Abstract
Very little is known about the relative influence of cognitive performance-based executive functioning (EF) measures and behavioral EF ratings in explaining differences in children's school achievement. This study examined the shared and unique influence of these different EF measures on math and spelling outcome for a sample of 84 first and second graders. Parents and teachers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), and children were tested with computer-based performance tests from the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT). Mixed-model hierarchical regression analyses, including intelligence level and age, showed that cognitive performance and teacher's ratings of working memory and shifting concurrently explained differences in spelling. However, teacher's behavioral EF ratings did not explain any additional variance in math outcome above cognitive EF performance. Parent's behavioral EF ratings did not add any unique information for either outcome measure. This study provides support for the ecological validity of performance- and teacher rating-based EF measures, and shows that both measures could have a complementary role in identifying EF processes underlying spelling achievement problems. The early identification of strengths and weaknesses of a child's working memory and shifting capabilities, might help teachers to broaden their range of remedial intervention options to optimize school achievement.
Highlights
Executive functions (EFs) are generally defined as effortful cognitive abilities that help plan, guide and control goal-directed mental processes and behavior
A novel aspect of this study is the inclusion of EF ratings from multiple informants concurrently with cognitive
The main findings of this study were that the cognitive Working memory (WM) measure was correlated with its parent- and teacher-reported behavioral WM counterpart, and that all WM measures were significantly associated with school achievement
Summary
Executive functions (EFs) are generally defined as effortful cognitive abilities that help plan, guide and control goal-directed mental processes and behavior. Executive control is assumed to be involved in both math and spelling performance. Math calls for executive control to select and manipulate relevant numbers, to disregard irrelevant information, to choose the right computational methods, to temporarily store and manipulate numbers and other information, and to be able to switch between various procedures or operations (e.g., Raghubar et al, 2010; Frisovan den Bos et al, 2013; Yeniad et al, 2013; Cragg and Gilmore, 2014). Written spelling is assumed to require executive control in order to efficiently integrate phonological, orthographical, and morphological information, and motor planning (Berninger et al, 2006; Garcia et al, 2010; Preßler et al, 2013).
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