Exploring the Effects of Schooling on Changes in Behavioral and Neurological Indices of Children's Executive Functioning

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The transition from preschool to early elementary school represents a critical developmental transition for young children. The shift to a formal, structured classroom environment places new demands on children that require increased self-regulation, including better control of attention and better impulse control. Children's self-regulation contributes directly to their school and later life success. The present project will integrate neurobiological, developmental and educational perspectives, examining the impact of schooling on brain and behavioral measures of different aspects of self-regulation. The project will utilize relatively new, portable electrophysiological equipment that will permit the study of children's brains as well as their behaviors while in their schools, greatly amplifying the range and representativeness of the participants. To directly study the effects of schooling while controlling for chronological age, the study will employ the school cut-off method, comparing children who just make vs. miss the arbitrary birth date for Kindergarten entry. Following the children over the course of the school year will permit investigation of the impact of schooling experiences on brain and behavioral development of self-regulation. Findings from this project will greatly enhance the field's understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying development of self-regulation as well as the extent to which self-regulation can be modified though schooling practices.