Executive Function in the Preschool Classroom: Understanding the Peers’ Influence and Group-based EF Assessments

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Early childhood classrooms are one of the key contexts for children’s development of cognitive and academic skills. Executive function (EF), a set of higher-order cognitive skills that enable children to regulate their attention, behaviors, and emotions, has received increased attention due to its predictive links to early learning and later academic success (McClelland et al., 2013). Although various peer interactions occur in early childhood classrooms (Weiland et al., 2013), peer influences for children’s development of individual EF and academic skills have not been fully understood due to the inconsistent findings in prior research (Justice et al., 2011). Further, the narrow focus on the measurement of EF (e.g., lab-based neurocognitive tasks) limits our understanding of how EF skills are manifested in early childhood classroom settings. In this symposium, we will present three different approaches to understand the influence of peer factors on children’s EF and academic skills by representing findings from the US and China.
The first presentation focuses on the moderating role of children’s EF in the association between peers’ mathematical skills and individual children’s mathematical skills. The second presentation focuses on the extent to which peers’ EF is related to growth in individual children’s EF and academic skills (i.e.,mathematics, literacy, and language). The third presentation focuses on the feasibility of group-based EF assessments and whether group-based EF assessments predict academic skills. Overall, findings from multiple countries will be discussed to highlight the role of peers for children’s development and a novel approach for assessing EF in early childhood settings.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Irem Korucu, Yale University

Discussant

• Jennie K Grammer, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

Individual Presentations

• Associations between Peer Effect and Chinese Children’s Mathematical Ability: Moderated by Executive Function - Presenting Author: Pan Yue-Juan, Beijing Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Liu Shan-Shan, zhengzhou Art infant normal school

• The role of Peers’ EF and Classroom Quality in Preschoolers’ EF and Academic Skills - Presenting Author: Irem Korucu, Yale University; Non-Presenting Author: Tanya Maria Paes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Memphis; Non-Presenting Author: Robert Duncan, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Non-Presenting Author: David James Purpura, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Non-Presenting Author: Sara Anne Schmitt, University of Oregon

• Cognition in Context: Validating Group-Based Executive Function Assessments in Young Children - Presenting Author: Sammy Ahmed, University of Rhode Island; Non-Presenting Author: Jennie K Grammer, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Frederick J Morrison, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor