Cognitive training as a resolution for early executive function difficulties in children with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Research in Developmental Disabilities. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A denitive version was subsequently published in Research in Developmental Disabilities, 38, March 2015, 10.1016/j.ridd.2014 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Core executive functions (EF) such as attention, and working memory have been strongly associated with academic achievement, language development and behavioural stability. In the case of children who are vulnerable to cognitive and learning problems because of an underlying intellectual disability, EF difficulties will likely exacerbate an already compromised cognitive system. The current review examines cognitive training programs that aim to improve EF, specifically focusing on the potential of this type of intervention for children who have intellectual disabilities. We conclude that despite considerable discrepancies regarding reported intervention effects, these inconsistencies can be attributed to flaws in both program and study design.We discuss the steps needed to address these limitations and to facilitate the advancement of nonpharmaceutical interventions for children with intellectual disabilities.

Enhancing Preschoolers’ Executive Functions Through Embedding Cognitive Activities in Shared Book Reading

“…In contrast, many other successful EF interventions have involved substantially higher time commitments (i.e., 6 to 25 hours; Kirk et al, 2015;Röthlisberger, Neuenschwander, Cimeli, Michel, & Roebers, 2011;Traverso, Viterbori, & Usai, 2015). The current results thus provide converging evidence for EF activities embedded in everyday routines having a positive effect on working memory and shifting.…”

“…The current approach, in contrast, represents a low-cost non-computerized EF training method, the principles of which can be extended to a no-cost 'menu' of EF training options that can be embedded into everyday practice. Moreover, another advance of the current intervention is its relative brevity, with benefits seen after only 42-63 minutes of intervention engagement (compared to upwards of 25 hours with other EF training approaches; Kirk et al, 2015;Rothlisberger et al, 2011;Traverso et al, 2015). That is, although previous EF training studies are often conducted over a similar number of weeks as the present studies, training in previous studies tends to be more intense, featuring longer and more weekly training sessions.…”

“…As evidenced by studies such as Klingberg et al's (2002), adapting program difficulty to ensure tasks provide an adequate level of challenge is an essential characteristic of efficacious training programs. For working memory activities, difficulty may be continuously adjusted by increasing the number of items to be remembered, manipulating the order in which items are recalled (i.e., random, consecutive, reverse order), or increasing the time that information must be retained prior to recall (Kirk et al, 2015). In contrast, increasing the difficulty of inhibition tasks often involves manipulating the speed with which a pre-potent response must be overcome, or the salience and number of distracting stimuli.…”

“…4 trained cognitive and EF tasks (e.g., attention, inhibition) and cross-domain tasks (e.g., visual-spatial WM to verbal WM), in both typically and atypically developing children of varying ages (Holmes, Gathercole, & Dunning, 2009;Kirk, Gray, Riby, & Cornish, 2015;Klingberg et al, 2005;Klingberg et al, 2002;Titz & Karbach, 2014). Studies thus suggest the potential to modify EFs in childhood, although the various means for achieving this (e.g., the type, quantity, quality, and duration of intervention) remain debated.…”

Can Intelligence Testing Inform Educational Intervention for Children with Reading Disability?

“…While there is evidence that performance gains can be achieved within experimental settings [62,63] there has been significant criticism of the design and statistical analyses of many intervention studies [64,65]. It is also conceivable that gains on cognitive measures merely reflect practice effects and/or test strategy refinement [66,67].…”