Poster #23 - Executive Function in Relation to SES, Home Affordances, and Object Exploration in Children with Motor Delays

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES), affordances in the home environment, and enriched object interactions at early ages have been shown to impact children’s future cognitive development (Clearfield et al., 2015; Clearfield & Niman, 2012; Lobo & Galloway, 2008; Valadi et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to determine whether early SES, home environment affordances, and object exploration relate to later executive function (EF) in children with motor delays.
Methods: Participants were a subset of 14 children (8 males) with motor delays, 7-16 months prematurity-corrected age at baseline (Mean=10.76, SD=2.55), enrolled in a larger longitudinal study. At baseline, SES was classified as low vs. high based on parents’ education and the poverty income ratio; the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development – Infant Scale [AHEMD-IS: physical space (PS), variety of stimulation (VS), fine motor (FM), and gross motor (GM) dimensions] was completed by parents (Caçola et al., 2015). Participants were also assessed for object exploration performance (unimanual or bimanual contact, looking, looking during unimanual or bimanual contact) using an established assessment (Babik et al., 2019) at baseline, and 1.5, 3, 6, 12 months post-baseline; these data were presented as normalized frequency per minute. Executive function was evaluated using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS; Carlson & Zelazo, 2014) at 36 months post-baseline (Mean age=48.65 months, SD=3.02). Scaled MEFS scores were analyzed. An independent-samples t-test compared EF between children with low vs. high SES. Pearson correlation analyses tested correlations between dimensions of AHEMD-IS and children’s EF. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to evaluate differences between the developmental trajectories for object exploration skills in children with low vs. high EF. For these longitudinal analyses, children’s EF was categorized into low vs. high using the median MEFS score as a cut-off point (Median=91).
Results: There was no significant difference in EF between the low SES (M=83.50, SD=14.10) and high SES (M=94.33, SD=18.91) groups: t(12)=-1.23, p=.241, d=0.71. Moreover, AHEMD-IS scores did not significantly correlate to EF at 36 months post-baseline: PS: r(11)=.16, p=.603; VS: r(11)=.14, p=.641; FM: r(11)=.18, p=.546; GM: r(10)=.55, p=.066. However, children with low vs. high EF at 36 months post-baseline differed significantly in their developmental trajectories for bimanual contact and looking during bimanual contact (p<.05). Modelled trajectories suggested that from the age of about 12 months post-baseline, children classified as having high EF exhibited significantly more bimanual object contact and looking at objects during bimanual contact than their peers with low EF.
Conclusions: The results suggest that early bimanual object manipulation and corresponding visuomanual coordination may serve as important precursors for developing EF skills in children with motor delays. These early sensorimotor behaviors may facilitate the development of attention to a task, goal-directedness, and problem solving, thus providing the foundation for more complex executive function skills. Identification of sensorimotor precursors to emerging EF skills may support the design of early interventions to improve EF outcomes in at-risk populations.

Authors

• Andrea Baraldi Cunha, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)

• Iryna Babik, Boise State University
  Presenting Author

• Regina T. Harbourne, Duquesne University

• Stacey C. Dusing, University of Southern California

• Sarah W. McCoy, University Of Washington

• Sandra Willett

• Lin-Ya Hsu

• Natalie A. Koziol, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• James Bovaird, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Michele A Lobo, University of Delaware