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Children’s first manifestations of cognitive control in the early years school: the importance of the educational situation and materiality

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Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) embrace a range of cognitive control processes that allow us to control and direct our own behavior, thoughts, and emotions and to develop complex responses to difficulties. Standardized tasks commonly used to investigate EFs are reviewed. Here, a study is reported of the first challenges that children set for themselves in everyday life situations from the end of the first year in the 0–1 classroom of various early years schools. The influence of educational situations, based on the possibilities of action that the teachers offered the children, and the materiality made available were analyzed. It was found that the children faced challenges from the end of the first year of life. These challenges involved the everyday uses of objects and instruments, uses which were difficult and significative for them: (i) rhythmic-sonorous canonical uses, (ii) canonical uses, and (iii) symbolic uses. These challenges were identified in structured and semi-structured educational situations in which the children could choose the objects, what to do with them and how.

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Acknowledgments

We especially thank the schools, teachers, and principals as well as the families and children for their participation in the study.

Funding

This study has been carried out thanks to the R&D project EDU2015-64129-P, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) and the UAM-Santander Inter-University Cooperation Project with Latin America (CEAL-AL/2015-28), funded by Santander bank, granted to the third author; and the support for the hiring of research assistants (PEJ-2018-AI/SOC-9933) and for the hiring of predoctoral researchers (PEJD-2018-PRE/SOC-8711), granted to the first and second author respectively, co-financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, together with the European Social Fund through the Youth Employment Operational Program and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pyschology of Development and Education, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Iván Moreno-Llanos, Laura A. Zapardiel & Cintia Rodríguez

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  1. Iván Moreno-Llanos
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  2. Laura A. Zapardiel
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  3. Cintia Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Iván Moreno-Llanos.

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Additional information

Iván Moreno-Llanos. Department of Pyschology of Development and Education, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Email: ivan.moreno@uam.es

Current themes of research:

Development of executive functions.

Most Relevant Publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Guevara, I., Moreno-Llanos, I., & Rodríguez, C. (2020). The emergence of gestures in the first year of life in the Infant School classroom. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 35, 265-287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00444-6

Rodríguez, C., Estrada, L., Moreno-Llanos, I. y de los Reyes, J. L. (2017). Executive functions and educational actions in an infant school: private uses and gestures at the end of the first year. Funciones ejecutivas y acción educativa en la escuela infantil: usos y gestos privados al final del primer año. Estudios de Psicología, 38(2), 385-423. https://doi.org/10.1080/02109395.2017.1305061

Laura A. Zapardiel. Department of Pyschology of Development and Education, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Current themes of research:

Development of executive functions. Educational action in the early years school

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

* Laura A. Zapardiel has no previous publications

Cintia Rodríguez. Department of Pyschology of Development and Education, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Current themes of research:

Early development of children in interaction with the materiality and adults. Early development in the early years school. Development EFs. Development of gestures and intentional communication. Development of the first concepts.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Basilio, M., & Rodríguez, C. (2017). How toddlers think with their hands: social and private gestures as evidence of cognitive self-regulation in guided play with objects. Early Child Development and Care, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2016.1202944

Palacios, P., & Rodríguez, C. (2015). The development of symbolic uses of objects in infants in a triadic context: a pragmatic and semiotic perspective. Infant and Child Development, 24, 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1873

Rodríguez, C., & Palacios, P. (2007). Do private gestures have a self-regulatory function?: A case study. Infant Behavior and Development, 30(2), 180–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.02.010

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Moreno-Llanos, I., Zapardiel, L.A. & Rodríguez, C. Children’s first manifestations of cognitive control in the early years school: the importance of the educational situation and materiality. Eur J Psychol Educ 36, 903–922 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00505-1

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