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.
Highlights
Executive Function (EF) is a set of cognitive processes that help an individual regulate and adapt their behavior
We provided training for early childhood educators/caregivers for all participant sites through a 1-day workshop that focused on brain development, social connection, and executive function (EF) in children
No main effect or interactions were found for latency
Summary
Executive Function (EF) is a set of cognitive processes that help an individual regulate and adapt their behavior. The ability to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears are part of this regulation and adaptation (Zelazo et al, 2016). EF allows an individual to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time, and revise plans as necessary. Promoting EF Skills in Preschoolers is one of the most important and challenging tasks of the early childhood years (Zelazo and Carlson, 2020). The opportunity to build further on rudimentary EF capacities is critical to healthy development through early, middle childhood, adolescence, and into adult life (Moffitt et al, 2011; Robson et al, 2020)
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