No Touch Pig!: Investigating ChildParent Use of a System for Training Executive Function Strengthening early executive function (EF) skills has the potential to improve an individualu0027s quality of life throughout their lifetime, a fact that has led to many EFtraining suites. In this work, we empirically investigate how children and parents engaged with Cookie Monsteru0027s Challenge (CMC), a tablet game designed to train EF in preschoolers. Through analysis of childparent coplay with CMC, we describe childrenu0027s and parentsu0027 thematic behaviors, documenting their effective and ineffective strategies for engaging with the game, particularly when it challenged childrenu0027s EF skills. We further show that these behaviors led to a small but significant shortterm increase in an unrelated EF task. Drawing on these patterns of interaction, we propose design directions for EF training interfaces, such as increasing contextual relevance and specific forms of scaffolding. Our work is the first illustration of how preschoolers exercise their EF and inhibitory control by collaboratively using a commercial tablet app together with a parent.

The effects of coding on childrens planning and inhibition skills Abstract   Computational thinking (CT) and the coding element of it are progressively entering in the primary school curriculum worldwide. Yet, little is known about the effects of these skills on childrenu0027s cognitive development. In a clusterrandomized controlled trial, we examined how 1stgrade childrenu0027s gains in coding skills that follow instructional intervention transfer to two important executive functions (EFs): planning and response inhibition. Onehundred seventynine (179) first graders from 5 schools and 10 class groups, with no prior experience of coding, were randomly assigned to an experimental (coding, 5 classes) or control (standard STEM, 5 classes) instructional condition. The experimental intervention involved 8xe2x80xafh of coding activities (two weekly lessons for 4 weeks), through the Code.org platform. Children in the control group were exposed to standard STEM instruction. Four coding tasks drawn from Code.org, two standardized planning tasks (Elithorn maze test and Tower of London, ToL, test) and two standardized response inhibition tasks (NEPSYII inhibition subtest and numerical Stroop), were used to assess childrenu0027s skills at the pretest and posttest (after the instructional intervention). To measure retention, the same skills were also assessed for 44 children from the experimental group 5 weeks from the posttest (follow up). The results show that practice with coding through Code.org not only improved measurably childrenu0027s ability to solve coding problems, but also their EFs, increasing the time children spent planning, their ability to solve standardized planning tasks, and to inhibit prepotent responses. Such findings add to the still limited literature on the cognitive effects of coding, deepening our understanding of the positive implications of introducing Computational Thinking early in the school curriculum.