Abstract
Recently, researchers have increasingly shown interest in studying executive functions (EFs) starting from a young age, in particular focusing on interventions in both educational and clinical contexts. Today's children's interest in digital tools is very high allowing for the introduction of new methods of assessment and training. However, there are only a few studies focused on technology-based interventions promoting or assessing EFs in young children. For this reason, a kit of four games for the assessment and training of working memory, inhibition, shifting, and updating in pre-schoolers was developed in the form of apps. The developed prototypes underwent a first test involving some teachers and clinicians who filled an online questionnaire. Data analysis showed that both teachers and clinicians gave a positive and homogeneous evaluation, showing that the apps can be considered useful for the assessment and training of EFs in both educational and clinical contexts.
TopIntroduction
Executive Functions (EFs) refer to a family of adaptive, goal-directed, top-down mental processes needed to focus and pay attention, and when an automatic response would not be adequate (Burgess & Simons, 2005). There is a general agreement on three core EFs (Miyake et al., 2000; Miyake & Friedman, 2012): (a) inhibition, the ability to suppress task-irrelevant cognitive processing and ignore salient yet irrelevant features of the situation; (b) shifting, the ability to switch between different operations or levels of processing; and (c) updating, the ability to encode, hold and monitor incoming information in the working memory (WM), replacing previous data with new one. Furthermore, Miyake and colleagues (2000) suggest the possibility that all EFs rely to some extent on working memory capacity (WMC), i.e. the simultaneous maintenance and manipulation of information.
Although EFs develop over a long period of time, the most remarkable changes in EFs skills occur during the first years of life (Garon, Bryson & Smith, 2008). In this period, EFs are associated to other cognitive domains, such as representational systems (Panesi & Morra, 2018; 2021; 2022), self-regulation (Sokol & Müller, 2007), social cognition (Denham, Bassett, Zinsser & Wyatt, 2014), and future academic outcomes (De Franchis, Usai, Viterbori & Traverso, 2017), in children with both typical and atypical development.
For this reason, recently, researchers from neuroscience, as well as from developmental and cognitive psychology, have increasingly shown interest in studying EFs starting from a young age, in particular focusing on interventions on EFs both in educational and clinical contexts (Scionti, Cavallero, Zogmaister & Marzocchi, 2020). In order to guarantee the effectiveness of any intervention early in life, appropriate tools and methods are needed both for assessment and training of the relevant cognitive abilities (Diamond, 2016).
To respond to this need, starting from a literature review on existing interventions on EFs with young children, the main aims of this chapter are to:
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Provide information to clinicians and teachers on the use of apps to measure and improve EFs in different contexts;
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Describe a new kit of apps, specifically developed to measure and train EFs in pre-schoolers. The apps are studied to be used with children with both typical and atypical development;
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Report preliminary results of an explorative pilot study, including a survey on clinicians’ and teachers’ perception on the use of the new kit of apps.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Working Memory Capacity: A limited, general-purpose attentional resource that grows by maturation.
Inhibition: The ability to suppress task-irrelevant cognitive processing and ignore salient yet irrelevant features of the situation.
Clinical Context: Relating to a direct medical treatment or testing of patients. In this case, involving professional psychologists, child neuropsychiatrists, speech therapists, neuro-psycho-motricists.
Typical and Atypical Development: Typical development refers to the generic progress of a child compared to peers of the same age. Atypical development occurs when the child appears to lag behind or is way ahead of same-age peers in any skill.
Executive Functions: A family of adaptive, goal-directed, top-down mental processes needed to focus and pay attention, and when an automatic response would not be adequate.
Educational Context: The school environment (including nursery schools), regarding teachers and students within a class.
Shifting: The ability to switch between different operations or levels of processing.
Updating: The ability to encode, hold and monitor incoming information in the working memory, replacing previous data with new one.