Strategies, recommendations, and validation of remote executive function tasks for use with young children

Abstract

Research and development on remote assessments and services have been slowly progressing over the past decade in the areas of telehealth, telemedicine, and psychological e-Visits. However, much less research has focused on understanding whether neuropsychological and educational assessments can be converted for remote use with young children. In the present study, we tested the feasibility of administering a remote battery of executive function (EF) tasks to preschool students. These tasks were converted from widely used EF assessments and were administered to children in their homes remotely via Zoom Video Communications web conferencing services. Based on our experiences in the field, we described the task conversion process; highlighted the unique challenges and solutions to obtaining accurate and reliable data remotely; and presented psychometric findings from a preliminary study of 97 preschool students (Mage = 53.2 months; 53% Female; 55% Black, 33.7% White, 7.9% biracial, 2.2% "other," 1.1% Asian/Pacific Islander; 7.2% Latine). Results revealed that the remotely assessed Day and/or Night Stroop task, Dimensional Card Change Sort (DCCS) task, Revised Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS-R) task, and Digit Span Forward task demonstrated strong evidence of normality, were highly reliable, and were related to children's academic achievement. Further, associations between our remote EF measures and standardized tests of academic achievement were stronger for math than for reading achievement. Overall, this study represents a first step towards developing a protocol for task conversion and remote administration of EF measures with young children.