Assessment of preschool‐age executive functions: A systematic review

Abstract

Executive functions (EF) are higher‐order cognitive processes present in the prefrontal cortex and are fundamental in planning, executing and monitoring goal‐oriented behaviours. Evaluating EF in early stages of child development is essential for identifying any cognitive alterations in young children, given that it allows for early intervention and minimizes future complications. Additionally, it contributes to a better understanding of this construct in this age bracket, as well as its operational model. Study of EF has recently been the focus of multiple researchers; however, there is still a serious lack of instruments and measurements validated towards children's age bracket. This systematic review's main goal is to evaluate instruments and/or tasks that serve to evaluate and analyse EF and/or their components between the ages of 36 and 72 months. Forty‐nine studies were analysed, containing multiple tasks and tools oriented towards EF and their constituent components. Results indicate the existence of various tasks that grade the different components independently from one another; nevertheless, they also confirm the lack of any global measurement instrument or method. Therefore, this systematic review presents itself as an important contribution in the study of EF, stressing not only the importance of further investing into constructing and validating new and better tools for evaluating the construct but also the study of operating models of executive functioning, especially in an age bracket where comprehending it is notoriously difficult.

Executive Functions, Self-Regulation and External-Regulation: Relations and new evidence

“…In addition, the presentation of target stimuli, as well as distractors or other variables, can be systematically controlled. Likewise, more consistent and precise answers can be obtained, as well as a detailed analysis of them (Camacho-Conde and Climent, 2022;Kusi-Mensah et al, 2022;Silva et al, 2022). describes that fully immersive virtual reality (VR) as a promising resource, not only necessary to overcome the existing limitation of neuropsychological tests, but also for the development of tailored treatments for EF within activities of daily living (ADLs) due to its high ecological validity, which is in line with recent reviews on the topic (Borgnis et al, 2022).…”

Ice Cream: new virtual reality tool for the assessment of executive functions in children and adolescents: a normative study

“…In addition, the presentation of target stimuli, as well as distractors or other variables, can be systematically controlled. Likewise, more consistent and precise answers can be obtained, as well as a detailed analysis of them ( Camacho-Conde and Climent, 2022 ; Kusi-Mensah et al, 2022 ; Silva et al, 2022 ). Kim et al (2021) describes that fully immersive virtual reality (VR) as a promising resource, not only necessary to overcome the existing limitation of neuropsychological tests, but also for the development of tailored treatments for EF within activities of daily living (ADLs) due to its high ecological validity, which is in line with recent reviews on the topic ( Borgnis et al, 2022 ).…”

Interventions to improve executive functions in children aged 3 years and under: A systematic review

“…These components, in turn, set the foundation for development of higher level EFs including problem‐solving and planning (Diamond, 2013). Given the complexity and changing nature of the EF construct in early development, it is not surprising that there is both significant variation in and limited validation of EF assessment methods and instruments for the youngest age groups (Mehsen et al, 2021; Silva et al, 2022).…”