The Preventive Dimension of Executive Function in Preschool Children

Abstract

Executive functions may be viewed as factors supporting proper development in normative groups of children and adolescents, as well as when compensating or reducing risk factors in children and adolescents from higher risk groups. Current research findings indicate that long-term, longitudinal studies on executive functions in children and adolescents are necessary in order to reveal the key factors for the proper development of a young person and their further functioning in adulthood. From the pedagogical perspective, what is important in prevention is searching for knowledge on the conditions conducive to the development of higher cognitive functions. The development of pedagogical research methods that would allow the developmental conditions of children and adolescents to be diagnosed is no less important. Another significant task that cannot be achieved without the results of longitudinal studies is developing the developmental trajectories for dependencies or disorders, taking into account the level of executive function so as to empirically verify the assumptions adopted in this article.