"We were fortunate to have New York University Professor Clancy Blair give two inspiring presentations to preschool teachers and parents on his current research, which is studying the development of self-regulation in children using measures of executive functioning and stress physiology and relating these to measures of children’s temperament, adjustment to preschool, and early academic growth. Executive functions (EFs) are aspects of cognition that are called upon when brain and behavior cannot simply run on automatic, and when one has to stop and exert effort to process information and manage behavior. In general, EFs are aspects of cognition that are important for planning, future directed thinking, and monitoring of behavior. Therefore, they are essential for school readiness and early school achievement. Professor Blair’s research, and that of others in child development, has shown that EFs are better predictors of academic achievement than general intelligence."
1 comment:
I'm often confused by these types of conclusions...executive functions are lacking and thus school performance will be lacking...
Well, dah! Schools are highly structured, planning driven environments that function only when everyone complies...all skills that come out of the frontal lobes and are so-called executive functions. But Little Kids don't have these skills honed until the second decade!! And they're not fully developed until people are young adults. Of course kids' functioning in school is going to be lagging behind if so many frontal lobe functions are required. When are we going to give kids a break and expect reasonable things from them at appropriate rates of development?
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