Objectives: A. Understand the rationale for applying what we know about EF to address early educational disadvantage related to socioeconomic factors. B. Understand that the success of EF-related early interventions will hinge on the careful definition of cognitive and socioeconomic terms. C. Identify early intervention approaches and strategies suggested by EF research. In recent years, demographically sensitive research methods and models have raised awareness that cognitiv

Objectives: A. Clarify challenges involved in defining the relationships between EFs, school readiness, and student achievement. B. Summarize key research findings underlying the professional optimism that an EF focus will support student achievement. All available evidence indicates a rapid growth of EF skills between 3 and 6 years of age. During that same period, children begin leaving home for part of the day to attend more formal learning settings where they acquire funda

Objectives: A. Understand that Shifting is an executive function confined to working memory. B. Appreciate Shifting for its mysterious nature and unique features, including that the collaborative presence of the other two core EF components is prerequisite. C. Identify common classroom behaviours that reflect Shifting and school readiness. The third component of the three-component model of executive function is Shifting, our ability to switch our focus of attention within wo

Objectives: A. Define “prepotent response.” B. Understand that the core component of EF known as Inhibition emerges to allow voluntary control of complex rule-bound behaviour between 3 and 4 years of age. C. Appreciate that prepotent behaviour is a source of much challenge for children in early educational settings. D. Identify common classroom behaviours that reflect Inhibition and school readiness. In the previous chapter, we learned that inhibition has many faces. Typical

Objectives: A. Understand that the core component of executive function known as “Updating” is a higher-order aspect of working memory. B. Appreciate that Updating refers to the monitoring and flexible refreshing of goal-oriented information in working memory, as well as the purposeful manipulation of that information. C. Identify common classroom behaviours that reflect Updating and school readiness. Earlier in this chapter, we defined Updating as the ability to monitor, rep

Objectives: A. Understand that EFs differentiate early in life and are evident in child behaviour. B. Appreciate that new measurement tools and a surge of research during the 1990s began improving our understanding of how EFs develop and prepare children for school. At age 6, most children are still mustering full attention to tie their shoelaces. But only a few years later, many of them will be able to tie a shoe while balancing on the other leg and maintaining eye contact a