them. Controlling for family income and child vocabulary, 6-year old children who spent more time in activities where rules and goals were not established by adults showed better self-directed executive function on a verbal fluency task, as measured by self-initiated switching among concepts to optimize performance (Barker et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

Young children often struggle to accomplish goals without instructions or reminders from adults.Less-structured activities might facilitate children's emerging self-directed executive functioning, by giving children opportunities to choose what to do and when, and to practice setting and accomplishing goals. In one study, 6-year-old children who spent more time in less-structured activities showed better self-directed switching on a verbal fluency task; conversely, more time in adult-structured activities predicted worse switching (Barker et al, 2014). However, it is unclear from such correlational studies whether children's activities caused differences in executive functioning, as opposed to differences in executive functioning shaping how children spent time, or a third factor driving both.

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confidence: 99%

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Environmental and genetic influences on self-directed executive functioning in childhood

Barker¹,

Deusen²,

Friedman³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Young children often struggle to accomplish goals without instructions or reminders from adults. Less-structured activities might facilitate children’s emerging self-directed executive functioning, by giving children opportunities to choose what to do and when, and to practice setting and accomplishing goals. In one study, 6-year-old children who spent more time in less-structured activities showed better self-directed switching on a verbal fluency task; conversely, more time in adult-structured activities predicted worse switching (Barker et al., 2014). However, it is unclear from such correlational studies whether children’s activities caused differences in executive functioning, as opposed to differences in executive functioning shaping how children spent time, or a third factor driving both. The current study thus investigated relationships between children’s experiences and self-directed executive function in a genetically-informative longitudinal twin sample (N= 936; 472 female, 464 male) . Twins who lived in more structured homes and participated in more structured activities at ages 3 and 4 showed worse self-directed switching on a verbal fluency task at age 7, controlling for earlier performance and concurrent levels of environmental structure. These relationships persisted controlling for general cognitive ability, vocabulary knowledge, and socioeconomic status. Associations between early time use and self-directed switching were mediated by nonshared environmental rather than genetic factors. These findings are consistent with early structured time causally affecting later self-directed executive function.

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Parent Survey of Typical Child Time Spent in Less-Structured Activities

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Response of Prefrontal Cortex to Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood: An Exploratory Case Study for Childcare

Response of Prefrontal Cortex to Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood: An Exploratory Case Study for Childcare

Environmental and genetic influences on self-directed executive functioning in childhood

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