The developing of executive function skills through culturally organized autonomy and helping

Abstract

The study of Executive Function skills, like most research in the developmental sciences, has been heavily focused on the experiences of children from Western, industrialized, highly schooled and middle‐class communities, often ignoring the experiences of the majority of children in the world. When research does include diverse populations, the approach is often from a deficit perspective, looking for ways to “fix” these children's lack of Executive Function skills. In this commentary, I argue for a contextual definition of Executive Function skills to reflect children's lived experiences, including the daily experiences of Indigenous children. I provide examples to illustrate how cultural values such as respect for children's autonomy and being acomedida/o can support the development of Executive Function skills. I then propose how the field of executive function research can move forward by (1) recognizing the broader ways in which children's daily activities can contribute to their Executive Function skills and (2) creating culturally relevant methods to measure Executive Function skills.

Principles for Adapting Assessments of Executive Function across Cultural Contexts

“…For example, children in urban middle-class families across multiple countries have been documented to participate in other adult-managed, child-centered activities (e.g., Rogoff et al [44], Coppins and Rogoff [45]), making such interactions familiar and comfortable. In contrast, children in Indigenous rural communities such as the Yucatec Maya were found to rarely spend time alone or one-on-one with adults and instead tended to participate in more collaborative, family-and group-centered activities [35]. Similarly, research with Latino families in the United States has highlighted the strengths associated with viewing children's learning and motivation as situated within communities that exercise cognitive demands and social expectations, advancing particular forms of cognitive growth that are embedded within social participation and the motivated desire to become a competent member of a broader social group [46].…”

“…Further, in cultures that value learning by observing and pitching in [33], such as the Yucatec Mayan culture, children may not feel it is appropriate to attempt activities that are beyond their ability or that they have not first observed adults do [34,35]. In contrast, U.S. children are often socialized to see the value in attempting activities beyond their skill level, with adults' scaffolding and encouragement [34].…”