Near- and far-transfer effects of an executive function intervention for 2nd to 5th-grade struggling readers

• Published in: Cognitive development Vol. 56; p. 100932
• Main Authors: Cartwright, Kelly B., Bock, Allison M., Clause, Janelle H., Coppage August, Elizabeth A., Saunders, Heather G., Schmidt, Kenneth J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.10.2020
• Subjects: Executive function; Intervention; Reading comprehension; Struggling readers; Transfer effects; Translational research; Intervention; Transfer effects; Executive function; Translational research; Struggling readers; Reading comprehension
• ISSN: 0885-2014; 1879-226X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100932

•Flexible integration of phonological and semantic aspects of print improves reading.•Teachers can train reading-specific executive function (EF) in 2nd to 5th graders.•Teacher-led reading-specific EF training yields near-transfer to non-reading EF.•Teacher-led reading-specific EF training yields far-transfer to reading comprehension.•Translational intervention yields reading and EF improvements in struggling readers. This study assessed the impact of a teacher-delivered, small-group reading-specific executive function (EF) intervention on reading performance in a sample of 57 teacher-identified struggling readers, ranging in age from 7;6 to 12;3 (Mage = 9;10) in 2nd to 5th grades at a public elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Near-transfer effects of EF interventions are more common than far-transfer to academic skills. Thus, we assessed near- and far-transfer effects for intervention (n = 29) and control (n = 28) children. The reading-specific EF intervention produced medium to large effects on reading-specific and domain-general EF skills as well as on researcher-administered and school-administered reading comprehension measures, even after grade level (and thus reading teacher), verbal ability, children’s age, and respective pretest scores were controlled. These findings underscore the importance of translational work that takes researcher-tested interventions into real-world contexts to support children’s development. Implications of findings for practice are discussed.