Abstract

In the last decade, the study of executive functions has reached growing interest among researchers, especially because of its association with academic performance and school success. It is broadly accepted that the stimulation of executive functions during early childhood may predict and promote school success, mainly because of its impact on personal and academic skills. Therefore, early stimulation becomes critical to establish the optimal functionality of cognitive abilities, such as executive functions, for which the school context results appropriate. The development of executive functions has been associated with the maturation of prefrontal brain structures, and its early stimulation becomes especially relevant because it may both foster or constrain the children's individual capacities to learn and prosper along their lifetimes. Therefore, a better understanding of the executive function's development is critical for both monitoring and stimulating them, especially when the development of any of its dimensions shows some delay or maladjustment. The stimulation of children's executive performance may be well achieved through the implementation of intervention techniques, such as mindfulness, relaxation, strategical thinking, and psychomotor stimulation, among others. Accordingly, the present paper aims at studying the effect of an executive functions' stimulation program (EFSP) on both executive and academic performance. The EFSP stimulated three different brain pathways associated with prefrontal regions. The stimulated brain pathways were a) The fronto-striatal (i.e., cognitive circuit), b) The fronto-limbic (i.e., emotional), and c) The fronto-cerebellar (i.e., psychomotor circuit). The fronto-striatal pathway is involved in the ability to inhibit behaviors, and to attend when distractors appear, to favor the adequate use of the working memory and to allow the organization of plans and goals. The fronto-limbic pathway underlies the emotional and motivational aspects of behavior, modulation the control of aggressive impulses. The fronto-cerebellar pathway provides the neural circuits which are necessary for the normal functioning of motor responses and time distribution, favoring the organization of behavior and the learning of habits. In our study, the intervention was conducted by a special education teacher, who was accompanied by the schoolteacher. The sample included forty-three first grade elementary school students of Valparaiso, Chile; aged between six and seven years old. A mixed factorial research design study was implemented, with a between-subjects factor defined by a two-level group variable (i.e., experimental vs. control) and a within-subject factor defined by a two-measures variable. Interactions between both factors were hypothesized and analyzed. Our results showed significant effects of the EFSP on the student's executive performance. Particularly, the experimental group showed better executive performance in comparis