Activities and Programs That Improve Children’s Executive Functions

By A. Diamond. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2012

700 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Executive functions (EFs; e.g., reasoning, working memory, and self-control) can be improved. Good news indeed, since EFs are critical for school and job success and for mental and physical health. Various activities appear to improve children’s EFs. The best evidence exists for computer-based training, traditional martial arts, and two school curricula. Weaker evidence, though strong enough to pass peer review, exists for aerobics, yoga, mindfulness, and other school curricula. Here I address what can be learned from the research thus far, including that EFs need to be progressively challenged as children improve and that repeated practice is key. Children devote time and effort to activities they love; therefore, EF interventions might use children’s motivation to advantage. Focusing narrowly on EFs or aerobic activity alone appears not to be as efficacious in improving EFs as also addressing children’s emotional, social, and character development (as do martial arts, yoga, and curricula shown to improve EFs). Children with poorer EFs benefit more from training; hence, training might provide them an opportunity to “catch up” with their peers and not be left behind. Remaining questions include how long benefits of EF training last and who benefits most from which activities.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/00d21266f5fc4b20c0457f2c33bb7904ac57e8c6

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Citations in the corpus

The Classroom as a Developmental Context for Cognitive Development: A Meta-Analysis on the Importance of Teacher–Student Interactions for Children’s Executive Functions (2018, background): “…in EF problems might be more efficient when integrating such approaches in the classroom context (Hughes, 2011) and when including strategies that stimulate EFs both directly and indirectly (e.g., increasing children’s enjoyment and comfort by improving teacher sensitivity; Diamond, 2012).”
Enhancing Cognitive and Social–Emotional Development Through a Simple-to-Administer Mindfulness-Based School Program for Elementary School Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2015, methodology): “…(i.e., the ability to regulate resources in the service of achieving goals) predict children’s altruistic behavior (Aguilar-Pardo, Martínez-Arias, & Colmenares, 2013), school achievement and social–emotional competence (Diamond, 2012), and long-term life success (Moffitt et al., 2011).”
The Nature and Development of Critical-Analytic Thinking (2014, background): “This type of finely tuned approach has been successful in other areas of cognitive development, such as language acquisition (Kuhl 2006) and executive functions (Diamond 2012).”
Executive Function Skills, Early Mathematics, and Vocabulary in Head Start Preschool Children (2017, background): “…self-control, and social cognitive problem solving in preschool children (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2011; Diamond, 2012, 2013) and particularly in children from low socioeconomic and diverse linguistic backgrounds (Barac et al., 2014; Bodrova & Leong,…”
Behavioral self-regulation and executive function both predict visuomotor skills and early academic achievement (2014, background): “…of the role of motor activity for learning is needed within the age group in the present study, as behavioral SR and EF are demonstrated to be malleable (Diamond, 2012; Tominey & McClelland, 2011), and early visuomotor interventions that tax EF could lead to higher academic achievement.”
A Pilot Study of Contemplative Practices with Economically Disadvantaged Preschoolers: Children’s Empathic and Self-Regulatory Behaviors (2016, result): “These findings are consistent with prior research on the effects of mindfulness interventions on children’s self-regulation and attention (e.g., Flook et al. 2015; Razza et al. 2013) as well as other intervention activities designed to improve self-regulation in young children (e.g., Diamond 2012).”
Advancements in the Landscape of Social and Emotional Learning and Emerging Topics on the Horizon (2019, background): “Groundbreaking new research has emerged during the last half of the 20th century that challenges these preexisting beliefs about the brain’s malleability by demonstrating that the brain is changeable (or “plastic”) to experience across the life span (Baltes, Reuter-Lorenz, & R€osler, 2006; Diamond, ”
A Mindfulness-Based Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum for School-Aged Children: The MindUP Program (2016, positive): “These ﬁ ndings are in line with the theoretical and empirical literature that suggests mindfulness training may improve emotion regulation and EF (Diamond, 2012 ; Lyons & Delange, this volume; MLERN, 2012 ).”
Bilingualism and cognition (2014, background): “Cognitive flexibility is sometimes viewed as related to creativity (e.g., Diamond, 2012, 2013; Ritter, Damian, Simonton, van Baaren, Strick, Derks & Dijksterhuis, 2012).”
Self-regulation and toxic stress: Foundations for understanding self-regulation from an applied developmental perspective (2015, background): “In addition, a large empirical literature demonstrates the effectiveness of interventions that target selfcontrol [11], executive function [12], and social-emotional outcomes [13], which each overlap with selfregulation.”
Conclusions about Interventions, Programs, and Approaches for Improving Executive Functions that appear Justified and those that, despite much hype, do not (2015, background): “Diamond (2010, 2012, 2014b) has predicted that many activities not yet studied might well improve EFs, such as band, orchestra or choir, social, communal dance (such as rueda or any folk dance), drumming circle, youth circus, caring for an animal, filmmaking, capoeira, martial arts not yet…”
Self-Control and Grit (2014, background): “With respect to interventions, the proposed framework implies that self-control is a skill or capacity, which, like other skills and capacities, might be improved with training and practice (Diamond, 2012; Mischel, 2014; Oettingen, 2012).”
Enhancing Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation Via Mindful Yoga (2015, background): “Given the great importance of self-regulation for children’s school readiness and success (Blair 2002; Eisenberg et al. 2004; Raver 2012), these skills have become an increasingly popular target for early intervention (see Diamond 2012; Diamond and Lee 2011).”