Motor persistence is an indicator of executive functions that involve maintaining the components of intentional movement. Due to its all-or-none nature, motor persistence may be considered the most direct manifestation of inhibitory control as one of the executive functions. Previous studies have shown that stress in childhood predicts poorer executive functions, and the negative impact of perceived stress has been identified in samples of adolescents. Parental practices are also important factors in child development and play an essential role in the formation of executive functions. Positive parenting practices facilitate the internalization of the self-regulatory process. However, the relationship between perceived stress among preschoolers, parental practices, and motor persistence is still limited. This study investigates the relationship between motor persistence and maternal practices in the context of a child’s stress. The sample of the study included 194 mothers and their children. Mothers were in the age range of 23 to 48 years old (M = 34.91, SD = 6.52), while children were in the age range of 5 to 8 years old (M = 6.5, SD = 0.37). Additionally, 49% of the children were male and 51% were female. Data collection was conducted using a subtest of the NEPSY-II Statue, the Perceived Stress Scale for Children, and the Parenting Practices Survey. The current study found that perceived stress could decrease motor persistence, but warmth and maternal practices that demonstrate attachment and support might mitigate this negative effect. The results of the study could be applied in educational programs for parents and in the work of psychologists, teachers, and practitioners who interact with families with preschoolers.
Keyword(s) : executive functions
Relationship of Activity Regulation Functions with Executive Functions in Junior School Children Bilingual and Monolingual at the Early Stages of Learning English
The article explores issues about the advantages and difficulties of balanced bilinguals in conditions of language entropy. The purpose of the study is to identify the connection between activity regulation functions and executive functions in primary bilingual schoolchildren at the early stage of learning English under conditions of language entropy. The psychologist’s software package “Practice – MSU” was used, the results of which were processed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon T test, and structural equation modeling. Data were obtained confirming the syncretic effect of bilingualism in an educational situation. It has been established that learning English from primary school age by bilinguals is characterized by the productivity of attentional actions, which has effects on other control functions, in particular, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. This is due to the fact that bilingualism strengthens the processes of attention control, since the developing multilingual system requires increased attention resources to control the language being studied. The conclusion is formulated that the activation of the multilingual mental field in an educational situation ensures the activation of the system of regulatory processes of the cognitive level in primary school age.
The results obtained touch upon the solution of questions about the psychological and pedagogical conditions of the educational environment, which contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the pedagogical process in the early stages of learning English by primary schoolchildren with different language status.
Cognitive Regulation of Junior Bilingual Schoolchildren in the Process of Learning a Third Language
The work raises problems about the possibility of extrapolating the effects of bilingualism to trilingualism at primary school age, about the increase/decrease in cognitive regulation in bilingual children in the process/result of their acquisition of other languages. The purpose of the pilot study is to identify opportunities in cognitive regulation among primary bilingual schoolchildren in the educational situation of learning a third language. The study involved second grade schoolchildren (N=60) aged from 8 to 9.8 years (M=8.8, SD=0.36), among them with unbalanced bilingualism (N=30, 15 boys, 15 girls ) from the national Udmurt gymnasium; monolinguals with their native Russian language (N=30, 13 boys, 17 girls) from a secondary school in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic.
To measure the components of cognitive regulation, the following were used: test battery NEPSY-II (children’s version in printed form): “Repetition of sentences”, “Memory for construction”, “Inhibition”; computer test samples of the software of the psychologist’s toolkit “Practice – MSU”: Stroop Test, Shulte Tables, Memory for geometric shapes, Go-NoGo. The main statistical method for analyzing empirical research data is structural modeling (structural equation modeling).
The results of the pilot study show a possible syncretic (mixed) effect of bilingualism in the process of mastering a third language by primary schoolchildren with the need to control it in the educational situation. We assume that bilingualism in the educational situation of learning a third language, as a predictor of cognitive changes, provides advantages in the self-organization of subsystems of regulatory processes at the cognitive level and, at the same time, creates difficulties due to the high regulatory load.
The Influence of Music Classes on the Regulatory Functions and Language Abilities of Children Aged 5-12: The Review of Research Studies
Nowadays, most children attend supplementary classes. This research attempts to review and summarize the results of 14 international studies on the influence of music lessons on children aged 5-12. The paper considers the influence of music lessons on the development of regulatory functions and language abilities. The authors conclude that music lessons have a significant influence on the regulatory functions of children, especially on inhibition and working memory. The relationship between language and music classes highlighted in numerous studies are discussed. With prolonged daily music lessons, children can develop vocabulary and phonological awareness.