Promoting Executive Function Skills in Preschoolers Using a Play-Based Program

Abstract

In recent years, play has been shown to be a powerful means to enhance learning and brain development. It is also known that through play children enhance their executive function (EF) skills. Furthermore, well-developed EF in preschoolers has been shown to be an important predictor for later academic and life success. Armed with this information a program, Building Brains and Futures (BBF), for developing EF through play was designed for 3–5-year-old. The program consisted of 10 simple, fun, and interactive games selected to enhance various facets of EF. The 10 games included were: dimensional change card sort, lips and ears, block building, musical freeze, opposites, pretend play, red light/green light, shared project, Simon says, and wait for it. The program was implemented with a group of children shown to have challenges with respect to kindergarten readiness. The approach was first, to build adult capability by sharing knowledge of brain development, EF, and the importance of play with educators, caregivers, and parents. Second, to build skills in delivering the program in the school setting. Children engaged with the program of games for a minimum of 6 weeks. Their performance on a battery of direct measures of EF, language, and motor skills, were recorded before and after the program. The results showed improvement in all three domains. In addition, adopters of the BBF program reported it was easily and successfully integrated into their existing preschool curricula. The importance of intentional adult directed play in building developmental learning, including EF, is discussed.

Learning through Play in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

“…For example, digital tools and toys (Sakr & Scollan, 2019;Leung et al, 2020;Peppler et al, 2019;Li et al, 2021;Abdi & Cavus, 2019, Duncan et al, 2020Kewalramani et al, 2021;Kewalramani et al, 2020;Vogt & Hollenstein, 2021;Alemi & Haeri, 2020;Bers, 2021) even educational apps and games (Vanbecelaere et al, 2020;Adbo & Carulla, 2020;Williams & Thevenow, 2021;Ramani et al, 2020;Subaramaniam & Mon, 2020;Disney et al, 2019;Outhwaite et al, 2019). What is interesting in this data is that learning through play educational programme in many dimensions have been developed (Gibb et al, 2021;Parrott & Cohen, 2021;Theodotou, 2019). We found that very few study examined on dimension of learning through play.…”

“…Aksoy and Baran (2020) have found differences that children who participated in play-based social skills training were detected to be at a significantly higher level in dimensions of 'communication', 'adaptation', 'selfcontrol', 'prosocial behaviours', 'assertiveness', and total social skills compared to children who have not had any intervention. More recently, Gibb et al (2021) observed improvement in all three domains of brain development, language, and motor skills. In addition, adopters of the BBF program reported that it was easily and successfully integrated into their existing preschool curricula.…”

Multimodal music training enhances executive functions in children: Results of a randomized controlled trial

“…Other limitations included: (1) no professional training for those administering music interventions (e.g., parents teaching their own children songs); 20 (2) insufficient duration or training intensity (e.g., six classes, each for 20 min); 21 and (3) lack of consistency across distal measures of transfer, a limitation cited by other researchers. 22,23 Furthermore, these limitations introduce variability into potential training outcomes, lack training manuals for replication, and do not account for developmental differences in children.…”

“…Executive functions (EFs) refer to a broad range of cognitive processes responsible for the organization and deployment of cognitive resources that contribute to academic performance 1 . There is consensus that EFs include three core areas: working memory (updating), inhibition (attentional or inhibitory control), and cognitive flexibility (set‐shifting) in adults 2,3 .…”

The Development Executive Functions for Early Childhood in 21st Century

“…However, there is no consensus yet as to which EFs are present early and which develop later. Similarly, there is no agreement as to whether the core elements of EF are fully dissociable (Gibb et al, 2021). Therefore, teachers need to comprehend the nature of EF and develop their learning experiment management skills to design curricula, learning activities, and learning material that matches the needs of EF development.…”