Executive Function Skills and Classroom Behaviors of U.S. Prekindergartners With Special Needs

Abstract

This study explores the executive function (EF) skills in a sample of 4-year-old children enrolled in inclusive prekindergarten (pre-k) classrooms. We compare the EF skills and important classroom behaviors of children with and without identified special needs as well as a sample of English language learners (ELL) in the same classrooms. Identification of special needs and ELL status were each examined as these factors have previously been shown to be associated with young children’s EF skills. Compared to their classroom peers, children with identified special needs not only began the year with lower EF skills but made fewer gains over the school year, a similar pattern was observed for children identified as ELL. Compared to their peers, children with identified special needs were observed as engaging in lower levels of involvement, sequential behaviors, and social learning interactions and higher levels of unoccupied and disruptive behaviors, a pattern that was also found for children’s entering EF skills (e.g., lower entering EF scores associated with lower levels of involvement). Lastly, children’s classroom behaviors differed across teacher-directed and children-directed learning with level of involvement and social-learning interactions higher during child-directed learning, and sequential behaviors higher in teacher-directed learning, a pattern that held across all groups of children.

Executive functions and classroom behaviour in second graders

“…Our sample of 2nd graders has had more time to develop their EF and learn to adjust to the demands of completing learning tasks in a dynamic classroom environment than the pre-K children in the Nesbitt study. This could be a reason that the effect ratio for the mediation effect was greater in our sample, as consistent on-task behaviour and active participation in learning activities is crucial to maximising a child's learning (Nesbitt et al, 2015;Kuutti et al, 2022;Nesbitt and Farran, 2022).…”

“…That is, the teacher predetermines the focus of attention for the students, they expect the individual to ignore distractions, to get involved in teacher-defined learning activities and to participate and interact -at certain times and not at other times -with peers. Children who have problems with active participation and adequate classroom behaviour are known to fall behind as they miss many and increasing learning opportunities (Nesbitt et al, 2015;Kuutti et al, 2022;Nesbitt and Farran, 2022). However, there is only very limited evidence on how and to what extend EF are linked to participation, involvement, and/or learning-related behaviour in the classroom.…”

“…Not surprisingly, the few existing studies report only weak to moderate correlations between EF and teachers' ratings of selfregulation in the classroom (ranging from 0.10 to 0.35; Neuenschwander et al, 2012;Fuhs et al, 2015;Schmitt et al, 2015;Finders et al, 2021), and even weaker associations between EF and observational data of on-task classroom behaviour, involvement, or disruptive/unoccupied behaviour (McCoy et al, 2022;Nesbitt and Farran, 2022). Research attempts to adapt "classical" EF task to groupbased measurements and to simulate classroom settings when measuring EF have shown that EF tasks and these adaptations already share only moderate amounts of variance.…”

Improvements in 4th graders' task behavior after physical activity: mediation by inhibition?

“…Mavilidi et al, 2022), we expected our PA protocol to have a positive acute effect on inhibition and on task-related behavior. Moreover, based on the current literature, we expected small correlations between on-task behavior and inhibition (Nesbitt et al, 2015;Nesbitt and Farran, 2022;Heemskerk and Roebers, 2023). As no previous reports of the mediation of PA effects on taskrelated behavior via EF were found, those analyses were carried out in an exploratory way, without hypotheses.…”

“…Yet, to date, little is known about the exact contribution of EF componentsincluding inhibition-to task-related behavior. The majority of recent research has been conducted in pre-K and kindergarten (e.g., Brock et al, 2017;McCoy et al, 2022;Nesbitt and Farran, 2022). In an older sample of second-graders, Heemskerk and Roebers (2023) report that inhibition and switching both related to ontask behavior (β = 0.19 and β = 0.17, respectively).…”