Measuring Executive Function Skills of Students With High Adverse Childhood Experiences After an Art-Integration Program

• In Event: Arts Education, Social Justice, and Identity Formation

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to share the results of an exploratory study that measured the change in Executive Function (EF) skills of At-Risk third-grade students with varying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) before and after an Arts-Integration (AI) program. Over the last decade breakthroughs in neuroscience has identified ACEs as predictors of failure in school (Blodgett & Lanigan, 2018). One reason for this correlation is that ACEs are linked to the delayed development of EF skills (Shonkoff, & Garner, 2012), which are vita for navigating through the complexities of school. The students in the study were assessed using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS) before and after they completed a daily five-month AI intervention program at school.

Authors

• Mason Kuhn, University of Northern Iowa

• Denise Tallakson, University of Northern Iowa

• Marine Pepanyan, University of Northern Iowa

• Marissa Schienwerf, University of Northern Iowa