Executive Functions in Children's Everyday Lives A Handbook for Professionals in Applied Psychology

Executive Functions in Children's Everyday Lives captures the diversity and complexity of the executive system that underlies children's everyday life experiences. Acquisition of executive functions, such as interpreting communication cues and the perspectives of others, is foundational to and a function of children's early social and communicative competencies. From the soccer field to the classroom, executive functions support children's strategic thinking and control of their environment. Knowing about executive functions and how this system of cognitive resources emerges in young children is important in understanding children's development. Recent research points to the importance of also considering environmental influences on the executive system. This book is unique in its focus on how experiences in children's early lives influence and are influenced by executive functions. Viewing executive functions through this broad lens is critical for professionals who intervene when children's access to executive functions is less than optimal. This book addresses a wide range of topics, including the neurological basis of executive functions in young children, the assessment of children's executive functions, theoretical and historical conceptions of executive functions, the relations between executive functions and theory of mind, multilingualism, early school transitions, and the relationship of executive functions to Autism and ADHD. This volume will be useful to professionals in applied psychology, undergraduate and graduate students, and social science and applied researchers.

Maureen J. Hoskyn, PhD, is Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Centre for Research on Early Child Health and Education at Simon Fraser University. Her current research projects focus on the development of executive functions in young children who communicate with several languages.

Grace Iarocci, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab at Simon Fraser University. Her research on executive function focuses on the relation between executive function and social development in children with ASD

Arlene R. Young, PhD, is Associate Professor and the Director of Clinical Training at the University of Guelph, Ontario. Her research focuses on the interplay between learning and language disorders and mental health in children and adolescents. Executive function is an important component of her research.

1. Introduction to Executive Functions in Young Children
Maureen Hoskyn, Grace Iarocci, and Arlene R. Young

Part One: Executive Functions and Children's Development

2. Executive Functioning: A Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
Katie Knapp and J. Bruce Morton

3. Assessing Executive Functions in Young Children
Arlene R. Young, Mandeep K. Gurm, and Katherine A. O'Donnell

4. Sports as a Metaphor for Understanding the Development of Executive Function and Mis-function
Jacob A. Burack, Colin Campbell, Oriane Landry, and Mariëtte Huizinga

5. Executive Functioning Helps Children Think About and Learn About Others' Mental States
Jeannette E. Benson and Mark A. Sabbagh

6. Parenting and Young Children's Executive Function Development
Annie Bernier, Diane St-Laurent, Célia Matte-Gagné, Tristan Milot, Stuart I. Hammond, and Jeremy I. M. Carpendale

7. Transition to School: Executive Function, Emergent Academic Skills, and Early School Achievement
Ulrich Müller, Michael Miller, Sarah Hutchison, and Kayla Ten Eycke

Part Two: Diversity in the Development of Executive Functions

8. The Bilingual Advantage: Evidence and Alternative Views
J. Bruce Morton and Stephanie M. Carlson

9. Executive Functions and Plurilingualism in Young Children
Maureen Hoskyn

10. Executive Functions and the Developing Social Competence of Children with ASD
Grace Iarocci and Emily Gardiner

11. The Assessment of Executive Functions in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Performance-Based Measures Versus Ratings of Behavior
Maggie E. Toplak, Richard F. West, and Keith E. Stanovich